Imaginal Disk was the first album from Magdalena Bay that I listened in its fullness. The first time I ever heard a Magdalena Bay’s song was “Killshot” from their EP (or mixtape) “A Little Rhythm and a Wicked Feeling”, which went viral on TikTok in 2020-2021.


Imaginal Disk production wise is very good, complete and iridescent. Full. Every song has little details on it that you keep finding every time you listen the songs over and over again which is really cool and interesting. The songwriting is solid, with a otherworldly story being sang by the narrator (aka Mica) which makes you want to listen to the album in full for a few times to get the sense of what the story wants to convey in your mind.


Every song though gets boring, because it sounds that there’s no much going on until the end of the song where there is this crazy ending that transitions with the next song, and that could risk the “the more you listen to it, the more gets better” ideology that some people have when they listen to music.


The best songs on the album for me were obviously the first 3 singles, “Death & Romance”, “Image” and “Tunnel Vision”. But also some other tracks like “Watching T.V.” and “Killing Time” were also great.


The interlude (“True Blue Interlude”) is very groovy and catchy, so much groovy that i really wish it could’ve been a full song but i get why it’s an interlude and I think that’s fine and the right thing to do.


There were 3 music videos released for this project, one for “Death & Romance” the lead single, one for “Image” the second single, and one for “That’s My Floor” the fourth single from the album. The music videos show clearly their vibe and how they embed the 2000s nostalgia and Frutiger Aero elements on their visuals and music. Overall, the album could also be too much overrated. It isn’t meant as an offense though, i really like this album and i really enjoy listening to it every now and then, but it feels like it’s missing something.


The score is: 8 (or 8.5) / 10


Leaderboard

1. Death & Romance
2. Killing Time
3. Fear, Sex
4. Tunnel Vision
5. Watching T.V.
6. Image
7. Vampire in the Corner
8. She Looked Like Me!
9. Cry For Me
10. Angel on a Satellite
11. Love is Everywhere
12. True Blue Interlude
13. The Ballad of Matt & Mica
14. That’s My Floor
15. Feeling DiskInserted?