The latest album from The Magic Sponge was released at the beginning of the month. The band have featured on these pages several times over the years due to the striking nature of their albums and their unique brand of quirky leftfield guitar pop. The Heart is a Suspect Device is no exception to this, once again the band coming up with the goods, and sharing an album packed full of instant earworms, and of course captivating the listener with their usual intriguing selection of song subjects and lyrical couplets, I’m pretty sure The Magic Sponge must be the only band to have written about theologian, geologist and palaeontologist William Buckfield.
The album opens in style with the title track, complete with its dramatic piano backing, and perfect analogy for the human heart:
“It’s a dangerous thing to carry,
Unstable and hidden from view,
Can cause damage to yourself,
And others close to you”
Whelan’s vocal increasing in urgency as he sings:
“Fresh hope can quickly rise,
With a new day dawning
But in a flash can disappear
Without any warning”
Whelan’s vocal complemented by lush backing vocals from Loretta Heywood.
As the affecting The Heart is a Suspect Device fades, the familiar energetic jangly guitars and driving rhythm section are revealed as Don’t Tempt Me takes the baton and sets the album off on its upbeat trajectory continuing apace as the band go on to ask the question How Much Goes into One Life?
The Magic Sponge have also finally got their own theme tune too, in the form of cinematic instrumental, The Man from S.P.O.N.G.E. borrowing its title from 1960s classic TV and mixing a sixties element with surf guitars to create a real foot-tapper. Staying with pop cultural references, those who remember ZTT label boss Trevor Horn’s band The Buggles, will feel a smile spreading across their face (whilst also feeling old) when they hear the glorious 60 second chant of TikTok killed the Video star in an update of the message from the 80’s number one smash.
The subject of art as a commodity, rather than something to be admired and enjoyed, is explored in a Painting by Numbers, the song interspersed with a caricature of a bawdy East End wide boy (provided by Dave Allen), expressing his “love” for art, or more precisely the money he can make from it, while sharing his ill informed “knowledge” about all his works of art.
The Magic Sponge have form when it comes to writing about historic figures, Alan Turing being a previous case in point. This time around it is aforementioned theologian, geologist and palaeontologist, William Buckland “the man who ate everything”, including Louis XIV’s mummified heart, who is the subject matter. Specifically his penchant for a strange delicacy, “he always liked to boast, about his mice on toast” (one of his favourite dishes), the lyrics borrow a quote relating to his zoophagy from the man himself in the chorus, his response to the question of what rules the world “Its the stomach sir … the greater eat the less, and the lesser eat the lesser still!” All soundtracked by the bands own infectious take on catchy melodic jangle pop.
All told, The Heart is a Suspect Device is a collection of highly canorous canons that will have you humming them all day long as they lodge themselves in your subconscious.
The Magic Sponge are:
Tim Whelan: Lead vocals
Geoff Bonner: Bass
George Pace: Lead Guitar
Hamid Mantu: Drums
Perry Richards: Rhythm Guitar
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