Having spent time in the culturally elevated company of the Danish National Orchestra – with whom they recorded the live album Performing Parades – and the Britten Sinfonia, the much acclaimed Efterklang are not the sort of act you’d expect to find slumming it with those common pop sorts. However, a band cannot live by critical plaudits alone, and whether or not this third album is a conscious attempt by the artful indie-rockers to engage with the mainstream, the result is a graceful collection of songs informed by a pop sensibility.
In this they are by no means trailblazers. ‘Harmonics’ is eerily reminiscent of Grizzly Bear, whose album Bitte Orca so spectacularly marked the midpoint between experimentation and tunefulness. Still, as free taster ‘Modern Drift’ suggested, Magic Chairs has charms of its own conjuring. The single’s promise is made good as Efterklang here present a succession of delights – witness the hypnotic tribal thump of ‘Alike’, the dashing strings and hopscotch keys of ‘Full Moon’, and the zesty-as-lemon-curd melody of ‘Scandinavian Love’.
The role of protagonist fluctuates from one track to the next, be it the keys-driven dramatics of ‘I Was Playing Drums’, the rugged guitar of ‘The Soft Beating’, or the sweetly sparring male/female vocals of ‘Natural Tune’. These are dramas of bittersweet reminiscence and emotion, of subtly shifting textures and pristine musicianship, the poetic lyrics tenderly cradled in Casper Clausen’s gentle vocal. It’s pop, Jim, but not as we know it.