There’s always been something discombobulating in the music of Eric & Magill. A subcutaneous feeling that leaves translucent goosebumps where long lost memories reside. The prism-like ambience of Peach Colored Oranges feels like the band has glided over a colorful spectrum of emotions. Whereas All those I know was a melancholic affair, the vivacious Peach Colored Oranges brings some zest that it’s not unexpected: this is their fourth album, and it shows.

Long in the tooth*, but still adventurous, the wisdom of age comes to Ryan Weber and Eric Osterman, who spent the vast majority of their career several oceans apart. Perhaps this is a testament to how strong their musical collusion is. You can almost feel they now speak their own secret language, thinking of how to complete each other’s chords progressions.

‘Tight rope’ was a great choice for the first single, as the flood of dreamgaze is the right taste of the citrus aftertaste of the tracks in this album. Still, there’s a definite feeling for the sauntering pace of 70s pop in these gems, like the fluttery ‘I can dig it’, a track that would go great in your 8-track powered GTO. ‘A softer sound’ is a gorgeous piece, warm like the Santa Ana winds that sweep California’s 101 highway.

Still, there’s a lot of intimacy in Peach Colored Oranges. ‘I could’ve been a painter’, with its pastel-coloured sounds, inches towards chamber pop, never fully exploding but carrying a majestic emotion. ‘Peach Colored Oranges’ displays the honest intimacy that Eric & Magill have developed since their understated origins. Loud emotions, whispered in tongues of daydreams and whispered messages of love.

Peach Colored Oranges is available on tape. Not only is it interesting to have such a format come back (inevitable, I guess?), but I do believe the everlasting hiss adds an extra layer of warmth to these 10 tracks of joy, self-discovery and reflectiveness. A cool, refreshing serving of sweetness for troubling times.

Words: Sam J. Valdés López

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*We are the same age, as far as I know.