Magic Eight Ball – Mother Nature's Candy EP

Francesca Baker

Having recently evolved from a trio to a four piece, Surrey based Magic Eight Ball are back with their second EP, ‘Mother Nature’s Candy’.‘Mother Nature’s Candy’ is a characteristically classic rock influenced record, cocky opener Perils of Honesty made up of Guitar Hero style riffs. ‘Sunday Morning’ has the kind of bounce of early Small Faces or Britpop era Cast and Baz Francis’ lived in vocals keep the song feeling rugged and real. Similarly, in ‘Love Makes You Do Some Funny Things’ it is the yearning chorus that stops the whole thing feeling a bit village fete in style. 

Throughout the record its clear that the band have great fun with a record collection full of hits and by all accounts it is these big dollops of nostalgia that really ignite the crowd at Magic Eight Ball’s live shows, their recent performance at the legendary Monto Water Rats being a case in point An over generous press release describes the EP as ‘a micro power-pop rock opera of sorts revolving around the themes of love and disillusion’, but the vast array of influences and styles means that the feel is more that of a seaside variety show than opera story. 

With an ear for a good melody, a taste for a catchy hook and the enthusiasm for an enjoyable show, Magic Eight Ball certainly have potential, but to move on from being a fun pub band need to be more confident about putting their own fingerprints firmly on the tunes. I can certainly imagine having a good night at a live show, if only to see what Baz would be wearing (check the sleeves on the video) but can’t say I’d go out of my way to put the ‘Mother Nature’s Candy’ on my CD player.

Generous folk, a free mp3 of the second track on the EP ‘Big Star’ is available at http://soundcloud.com/magiceightball/big-star