Love Is Magic

“Each record I make is more of an amalgamation of who I truly am,” declares John Grant. “The more I do this, the more I trust in myself, and the further along I go.” Even when the Michigan-born man released his debut solo album Queen Of Denmark in 2010, Grant laced sumptuous soft-rock ballads with an array of spacey, wistful synthesizer sounds, increasingly adding taut, fizzing sequencers, nu-synth-disco settings and icy soundscapes to the mix on 2012’s Pale Green Ghosts and 2015’s Grey Tickles, Black Pressure, the latter The Guardian described as, “variously agonising, hilarious, uplifting and moving: another bravura display from a unique songwriting talent.” Now, with his fourth solo album, Love Is Magic, Grant has continued evolving, creating his most electronic record yet, in collaboration with Benge (Ben Edwards), solo artist, analogue synth expert/collector and a member of electronica trio Wrangler. Produced by Grant, and engineered by Benge at his Cornish studio, the diamond-hard, diamond-gleaming Love Is Magic, “is how I’ve always wanted my records to sound, but I didn’t know how until now,” Grant says. He also called on Paul Alexander of Denton, Texas maestros Midlake, renewing a working relationship that began on Queen Of Denmark.