Magic Wand
The heavy art of acid-comedown music
When the lie of youth can no longer be plausibly maintained, enlightenment beckons
Don’t ask me what it all means, man — it’s been years since my last trip
As great musicians approach and then surpass their 30s, they reach an event horizon where the lie of youth can no longer be plausibly maintained. It often happens rapidly, and even drugs start to do more harm than good. Then what? A couple possibilities remain for artists on the brink of creative middle-age, as the seminal year of 1991 still warns us: You can capitulate to whatever got you where you are, or you can start the hard, maybe impossible work of leaving it all behind. In 1991, Metallica released a self-titled monster of a record that trapped them in a creative morass of mega-stardom that sucked away whatever was left of their younger, infinitely cooler selves. In contrast, the merciless onslaught of time, which panics and flummoxes even the Kirk Hammetts of the world, liberated the ’80s new wavers in Talk Talk, the English trio that scored a moderate hit with “It’s My Life.” Having already mastered pop, the band released Laughing Stock, a 43-minute semi-improvised jazz-folk …
