Magic Oneohtrix Point Never

Last updated
Magic Oneohtrix Point Never
Magic Oneohtrix Point Never.jpg
Studio album by
Oneohtrix Point Never
ReleasedOctober 30, 2020
RecordedMarch–July 2020
Studio
  • Queens, New York
  • Northampton, Massachusetts
Genre
Length47:07
Label Warp
Producer
Oneohtrix Point Never chronology
Age Of
(2018)		Magic Oneohtrix Point Never
(2020)		 Again
(2023)
Singles from Magic Oneohtrix Point Never
  1. "Drive Time Suite"
    Released: September 24, 2020
  2. "Midday Suite"
    Released: October 26, 2020

Magic Oneohtrix Point Never is the ninth studio album by American electronic producer Daniel Lopatin, under his alias Oneohtrix Point Never, released on October 30, 2020, via Warp. [5] [6] [7] The album draws on a psychedelic radio aesthetic strongly inspired by Magic 106.7, the mondegreen namesake of Lopatin's project, and was recorded during COVID-19 lockdowns, between March and July 2020.

Contents

It is the second album to heavily feature Lopatin's own vocals after Age Of , with a higher focus on songwriting. It features collaborations with The Weeknd (who also served as an executive producer for the album), Caroline Polachek, Arca and Nolanberollin. American artist Robert Beatty provided the album cover art. Both Lopatin and Beatty cooperated on art direction. Upon release, Magic Oneohtrix Point Never was met with critical acclaim and was featured on several publications' year-end lists.

Background and composition

Magic Oneohtrix Point Never was conceived as an album in early 2020 after Lopatin created eclectically varied mixtapes for the Safdie brothers' radio site Elara Radio; overall, he found that "on a therapeutic scale", he "always enjoyed the comfort of listening to the radio, and of listening to people have inane discussions on podcasts". [8] Lopatin remarked to GQ that "there's so much of me on this—even the collaborations are appropriate [to when I started out]". [8] In comparison, the album is themed around a psychedelic radio aesthetic and features four "Cross Talk" interludes, collages of "archival recordings of various American FM stations' "format flips", in which detourned DJ sign-offs collide with advertisements and self-help mantras", [9] marking each periodic stage of the album.

Lopatin said of his intent with creating Magic Oneohtrix Point Never that:

I wanted to make a cohesive, punchy, 50-minute record that was very personal, but pulled from FM palettes that I was personally interested in [...] I think it works really well as a metaphor for how I've changed. The things that I try to understand about my own life and being an avid musical listener and how much that's influenced me as a musician is kind of apparent on this record. That metaphor of transformation is something that I came to by thinking about the radio. [10]

The press release issued by Warp upon the album's announcement, especially concerning the album's concept, tone and use of textures, stated that it "loosely summons the broadcasting logic of radio dayparts, switching on in the morning and closing very late at night, while seamlessly latticed together with kaleidoscopic, twitchy transformations of sound between the dials to form a darkly humorous reflection on American music culture", concluding by referring to the album's style as "maximalist baroque-pop within atmospheric glitter". [9]

Release

Lopatin began teasing the album on September 22, 2020, posting a video teaser stating the album title to social media platforms. [11] He announced the album and its tracklist on September 25; [12] the announcement also came with the release of the "Drive Time Suite", a single release consisting of the first three songs off of the album: "Cross Talk I", "Auto & Allo" and "Long Road Home". [13]

On October 14, Lopatin released the music video for "Long Road Home", co-directed by Charlie Fox and Emily Schubert. The stopmotion animated video pays homage to the 1982 short film Le Ravissement de Frank N. Stein, which was also adapted on Lopatin's 2013 Oneohtrix Point Never album, R Plus Seven . [14] The song would later be reworked and rereleased as the B-side to Caroline Polachek's 2022 single "Billions". [15]

On October 27, Lopatin released the "Midday Suite", another single release containing the next five tracks of the album, "Cross Talk II", "I Don't Love Me Anymore", "Bow Ecco", "The Whether Channel" and "No Nightmares". [16] Lopatin also shared the personnel for the album on the same day to social media. [17]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic? 7.4/10 [18]
Metacritic 81/100 [19]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [2]
Beats Per Minute77% [20]
Clash 8/10 [21]
Consequence of Sound B [22]
Exclaim! 5/10 [23]
FLOOD 8/10 [3]
Loud and Quiet 8/10 [1]
musicOMH Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [24]
Pitchfork 7.7/10 [25]
Uncut 8/10 [26]

Magic Oneohtrix Point Never was met with acclaim from music critics upon its release. At Metacritic, the album received a score of 81 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". [27]

In the review for AllMusic, Heather Phares writes that, "Lopatin builds on radio's power to connect people through music even from a distance, and the way he combines all the facets of his music feels like going up and down the dial. The flowing synth instrumentals of his earliest work sit next to Garden of Delete and Age Of's subverted pop songs, and they're all surrounded by collages of DJ chatter that hark back to Replica's nimble plunderphonics." [28] Another positive review by Philip Sherburne states that "Whether sampled, synthesized, or acoustic, they are rich with implicit physicality, evocative of stretching and striking; processed voices are carved into curved, glistening shapes, uncanny as ice sculptures. It's a ridiculously opulent palette." [29]

Accolades for Magic Oneohtrix Point Never
PublicationAccoladeRankRef.
Stereogum The 50 Best Albums of 2020
7
Bleep Bleep's Top 10 Albums of the Year 2020
2
Noisey The 100 Best Albums of 2020
53
AllMusic AllMusic's 100 Favorite Albums of 2020
N/A
Consequence of Sound Consequence of Sound's Top 50 Albums of 2020
31
Gorilla vs. Bear Gorilla vs. Bear's Albums of 2020
18
FLOOD FLOOD's Best Albums of 2020
7
Les Inrocks Les Inrocks' Top 100 Albums of 2020
45
musicOMH musicOMH's Top 50 Albums Of 2020
42
The A.V. Club The 20 best albums of 2020
16
Vinyl Me, Please Best Albums of 2020
N/A
Time Magazine Best Songs of 2020
10
Rolling Stone Rob Sheffield's Top 25 Songs of 2020
13
Pitchfork The 100 Best Songs of 2020
75
The Fader The 100 Best Songs of the Year
48

Track listing

All tracks written by Daniel Lopatin, except where noted; all tracks produced by Daniel Lopatin.

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Cross Talk I" 0:22
2."Auto & Allo" 3:21
3."Long Road Home" 3:32
4."Cross Talk II" 0:49
5."I Don't Love Me Anymore" 2:54
6."Bow Ecco" 2:11
7."The Whether Channel" 6:08
8."No Nightmares"
4:06
9."Cross Talk III" 0:12
10."Tales from the Trash Stratum" 3:28
11."Answering Machine" 0:58
12."Imago" 3:48
13."Cross Talk IV / Radio Lonelys" 1:08
14."Lost But Never Alone" 4:18
15."Shifting" 1:54
16."Wave Idea" 3:21
17."Nothing's Special" 4:37
Total length:47:07
Japanese edition (bonus track) [45]
No.TitleLength
18."Ambien1" 
Blu-ray Edition
No.TitleLength
18."Lost But Never Alone" (A. G. Cook Remix) 
19."Tales from the Trash Stratum" (featuring Elizabeth Fraser) 
20."Nothing's Special" (featuring Rosalía) 
21."Lost But Never Alone" (Forced Smile Edit) 

Sample credits [46]

Personnel

Musicians

Technical

Charts

Chart (2020)Peak
position
Dutch Vinyl Albums (MegaCharts) [47] 14
Scottish Albums (OCC) [48] 65
UK Album Sales (OCC) [49] 54
UK Independent Albums (OCC) [50] 15
US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard) [51] 13
US Top Album Sales (Billboard) [52] 65
US Top Dance/Electronic Albums (Billboard) [53] 8
US Top Tastemaker Albums (Billboard) [54] 16

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References

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  15. ↑ Willems, Jasper (2022-02-09). "CAROLINE POLACHEK CONTEMPLATES THE OVERABUNDANCE OF THE WORLD ON "BILLIONS"". Beats Per Minute . Retrieved 2022-12-09.
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  17. ↑ @0pn (October 26, 2020). "Much love and admiration for everyone that made this record possible under crazy circumstances— this record means the world to me. MAGIC ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER comes out this Friday on @WarpRecords, credits below" (Tweet). Retrieved 2020-10-30– via Twitter.
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