Forget about the Oasis reunion, Silver Magpie’s return to the airwaves following a two-year hiatus with the single, Dickens, is infinitely more laudable. The trippy in all the right places alt-indie art-pop single, which embodies the classic songwriting of epochs gone by, is a tonal triumph. The glistening piano keys and angular guitar notes against the moody reverberations create an evocative platform for the singer-songwriter to pour candour across as he covers the pain of coming to terms with externally and internally concealed truths.
The consistently in flux vocal presence delivers everything from punchy cadences that punctuate the track as much as the percussion to resigned yearning to fiery swaggering outpours of unfeigned emotion to ethereal harmonies which endlessly ascend through the production.
Jesus Gutierrez hit pause on the Silver Magpie project after his 2022 single, Cartoon Hero, to refine his sound; given the kaleidoscopic gravity which pulls you into the poetic cosmos of Dickens, it is safe to say that the singer-songwriter has got his sonic signature down to a fine art.
The way Dickens implores you to swim with the thematic currents establishes Silver Magpie as so much more than an artist paying homage to the alt 80s and 90s; he’s a 21st-century pioneer, filtering his evocative narrative through lenses of textural nostalgia, resulting in a sound that you can sink into and instantly feel at home while prising new-found resonance from his eloquently penned productions.
Dickens was officially released on August 22nd; stream the single on Spotify now.
Review by Amelia Vandergast
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