Magic Oneohtrix Point Never — A Review
Ever the explorer, Daniel Lopatin, real name of electronic musician Oneohtrix Point Never, never shied away from using new pencils and canvases in his compositions. From alien landscapes to bubbly cans of nostalgia soda and geometric sequences of melodies, if there was a way to explore modern IDM, Lopatin probably trailed it.
One aspect of sound that he never dabbled with much, however, was melody. The power of Lopatin’s compositions lied heavily on his ability to create dense, organic textures of sound, and of distorting these textures in ways lesser musicians wouldn’t dream of. The rare composition where melody and not texture was the guiding vector of song was always full of the usual alien texture; reverb and distortion abound.
Since his recognition as Experimental Electronic Music de facto Wizard™, Lopatin has collaborated in a lot of projects, expanding his reach to soundtracks (succesfully winning last year’s Cannes soundtrack prize for Uncut Gems, a superb album), collaborations with old rock experimentalists (Iggy Pop) and favourite alt rockers (Alex G), and producing pop superstars (The Weeknd). Perhaps because of this new contact with more melodic driven composers and artists, OPN has been flexing himself his melody and voice muscles, taking influences from last decade’s alt rock and the now current 70’s nostalgia.
The first glimpse of this new sound with a newfound focus on melody and voice lives in 2017’s Age Of, an interesting turn from his more harsh and guitar-like experimental Garden of Delete. In Age Of, OPN undoubtedly sacrificed some of his mastery of atmosphere in exchange of more conventional song formats, but the best songs of that album (The Station, Toys 2) still rely heavily on his mathematical concatenation of sound structures, more than his ability to create catchy melodies.
Age Of’s logical successor, Magic Oneohtrix Point Never, is a better attempt at crafting clean, smooth melodic songs, without sacrificing his mastery of production and his characteristic IDM sound. It’s sometimes very successful, taking the best from its collaborators and creator, but it sometimes also falls short of its aims, sounding more like the pastiche of the worst years of M83.
In Magic, OPN focus lies heavily on the beats and fluid synths that adorn the voices of The Weeknd, Arca, and the surprisingly sweet and fragile Lopatin. No Nightmares is a hit even if it sometimes sounds uninspired, and the preceding and build-up song The Whether Channel hints at some good rapping over well-crafted beats, but only so.
The album is something of a similar project to 2011’s Replica, in which OPN tries to distort the aural zeitgeist of an era through his android mind. Here the substratum comes not from lo-fi TV but from 80's AM radio stations and independent music that sometimes reminds one, if only in spirit, of the era’s college radios classics. Instead of diving in the pool of sounds like in Replica, Lopatin uses the more song-by-song approach seen in Age Of, where texture needs to meet melody to make sense, something better heard in I Don’t Love Me Anymore, a really good banger, and Long Road Home, a song that would fit without trouble between any two tracks in Age Of.
Interlude and vignette songs are plentiful, and here is where the album falters. Most sound uninspired and, to be harsh, bad excerpts from better albums, such as Shifting. Sometimes the sentiment is that it would be better if he’d just embrace the glimpses of electronic pop and rock he shows throughout the album, instead of retreating to places where we already know he’s a master of the craft (as last year’s soundtrack shows). If he relegates the more experimental work to his Lopatin name and the newfound appreciation for pop and rock to his OPN work, perhaps it’s time to finally cross the bridge, not merely stand on it.
The only song that reaches the same heights as his greatest works is the last one, Nothing’s Special, a melancholic, sweetly sung electronic ballad that sounds nothing like the uninspired second half of the album. Here, emotion and atmosphere run hand in hand like so many of the album’s songs strive to. A kind of robotic eulogy for this shitty year, the sound of Lopatin’s voice merges with his synths to create a beautiful song, one that is not plagued by empty nostalgia or copy-paste electronic gimmickry. As if suggesting more things to come, it ends in a weird crescendo.
All in all, Magic Oneohtrix Point Never is neither disappointing nor really successful, more like a midway point in a known experimentalist’s transition to less murky soundscapes. With plenty of good but rarely impressive songs, and loaded with bloatware, this is not OPN’s pop album. If you want more of the sweet, sweet glitchy IDM Lopatin’s known for, check last year’s Uncut Gem soundtrack. If Age Of caught your attention, this is the next step, if only a baby one.
