New Music: Second Sleep / Star Eyes by Magdalena Bay

Cover art for "Second Sleep" by Magdalena Bay

Hi everyone! This week I wanted to do a post talking about Magdalena Bay's new double-single called "Second Sleep / Star Eyes". As a huge Magdalena Bay fan, I was so surprised to see that they were releasing new music. Their last album, "Imaginal Disk", was only released just over a year ago, so I wasn't expecting them to pivot so soon. I guess I thought a deluxe edition for that album was more likely than 2 standalone singles, but I guess I was wrong. Either way, new music is new music! Because this is a double single, I'm gonna give both songs their own section so I judge both tracks on their own terms.

>> Second Sleep <<

Photo from the "Second Sleep" music video

Where to even begin? This song is so interesting to me, it's feels very familiar to some of their past work while still being innovative and unique. This song takes multiple different directions as you listen. The beginning is what you'd expect from a Magdalena Bay song. It starts out nice and slow but slowly ramps up toward the chorus. The song follows this strange pattern of going from 0 to 100 in energy pretty frequently. This gives the song a unique flow that I haven't seen done very often. That could potentially make it hard to listen to unless you are in the mood for it, since the energy is all over the place. In that respect, some people might find this song kind of out-there, but the weird flow in energy actually makes it more enjoyable to listen to. I really like having variety in my music, and I like hearing artists try new things, so that's probably why this doesn't bother me. All of this yet I haven't even talked about the lyrics yet. There's a lot of highlights in this song when

it comes to the songwriting. I still haven't been able to get the full picture of what this song is trying to say, but a common theme seems to be how difficult and painful love can be. I think this song is trying to show off all of the different kinds of ways we love, even the sad and painful parts. Like I said though, I still feel like there's more to mine out of this song than that, that's just all I've been able to put together for now. I love how this song sounds too; it has an ethereal sound but still manages to have an edge to it as well. I think all of these factors come together to make a really solid track that has earned its spot on my playlists.

>> Star Eyes <<

Cover art for "Star Eyes" by Magdalena Bay

This song covers a lot of new ground for Magdalena Bay. It has a lot of jazz elements mixed together with their traditional synthpop-rock sound. Mica's vocals use a lot of accidentals to create an off-key sound at some parts. Because of this, the song sometimes feels like it's fighting itself, but they found a way to round off those weird moments by creating a high payoff for sticking through it all. This song feels like it exists to prove a point or drive home an aesthetic. Despite the song being 3 minutes long, it usually feels shorter than that since the lyrics stop somewhere around the 2-minute mark. After that, we get a really cool instrumental break with saxophones, guitars, strings, and synths. It's a good climax to the song. But I don't feel like I'll return to it as much as some of their other songs. I think it's a very cool song that has potential to make its way up my rankings, but for now I'm not reaching to play this song on a regular basis.

>> Wrapping Up <<

Those are all my thoughts! I wonder if these songs are any proof of what's to come from Magdalena Bay's next project. It's possible that these are one-off releases that will exist on their own, but I'm holding out hope that they will start teasing an album sometimes soon. I'm getting a dreamier and more mystical vibe from these songs that is unique from their past works. Because of that, I wonder if this is the direction they are headed for their next album/EP. Regardless, I'm always down for more Magdalena Bay. With all that being said, I hope you enjoyed this quick review, and I hope you have a good rest of your week! Thanks as always for reading!

Earworm ~-~-~o

Thanks for reading!

-Joey :)