On Your Side

Sweet Holy Morten Harket, what has happened to Norway’s musicians of late? Having heard little more than a squeak from the country in years, their musical output of late has seen them impressively invade the collective minds, hearts and CD collections of the listening world. Even Johansen aka Magnet is among those spearheading this Nordic revolution, yet On Your Side transcends any scene limitations. In places, the album encapsulates the alpine, woody-ish vibes of fellow Norweigans Kings of Convenience and Royksopp, but Magnet are right up there with Jeff Buckley and Radiohead, not least because of Johansen’s ethereal, heart-swelling vocals and its perfect coupling with orchestral strings and digitised heartbeats. In fact, On Your Side is the type of album that Radiohead fans will wish Radiohead had delivered. Ultimately, the beauty of the album is that we get the musical power, exaltation and emotional clout the Oxford lot, without the annoying legion of over-precious fans or the cloudy weight of the critic’s expectations.

Of course, the beauty does not end there... listen to Johansen’s cover of Dylan’s ‘Lay Lady Lay’, a duet with Gemma Hayes, for perfection of the sexiest, yet most delicate kind. Gemma sounds as though she was born to perform this song, and the overall effect is could well be the soundtrack of the most velvet-morning-ed and divine love scene ever filmed.

It’s almost impossible to believe that this is Magnet’s debut album, and one can only begin to fathom how insanely amazing and this band shall become. In the meantime, ‘On Your Side’ will leave everyone in its wake positively cross-eyed and palpitating with notions of romance, loss and all that’s in between.