The following article was submitted by Steven Smith:

There have been very few promising indie up-and-comers in the year of 2k10, with many of the better albums being follow-ups from well-established artists. However, Boston-based duo Magic Man is onto something special with their debut release Real Life Color. Their pop-infused sounds carry a lightweight quality, while being met with a strength that hasn’t been heard in indie pop since The Postal Service. While they vocally don’t sound anything like Ben Gibbard, the entire album is a catchy series of songs that have slowly become a personal favorite.

According to the band’s MySpace, the project arose while in France during the summer of 2009. The album was released digitally earlier in 2010, and even caught the attention of the music aficionados at Pitchfork, who stuck album highlight “Monster” on their Forkcast. All 10 tracks on the album are passionately written and lyrically constructed in a way that’s very artistic. From that standpoint, the band reminds me a lot of Passion Pit’s debut album Manners, sans some of the electronic feel and deprecating metaphors. The album features a lot more of an abstract sound which can prevent mainstream appeal.

As the album progresses, you get to a track like “Polygons”, which sounds like an Anamanaguchi-electric song that takes on a “Coney Island” by Death Cab For Cutie identity. This just further magnifies the various intricacies that make each song slightly different from the one that precedes it, and therefore, adds to the compelling nature of the album.  “Darling (Reprise)” is a song with a subdued, hauntingly amazing quality that’s reminiscent of a Paul Simon track.

With enough drive, Magic Man has the potential to be one of the bigger indie projects of the year.  Real Life Color is for download on Magic Man’s Bandcamp, where donations are optional (and for this quality of music, recommended).