Album review: The Long Way Home by The Magic Theatre

By Martin Ross

Back in the late 90s, Ooberman, a band with some its deepest roots in Bradford, were on the up.

They hit the Top 40 with their 1999 single Blossoms Falling and released two well-received albums, 1999’s The Magic Treehouse and 2003’s Hey Petrunko.

But, despite critical acclaim, they never really caught fire.

Now band members Dan Popplewell and Sophia Churney have turned their considerable songwriting talents to The Magic Theatre, a baroque chamber pop project signed to the respected Madrid-based Elefant label.

On The Long Way Home, their second album, the pair serve up lovely music bedecked with unaffected, deliciously feminine vocals. With a vibe lifted from girly, late-60s Gallic pop, it might’ve been a little twee, but thanks to some slyly dark lyrical content and fiendishly inventive compositions is far from it - these sunny melodies throw long shadows.

From opener The Sampler, a little Gothic number with a creepy yet tear-jerking twist, to the clever Cathedrals Of The Mind that observes “What high achieving, deadly apes are we” and Your Hateful Armchair, where a relationship goes far beyond the point where Relate could be of any help, the Magic Theatre deliver entertainingly theatrical songs that are, by turns, wistful, charming, funny, sad, wry and stirring.

Popplewell has a knack with a rich arrangement - not surprising as he’s also a gifted library music composer - so although songs have nostalgic references they never drift into pastiche. Having members of Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra on hand helps too.

His palette of sounds is inventive, none more so than on the Festival Of Fire, which renders a tale of a hedonistic encounter with lush sweeping Arabian strings, driving percussion, swelling choral backing vocals and bursts of Italian house piano. It sounds fantastic and, as on the rest of the album, Popplewell never lets things sound overcooked.

All in all, an accomplished, pleasantly timeless and highly enjoyable album.

Rating 5/5