Magdalena Bay is returning with their intoxicating concept album. I feel like self-mythologization and not-so-subtle autobiography have replaced tremendously conceptual pop music, since most of today’s pop music deals with previous trauma, astrological signs, and capital-V vulnerability. However, the musical duet Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin recorded a song about a guy named True, whose body resists a “disk upgrade” that aliens have pushed into their foreheads in an attempt to make the theoretical link between humans and apes. or a similar idea.
The album in question — Imaginal Disk, out this Friday — underlines a different type of vulnerability, one in which truly believing in your outlandish ideas pays off to the highest extent. The whole narrative is as unapologetically weird as the music is relentlessly catchy. If Grimes wasn’t up to whatever the hell she’s doing right now and went back to making excellent synth-pop in the vein of Art Angels, then it would probably sound something like Magdalena Bay.
Still, the ideas presented here are entirely Tenenbaum and Lewin’s own. Even aside from the sci-fi story bred into the record, the music itself is immaculate. It refines on the solid, shimmery foundation the two established on their debut, 2021’s Mercurial World, by somehow making their world even more mercurial. These songs take twists and turns that mirror the futuristic bent of the lyrics, and it’s immediately memorable despite its thrilling unpredictability. The Miami-bred, Los Angeles-based musicians double down on their ideas here, and it’s refreshing to hear glimmering pop music that is this unafraid of itself, carving its own singular path.
It makes you wonder where one even gets these kinds of ideas in the first place, so it only seemed natural to probe Lewin and Tenenbaum’s brains about the inspirations that led to Imaginal Disk. In a wide-ranging conversation, the duo shared how Suspiria (1977), Fiona Apple, ELO, the Unarius Academy of Science, and more influenced their excellent new album. Below, press play on new single “That’s My Floor” and enter the world of Magdalena Bay.
Paul McCartney
MICA TENENBAUM: I got into my first Beatles phase and then Paul McCartney phase in 2022, which would have been right as we were starting to write the album. So that’s probably some sort of influence, right?
MATTHEW LEWIN: Yeah, it was fun. I’ve been a lifelong Beatles guy, and it was fun to go chronologically through their discography with Mica.
TENENBAUM: I remember it was right when that documentary came out, which was so fun. I’ve been obsessed with Ram ever since.
Get Back is what made you dive in?
LEWIN: It came out right when we were starting to go through chronologically. So it was probably what brought it up for me. I was like, “You should probably get familiar with the history to appreciate it.”
Is Paul your favorite Beatle, then?
TENENBAUM: Yes, I think so.
LEWIN: I’ve always been a George guy my whole life, and then I think Paul took over as my favorite in the last maybe five years or so or during this deep dive we’ve done.
The documentary kind of portrays him as this mastermind behind the whole enterprise. And George is just like, “I want to be more involved.” And he’s like, “No, do what you’re told.”
LEWIN: For sure. It’s kind of annoying. But he’s good, which makes him annoying is that he’s undeniably good. [laughs] What can you do?
Fiona Apple
TENENBAUM: We’ve been Fiona Apple fans for a long, long, long time. And in high school, when we were in a progressive rock band together, she was a very big songwriting influence for me. So it aligns with this situation where, as we were starting to write this album, we were listening more to what we were listening to in high school and revisiting things and regressing a little bit. [laughs] We totally stopped listening to any contemporary music and delved into Fiona Apple, a little bit of Radiohead, and some ’70s stuff. I feel like, in some way, she might have influenced the songwriting a little bit more than some previous Magdalena Bay stuff.
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