The Runaway

The Magic Numbers have had flashes of promise. Their 2005 self-titled LP had moments of appealing post-twee rock (think PAS/CAL's more Guitar Hero-y moments), even if the back half was clogged with too many plodding tracks. But the band continued with the latter direction on 2007's Those the Brokes, with an increasingly uneven ratio of solid cuts to flat-out bricks. It makes sense, then, that their third album, The Runaway, would try for something completely different. Here, they shuffle through one stylistic experiment after another. The fingerprint on the album's cover art seems a little ironic, since for the first time, the Magic Numbers seem hard to identify.

Ah, The Magic Numbers. Remember them? Two sets of siblings, lots of hair, blissful harmonies and jangly guitars. And Richard Bacon upset them once by joking about their weight. Whether they responded by comparing Mr Bacon to Alan Partridge is sadly unrecorded.