click picture to enlarge

Format: CD
Label/Cat. #: Ultimate Dilemma - UDR047
Country: UK
Released: 03/31/03

01. The Day We Left Town
02. Clean Slate
03. Dead Happy
04. The Big Black Moon

Reviews:

Jockey Slut:

Nothing in Even Johansen's previous two EPs remotely hinted at this. Taking the desolate beauty that abounds in country laments and applying it to a synthetic soul riff of magical magnitude, Magnet has created an exquisite, haunting lullaby that sounds like a valedictory glance back at the end of the world, but in fact hints at something so much more. "It's such a glorious day/So come what may/You can I are off to see the world," he croaks on the title track. A record to lose your heard to. - JB

From Drowned in Sound:

Chances are, Even Johansen, aka Magnet, has never heard an AC/DC record, let alone bought one. And in these times, we came be immensely thankful for such mercies.

Magnet's 'The Day We Left Town' sounds like the Avalanches had they grown up on an English council estate (whilst of course, being Norwegian) and been obsessed with 'It's A Wonderful Life'. Cracked, pre-war filmic strings entwine with gently snapping beats and sailing theremin over a lush acoustic ballad. It's utterly gorgeous and it makes DiS want to drift away on a languid opium cloud.

The remainder of the EP is a lot more stark, but still as intriguing as a squirrel in a vat of jam, notably the psuedo-Yorke beats of 'Dead Happy'. Be still, your beating heart; this is the real deal.

4.5/5 - Gareth Dobson

From Phase 9:

Norwegian Even Johansen returns with a third EP of lovelorn songs to fire the spirit and melt the heart. Much like their predecessors, these ghostly compositions fuse Johansen’s plaintive vocals to ethereal, graceful textures and slow, minimalist beats.

The main track is taken from Magnet’s forthcoming debut album and builds from a music box and choirs into a glorious rush of shuffling rhythm, whirring electronics and soaring vocals. Very Björk. Closing track THE BIG BLACK MOON repeats this sepulchral mood, but as a more minimalist turn, only erupting into a flurry of strings at the very end.

In between these two, CLEAN SLATE comes across as a bit more Radiohead, all piano, strings and mumbled vocals, while the film noir atmospherics of DEAD HAPPY are more dramatic, evoking the stunning soundscapes of Martin Grech.

All in all, pretty moving stuff. Omens for the album are good, although a bit of variety might be needed across a long player. We’ll have to wait and see…

4/6 - Mark Bayross

From rock-city.co.uk:

It’s a long time since music has done what this E.P has done to me, and the fact that my preference is Heavy Metal or Punk Rock only serves as testament to this most ambient and overwhelmingly enchanting 4 track masterpiece. Different to anything else I have heard in a long time I find it tough to pigeon hole, other than to say at times the beauty of ‘Radio Head’ comes to mind, but other than that this C.D is unique and already a proud treasure in my collection. Sounding like it could accompany a weepy black and white movie on a Sunday afternoon, and its by no mistake in track one that they have gone for a very old sound with a background of the softest angles humming from above. It’s delightfully happy music in a very laid back way and you could well nurse a broken heart to it’s enigmatic charm. ‘Even Johansen’ is the spine chilling genius in question and his debut album is being released in the summer, seemingly produced by god’s angels themselves. Touring as special guests to ‘Ed Harcourt’ to help promote this tangible Norwegian maverick we can only hope and prey that Radio1 feel its good enough for pop consumption. Quite simply 4 tracks of uncompromised musical genius…… Lullabies don’t and can’t get better than this.

5/5 - Daz T

From The Critic:

Those pesky Scandinavians. We've got quite a fine tradition of writing "emotionally honest" music in this country, but now it seems like they want to get in on the act as well... and generally they do a very good job of it as well.

And Magnet (aka Even Johansen) are certainly no exception. Bittersweet electronica with all kinds of swirling melodies and instruments that can only be described as "sweet". Like glockenspiels. Unlike, say, Royksopp, it really is music thats clearly a product of a wintery landscape, and is full of magical touches that tug on the heartstrings. Probably best listened to next to an open fire with snow falling outside. But certainly very pretty, almost filmic music. Bring on the album.

4/5 - Ben Fullerton

From Whisperin and Hollerin:

MAGNET'S Even Johansen has already warmed our hearts and chilled our very souls with his two recent splendid EPS, "Where Happiness Lives" and "Chasing Dreams," so the immediate good news bulletin is that "The Day We Left Town" is his third four-track artistic success.

That said, while those EPS proferred a dreamily atmospheric sound that suited Magnet's fragmented ballads to a T, "The Day We Left Town" pushes closer to the heart of darkness that Even previously only hinted at, with these four songs all walking a very unsteady wire between ecstacy and the howling black chasm of emotional turbulence below.

The EP kicks off with the stunning title track. It opens with a squiffy loop from what sounds like an old musical, before slowing to embrace a harp-rippling musical landscape and Even apparently singing of re-awakening. It's only when he reaches the line about "dousing the walls with kerosene" that the horrible truth dawns as Even and (I hope) his partner drive away from the engulfing flames. Literally incendiary stuff.

The intensity refuses to let up thereafter. "Clean Slate" is an expansive, descriptive ballad - more reminiscent of "Chasing Dreams" with Even's yearning vocals and the rolling, heartbeat drums to the fore. "Dead Happy" and "The Big Black Moon", however, are both exceptionally creepy. The former is glacially still and vaguely reminiscent of Radiohead with the lonely tambourine hopelessly failing to instil a pop atmosphere. Compared to "The Big Black Moon",though, it's a Pinky and Perky fun fest, as "TBBM" is voyeuristically pretty, with Even's whispered vocals and the quivering electronica coming across liek a keyboard-oriented Red House Painters.

Even Johansen is unquestionably an excellent artist and "The Day We Left Town" is his third superb EP, albeit one with an air of almost unbearable, numbed-out introspection.

9/10 - Tim Peacock