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The Day We Left Town EP
NME | The Critics Singles 05/04/03 | by Simon Lewis
See that bit at the end of Die Hard where the ambulances turn up and Dean Martin's "Let It Snow" starts playing? Making you feel all warm and cuddly and willing to forget the slaughter of smug German crims that preceded it? Now imagine the same scene set in the Wild West. This is the song you'd hear. It's a bit Christmassy, a bit sad, a bit Ennio Morricone, a bit Radiohead, a bit Avalanches. It's lovely and, if you've just shoved Alan Rickman off a skyscraper, just what the doctor ordered.
Single Reviews | May 2003
Norway, inexplicably, continues to produce oddball talent by the bucketload. For anyone who's ever wondered what a Radiohead soundtrack for It's A Wonderful Life might sound like, Magnet's Even Johansen has the answer on The Day We Left Town EP (****)
The Fly | April 2003
Further proof, if needed that North Europeans are the Kings of electro-epic, the title track is a triumphant unison of Bjork's vital organs and Jason Spaceman's soul.
Radar
For 27 and a half years, I have been searching for the record that I want playing when I die/fall in love/have underwater sex with Julie Delpy. The title track of this ep may well bring my quest to its end. Evan Johansen (for it is he) writes gentle, electronic tinged acoustic ballads, sung in the voice of Thom Yorke after 3 bottles of gin and tears, that overwhelm the soul with wave after wave of bittersweet joy these are the melodies that you hear in your head once the wounds have healed, and you can go back to remembering the good times you had with the girl that broke your heart. "The Day We Left Town" opens like the score to a Frank Capra film, and ends as Johansen and his lover look back at their former home as the kerosene flames engulf it. Breathtaking doesn't even begin to cover it. I'm taking this ep to my desert island. Really.
Jockey Slut | by JB
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.
logo-magazine.com | February 2003
Everybody should worship at the alter of Magnet, 'The Day We Left Town' sounds like an audio remake of Frank Capra's 'It's a Wonderful Life', peopled by hand puppets and giant rabbits nicked from The Flaming Lips tour bus. (****)
rockcity.co.uk | February 2003
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.