This debut album arrives amid a shower of phrases like "hotly tipped" and "hugely anticipated". The Magic Numbers must have some secret ingredient, because they've managed to land the support slot on Brian Wilson's upcoming British dates. It ought to add up to a rather fine night out, since the Numbers play an alluring kind of soulful harmony-pop that suggests they've already been cramming at the School of Brian.
Though their songs tend to mutate through various permutations of fast-and-slow and soft-and-loud (the opening Mornings Eleven or the ambitious I See You, You See Me being cases in point), they avoid the pitfall of unnecessary clutter. Often there's just simple guitar, bass and drums underpinning the light and airy voices of Romeo and Michele Stodart and Angela Gannon, while Gannon's melodica is affectingly deployed on Try and Love's a Game.
It's classic pop, rejuvenated.
