Magnetic Morning
A.M.
Release Date: Jan 27, 2009
Genre(s): Indie, Rock
Record label: Friend or Faux
Music Critic Score
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Album Review: A.M. by Magnetic Morning
Fairly Good, Based on 5 Critics
Based on rating 9/10
So here we have Swervedriver's voice Adam Franklin and Interpol's drums Sam Fogarino joining forces to create their Duel-ring Captain Planet ("when your powers combine...") in the form of Magnetic Morning. I'm sorry; I had to get the atrocious pun out of my system. Everything's good, now.. A.M ….
Based on rating 6/10
Magnetic Morning’s A.M. is, yes, a record that does sound best early in the morning. Put it on as dawn is breaking and it is a soundtrack to darkness slowly lifting away, small creatures beginning their own day, and coffee percolating. It’s the sound of those moments when you have just awoken and have begun your routine, but your brain is still living in its dream world.
Based on rating 5.7/10
After giving Magnetic Morning's inauspicious debut EP a thorough savaging, this site's Nitsuh Abebe allows for a little bit of optimism near the end of his review, positing that "maybe they have the makings of a decent album tucked away somewhere. " Given the pedigree of the two more notable names involved-- in case you missed it, former/current Swervedriver Adam Franklin and Interpol backseat steady-at-the-wheel driver Sam Fogarino (now joined by the Album Leaf's Jimmy Lavalle, among others)-- one would hope something good would come from their Wonder Twins powers activating. What's offered on A.
Based on rating 3.0/10
It’s highly possible you won’t listen a more technically impressive album in 2008 than Magnetic Morning’s debut LP, A.M. The duo -- Adam Franklin of Swervedriver and Sam Fogarino, the skin banger in Interpol -- layered guitars on guitars, produced cavernous-sounding drums, used reverb like it was going out of style, and produced an album that can be described with a single word: huge. It’s also highly possible you won’t listen to a duller album in 2008 than A.M.
Opinion: Great
The main gigs of Magnetic Morning's Sam Fogarino and Adam Franklin – Interpol and Swervedriver, respectively – are good hints to the new band's mood but little else. To wit, A.M. is brooding and wistful, but while nodding to shoegaze, Krautrock, and mainstream pop, its overall style is foreign and strange. Copious piano and reverb suggest adult contemporary, but the album occasionally surges into bombastic orchestral rock, "Kashmir"-style, and Fogarino is neither a cynical hook-meister nor a wuss behind the drum kit.