The end of 2019 was soundtracked by one of the most unanimously critically acclaimed film scores of recent history, an anxiety-driven joyride paired to the Safdie Brothers’ noir thriller ‘Uncut Gems’. Unknowingly, Lopatin captured a universal feeling of dread that cuts even deeper in the current state of world affairs. And now, just as many artists are leaning into a newly discovered darkness as this year closes, Lopatin turns his dial towards a frequency of profound self-awareness on an even deeper journey inwards towards peace.
With the backdrop of re-imagined programming for a soft rock-era format that symbolically spans from morning drive into late night hours, ‘Magic Oneohtrix Point Never’, the name a reference to a misheard play on words of Boston’s Magic 106.7, is a nostalgic and self-referential career defining body of work, collaging maximalist baroque within atmospheric glitter. Here Lopatin has mastered his own autobiography; an ornate musical double entendre from an artist making the most enlightened music of his career.