Album: Omaha
Artist: Magnolia
Year: 2025
Genre: Post-rock / Experimental
Humans can’t help but engage in analysis. That is – to break things into constituent parts to try to understand how they work. Why is one argument sound and another not? What parts of a movie worked and what didn’t? Analysis functions moderately well for works of human creation, and less well for natural phenomena. I’ve been reading Pitchfork for a long-time, but I’ve never seen them give a 7.0 to a thunderstorm because the “weak” lightning at the end killed the vibe. Nature has elements, but those parts merge into a monolith that can’t be considered piece by piece. That’s why we glow with admiration when a piece of art achieves something similarly monolithic – blowing you away even when the constituent parts should not. And the elements of Magnolia’s sound don’t paint a pretty picture.
Let’s consider the first track off of Magnolia’s debut album, “Iceland”. To set the stage, how you feel about this song is going to be pretty determinative about how you feel about the album. Below is running commentary as described by the Platonic ideal of a 2025 music fan:
- Nine minutes and they’re spending this long sounding like they’re getting warmed up? There had better be some “Son the Father”-level ferocity coming.
- … and now there’s horns? Are they jazz cosplayers, ska, or (shudder) 80s smooth pop revivalists?
- Oh, no, not another nu-post-punk band with a British person aggressively speaking at me while in no way rapping.
- OK – this build is working. Liking the unhinged drumming … wait – did he just say the “Gulf of Iceland”? Be sure to check if that’s a thing.
- Now the dude is speak-shouting emo style. In principle I’m appalled, but it actually kind of works.
- Holy hell … that crescendo … that felt like eight people losing control on a two person bicycle because a trombone keeps smacking the guy steering in the face…
- That is the best post-rock track I’ve heard since “Sunbather”.
And that critical conclusion is no hyperbole. I’ve known and loved post-rock for what feels like eons, which has significantly inhibited my ability to be impressed by it. My post-rock education came in the peak days of guitar-gasm post-rock: Mogwai were the heavyweights, Explosions in the Sky the young upstarts, and Sigur Ros the sensitive souls (yes there was also Godspeed – the cool loners who dropped-out). But when post-rock made it onto real-life soundtracks, everyone was chasing that same climactic thrill.
Now post-rock has wrung itself out – like everyone decided the magician has only one trick. Most such bands now exist at the corners of “dynamic instrumental metal” or “ambient music played by a band.” As a result, in 2025, it can be a bit of a shock to hear a band (that’s any good) self-identify as post-rock. But the folks in Magnolia ride high on the original spirit of adventurousness. Their relentless chaotic energy might as well come with hats that say “make post-rock feral again.”
The original post-rock bands always felt conceptually analytic, but all-heart in execution. Those groups took the ingredients of rock bands and made something different for its time – it could be as placid and composed as classical music until it broke out the distortion pedals. Likewise, Magnolia break apart the elements of post-rock, long songs, unpredictable structures, tension and release, to put them together in an all new way. Jazzy horns on every track? Why not! Weirdo spoken vocals? They work a lot better here than in 99% of post-punk bands who make that their entire identity. Crescendos? The ending to “Under the Gaze” makes me feel like I’m flying, and it comes after my mind’s flayed by both “Iceland” and “Five Hundred”. Hopelandic-levels of lyrical inscrutability? Naturally – Google tells me there is no Gulf of Iceland.
It’s only fitting now that the genre post-rock is on the wane that some kids with no respect for the genre’s rules can reinvigorate it. Magnolia sneak into the prison of post-rock so that they can blow it up from the inside. Just please, don’t call it post-post-rock.
