At the onset of 2024, most pop music aficionados anticipated a summer scored by renowned artists, with new projects by Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and Billie Eilish dominating the pop culture sphere this past spring. As the summer comes to a close, that vision seems to have quietly shattered. The skyrocketing success of artists like Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, and Charli xcx—artists with longstanding careers yet to burst the bubble of A-list cultural dominance—was a clear sign that audiences are hungry for fresh sounds and new voices.
Enter Imaginal Disk (2024)—the second studio album by American alternative pop duo Magdalena Bay. Like other success stories from this summer, the duo is not new to the pop industry; their debut album Mercurial World (2021) received high praise from critics, while singles like “Killshot” and “Secrets (Your Fire)” have seen varied success on streaming and social media. On their sophomore album, the pair has taken their signature hypnotic sound, refined it, and released an exquisite collection that exudes final evolution energy. It may be a bit out there for everyday listeners tuning in to the radio, but for listeners seeking to escape the comfortable confines of the mainstream, Imaginal Disk is a sonic journey worth embarking on.
Many pop artists emphasize their lyricism over their music’s sound, making the production a mere vehicle for their words. Magdalena Bay does the opposite, creating ethereal melodies that take center stage, with Imaginal Disk taking this approach and dialing it up to 11. Within the album’s first few minutes, one will immediately encounter the decadent harmonies and complex arrangements that comprise the heavily electronic production. Layers upon layers of synth beats and fuzzy riffs give each track an impressive amount of character.
Don’t assume the album embraces a purely computerized aesthetic, though; the deft incorporation of traditional instrumentals keeps many songs grounded in familiar tones. Often, a track will begin with classic instruments and allow the electro-pop influence to bleed in before transitioning fully to a techno paradise; “Death & Romance” starts and ends with classical piano keys and solid drumbeats but dives headfirst into ’80s synths around the song’s climax. On other tracks, a balance is struck; “That’s My Floor” is driven by both a ridiculously funky bassline riff and the unmistakable groove of an electric piano.
While Imaginal Disk’s production sucker punches the listener with its artistry, the album’s lyricism requires more active listening to appreciate. Simply put, Imaginal Disk isn’t a project with a clear-cut narrative or easily understood themes. Lyrics throughout the work are particularly abstract, and the titles of the tracks offer little interpretative help. The larger meaning behind “Vampire in the corner, am I scaring you off? / Oh, I wanna dance, I wanna learn how to love” is pretty much anyone’s guess.
But this style of highly conceptual lyricism feels purposeful. Like a modern art exhibit that leaves much of its pieces’ interpretation up to the museumgoers, Magdalena Bay’s writing style allows listeners to interpret the lyrics independently and impart their own meanings. Doing so not only augments the listener’s wonder and curiosity but also keeps the emphasis on the production. Could “Vampire in the Corner” be about the experience of obsessively loving someone despite the harm it inflicts on yourself? Or perhaps this all-consuming relationship has already ended, and the overbearing narrator wants to win back their paramour. Regardless, the listener’s focus stays fixed on the striking chords of an electric guitar ringing out as the dissonant voices belt, “I, I wanna make you mine / I told you a thousand times.”
Good albums can succeed by simply collecting a mix of great singles and releasing them together. Fantastic albums go one step further: curating the list of tracks to feel tonally consistent from start to finish. Imaginal Disk falls into the latter category. Heavy experimentation with the backtrack makes each song feel unique, while the regular use of the same instruments—a bass guitar, classic drum kit, and piano—links the tracks together like multiple variations of a dish made with the same ingredients.
No track exemplifies this comprehensive structure better than the album closer, “The Ballad of Matt & Mica.” Like the closing credits to a film, the chorus of this song gives various nods to previous tracks on the album, both in lyric and in production. Some internal references are abundantly clear, like the line “Killing time every day,” an obvious callback to the second track, “Killing Time.”
Others require one to put their listening ears on to understand the intentionality with which Magdalena Bay has produced this work. Again, the return of the recognizable instruments like a low bass guitar and classical piano could be a nod towards any number of previous tracks. Here, these elements are skillfully blended, giving a sense of reverence for the album’s tone itself. Moreover, the entire chorus of this song seems to interpolate or at least structurally reference the outro in the album’s opener, “She Looked Like Me!,” heard most clearly in the parallel lyrics of “That’s my curse, that’s my name / bang-bang and it’s customary” in the opener and “Is it my turn, small-town fame / bang-bang and a happy ending” in the closer.
Imaginal Disk is not just a one-of-a-kind alt-pop album—it is an escape in every sense of the word. Within the realm of the pop industry, the project is a relief from the typical sounds and simplified designs of albums that appeal to a general audience but fail to challenge the genre’s norms. This deviation from the status quo might preclude it from topping the charts, but that seems to be a sacrifice Magdalena Bay is willing to make for their craft. For the exploratory individual, donning a set of noise-canceling headphones allows the album’s groovy vibes and earthy tones to shepherd you away from the real world. Whether you’re looking for relaxation or experimentation, put aside your worries for a cool 53 minutes and allow Imaginal Disk to be the soundtrack to your temporary escape from this mortal coil.
