Track 12: Image - Magdalena Bay

I loved Magdalena Bay’s debut LP from 2021, Mercurial World. It’s a sunny disco album, with warm synths, warmer vocals, a brisk pace, and positivity to spare.

Their follow-up LP Imaginal Disk is …uhh…well? Longer, for one thing. By nearly ten minutes time wise but seemingly an eternity ideas wise. It can sometimes feel like the opening of 2001 a Space Odyssey but rather than a jump cut from ape-thrown Bone to space-age craft, we’re spending all night on the dance floor.

Did I mention it’s a concept album? Oh, it is. And it’s concept is something else. Aliens have programmed pre-evolution apes with laserdiscs inserted into their foreheads, but True (singer Mica Tenenbaum’s surrogate character) has rejected her disc and is now on a quest to find the true meaning of humanity. Or …something.

Here’s more info from the press release:

In the context of ’Imaginal Disk’, the protagonist has begun the “True Blue” therapeutic process which promises to rewire her brain so that she can finally be her ideal self. ’Image’ illustrates the ideal self that the protagonist will embody upon completion of the therapeutic process. This self is defined by society at large through the character of ‘the Doctor’.

Doctor Who? Look, Doctor Who cares if the ideas bog down the playfulness of their debut. Listen to the absolutely killer breakdown on Image starting one minute in to the song. It only lasts about forty seconds, but put that in a disco track in the late 70s and extend that shit for twenty whole minutes? Solid fucking Gold!

There was briefly Tik Tok chatter about Imaginary Disk being the Autumn answer to Brat Summer. Maybe Autumn on Jupiter. I love these weirdos so much. They may embrace their silliness to a fault, but hey, they’re here to get you to dance like a weirdo and question why you want to at the same time. And I for one am grateful.

Click here for the Infinite Mixtape on Spotify.
Click here for the Infinite Mixtape on Apple Music.