Critic's pick: Magnapop
@ Hair of the Dog (with Josh Byrd), Tuesday, March 15, 2005
by Marc Hirsh
originally published in
Nashville Scene, March
10-16, 2005
Ten years ago, Magnapop seemed like something of an
anomaly:
a power pop band fronted by two women was atypical enough, but singer
Linda
Hopper’s consciousness streamed differently from most folks’, while
Ruthie
Morris established herself as a Rick Neilsen-type guitar hero
specializing in
equal parts stun power and deft economy. The brilliant, Bob
Mould-produced Hot Boxing alternated between nervy
snarls and wistful peals when it wasn’t spitting out sublime pop songs
like a
stripped-down proto-New Pornographers. Hopper and Morris regroup with a
new
rhythm section on the new Mouthfeel,
the first Magnapop album since 1996. Clocking in at barely 30 minutes
and with
demo-quality production, it’s clearly a new beginning, but the Morris’s
powerchord mastery and the catch in the back of Hopper’s throat remain
the
same. – Marc Hirsh
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