Magnet’s a fresh, young act from Norway that combines a lot of different sounds and genres to make for one pleasant listen. Magnet is heavy on percussion, different instruments, and general variation. The songs change from rock, to reggae, to country, to folk every other track. Magnet samples just about every instrument known to man. In addition to guitar, bass, drums, they use other weirder instruments link oboe, trumpet, various strings, bells, banjo, xylophone, tribal drums, whistles and claps.

The percussion is noticeable in every song, not necessarily interesting or different percussion, just heavier mixed percussion than most other bands. What every song has in common, however, is pleasant-ness. That pleasantness comes across best in songs “Slice of Heaven” and “The Gospel Song,” both tracks being much more memorable than the rest. On a whole, The Simple Life is not a bad debut, it just seems a little too scatterbrained to be fully developed.

Watch the video for “You Got Me:”

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