- Record Label: Yep Roc / Simian
- Release Date: Feb 6, 2007
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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Paste MagazineInfuriatingly inconsistent. [Dec 2006, p.90]
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SpinNew Magnetic Wonder couldn't be brighter if it had been performed on the sun. [Feb 2007, p.82]
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Under The RadarEasily the most ambitious and compelling Apples record since the [Elephant 6] heyday. [#16, p.89]
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UrbNew Magnetic Wonder cloaks itself in a glow of irrelevancy. But beneath, Schneider's gooey power-pop thrives. [Jan/Feb 2007, p.76]
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He's turned the clock back to the Fun Trick Noisemaker era of playful psychedelic indulgence that was the Apples' stock in trade before the unsavoury aspirations of indie-rock stardom took hold.
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A crisply recorded set of bouncing rockers, sweetly strummed ballads and vaguely trippy mid-tempo tracks that are full of hooks, melodies and goofy fun.
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This album heralds a return to form for the Apples in Stereo, and its densely layered sound utilizes so many tracks of instrumentation that it would have made the young [Brian] Wilson weep with envy.
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Sitting through an album of catchy but ultimately vapid pop songs isn't made any more satisfying when there's a staggering track near the end.
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NMW works as a ‘00s update of British invasion rock and orchestral and baroque pop, just as Jeff Lynne and the boys updated those sounds for the ‘70s.
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Those disappointed with Velocity’s, raw, live sound, will see this album as a return to form. Those that dug its easily digestible garage rock will, in turn, view New Magnetic Wonder as a step forward.
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In the context of such a refreshing, instantly likable album, even the abstract linking tracks work, breaking up the 13 sugary full-length songs and allowing each to be unwrapped and savored individually.
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While these [linking tracks] suggest Schneider's appreciation for the short-form work of electronic music pioneer Raymond Scott, they stop well short of giving Wonder the thematic consistency it seeks (and needs).
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Entertainment WeeklyEach of its 24 tracks snaps and crackles with Schneider's sugary, peerless pop. [16 Feb 2007, p.76]
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New Magnetic Wonder’s high points are in its more quirky and musically ambitious moments.
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Both familiar and surprising.
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Even at its clunkiest, the album sparks.
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The disc’s best stuff — such as the hard-rocking opener, “Can You Feel It?” — makes it easy to get swept up in his limitless enthusiasm.
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Apples' Robert Schneider has continued to hack away at the ins-and-outs of the most perfect psychedelic pop formations ever, and New Magnetic Wonder offers proof.
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No great departure from earlier stuff, New Magnetic Wonder is full of bright melodies that veer between the Beach Boys and the Kinks, and a guitar-keyboards-drums sound that bounces between hard-rocking, bubbly and lush.
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UncutNew Magnetic Wonder can make a claim to be the definitive AIS album. [Apr 2007, p.92]
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[It] approaches the peak the Apples hit with 1999's Her Wallpaper Reverie.
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Q MagazineAs ever... not everything comes off. But the good bits are very good indeed. [Apr 2007, p.116]
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On this album, Schneider seems a bit torn between his task as a hook-writing pop musician and a seeming urge to rock a bit harder, with the added burden of being unable to put his toys down when he should.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 21 out of 24
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Mixed: 2 out of 24
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Negative: 1 out of 24
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MikefromMaineMay 11, 2007
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CaseyDMar 28, 2007
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ThomasBMar 20, 2007