Album Review: Luscious Jackson- Magic Hour

Let us all pause for a moment, quiet our hearts, and remember Luscious Jackson the way they should be remembered—peaking with their 1996 LP Fever In, Fever Out.

Originally a duo, the In Search of Manny EP dropped over 20 years ago, blending elements of funk, hip-hop, and the growing alternative rock movement of the early 90s. Building off of the momentum of that EP, as well as their debut full length, Natural Ingredients, the girls in Luscious Jackson grew more focused, and matured into a very unique sound—Fever In, Fever Out is still a fun, mysterious, and sultry record.

But LJ’s downfall came quickly—keyboardist Vivian Trimble left the group prior to the recording of their third album, the slick sounding Electric Honey, an incredible disappointment. Shortly after this, the group disbanded. In the mid-2000s, founding members Gabby Glaser and Jill Cunniff both released uneven solo albums.

In late 2011, there were rumblings of a partial Luscious Jackson reunion—Trimble is still out of the band. Rather than pursue a label deal, the band opted to crowd source funding for their 4^th LP, Magic Hour, an album that speaks volumes as to the problem with crowd sourcing. People will throw money at you if you ask them to, and in return, you churn out something like this.

I remember at some point in 2012, they released a single as a preview of what was to come, and I remember being rather underwhelmed and disinterested in what I heard—that song, “Are You Ready?” appears within this album, and my feelings about it, as well as the other material on the Magic Hour haven’t changed.

(l to r: trent reznor kate, gabby, jill)

Magic Hour isn’t exactly horrible, but it certainly isn’t memorable.  There is absolutely nothing special or inventive about this record—at times irritating, at times unbelievably stupid, Magic Hour is the kind of record that makes me wish Luscious Jackson had never reunited.

For fuck’s sake, there’s a song about butts. GROWN WOMEN HAVE WRITTEN A SONG ABOUT BUTTS. “#1 Bum,” arriving early on in the record, is probably one of the more insipid songs I’ve heard this year. “Where’d you get that back? Where you’d you get those bums? Buns, buns, buns, buns,” Glaser coos in her lowest register. Like, look, I get it okay. The women in Luscious Jackson are all in their 40s now, have kids, have husbands, and maybe the like the way a dude’s ass looks in a nice fitting pair of jeans—that’s no reason to write a song about it. 

That’s the kind of shit you save for a girl’s night out.

Magic Hour is, thankfully, mercifully short—10 songs clocking in at a little over a half hour. A bulk of the album’s middle section is filled up with songs that are seemingly named after the things you yell to a crowd during a concert to get them pumped up—“Are You Ready?” “Show Us What You Got.” “So Rock On.” “Aaw Turn it Up!”

The most tolerable song of the bunch appears near the end in the form of “We Go Back,” the only song that even comes close to capturing the Luscious vibe from their heyday—except this time it feels totally phoned in. And I mean come on; the rest of this album does too.

Fever In, Fever Out apparently captured a moment in time that can never be returned to by Luscious Jackson—not that you want a band to continually churn out the same thing over and over again, but even by 1999’s Electric Honey, they had allowed themselves to be consumed by a “pop” sheen that heavily coated their songwriting and production values. That is still a problem 15 years later on Magic Hour—produced using ProTools, drummer Kate Schellenbach wasn’t even present in the studio with them during recording—her parts were done separately and sent in. With Cunniff acting as producer, it seems like they spent every dollar donated to them to make this sound as expensive, slick, and boring as possible, rather than opting for the raw, organic vibe that served them so well at one point.

Magic Hour is available now from the band themselves.