Old Kind of Magic, the fifth longplayer from Native Harrow and third on Loose, arrives two years into their new life in Sussex, England. It is in this new place that they have self-produced a work that is simultaneously their most sweepingly expansive and delicately intimate album to date. The songs move dramatically from the opening field recording of the Brighton seaside, to Laurel Canyon-esque folk-rock, piano and rhodes tinged soul-jazz balladry, oud and harpsichord driven 60s technicolour psychedelia, dense modernistic string quartet writing, and wide-as-the-western skies panoramic pedal steel with sepia-toned 12-string.
“Uniting the various moods is Tuel’s exquisite voice, at times bringing to mind Laura Nyro or Karen Carpenter in its airy mastery of phrasing”
8/10
AMERICANA ALBUM OF THE MONTH
UNCUT
“elements of 60’s and 70’s pop and soul with Tuel’s voice remaining serene”
MOJO
“classy folk-rock duo flip from artsy 1960’s pop to psychedelic gospel with an enviable elegance”
THE GUARDIAN