Peach Pit's fourth album is a masterclass in expansive arrangement and deeply felt songwriting--a winning formula that only continues the incredible trajectory the band's been on since their star-making debut EP Sweet FA in 2016. The eleven songs captured on Magpie find the quartet--lead singer Neil Smith, guitarist Chris Vanderkooy, bassist Peter Wilton, and drummer Mikey Pascuzzi--diving deeper into classic sounds while honing a musical style that entirely feels like their own.
Magpie's origins began in earnest following an extensive tour schedule behind 2022's From 2 to 3, which also served as a chance to connect with the many fans who'd also fallen in love with 2020's You and Your Friends during the pandemic. "We had bigger and bigger shows every leg of the tour," Smith recalls, and as the band went into the studio with intent to start work on Magpie, they took with them inspiration from the in-the-moment creativity captured by Get Back, Peter Jackson's documentary that captures the Beatles recording their legendary final album Let It Be.
"We wanted to go into the studio with a bunch of songs that we'd flesh out and write on the fly," Smith explains. "We'd done that a bunch of times before for singles here and there, so we were like, 'Let's try making a record that way'." But after a few studio sessions in their native Vancouver that ultimately proved fruitless, the band felt creatively stuck. "At a certain point, we were like, "Damn, this isn't really working for us," Smith recalls. "We don't have a whole record of stuff that we're super proud of. So we had to pivot and figure out how we were going to get the record done."
Seeking a sense of renewal, the band canceled remaining studio sessions to workshop on their own before intending to put the results to tape: "I felt a great sense of relief, because after six weeks in the studio I wasn't feeling super great about what we were putting out, I was pretty scared, honestly, and feeling a lot of pressure." Smith spent the following six months in the band's Vancouver practice space, workshopping and refining what eventually became the full-band effort that is Magpie.
The record's distinctive title was partly inspired by witnessing flocks of magpies on tour in Australia, which served as creative inspiration for Smith's songwriting. Back home in Vancouver, some further research led him to discover an old poem concerning the peculiar, beautiful bird:
"One for sorrow, Two for luck, Three for a wedding, Four for death; Five for silver, Six for gold; Seven for a secret, Not to be told; Eight for heaven, Nine for hell, And ten for the devil's own sell."
"I thought it was interesting how these birds can be good and bad omens," he explains, before elaborating on how his own decision to quit drinking years ago dovetailed with the symbolic subject matter captured on the record's wild-eyed, guitar solo-laden title track. "I came up with this character--a person that represented the left turn I could've taken in my life," Smith states. "He represented the worst-case scenario if I hadn't stopped drinking and partying, and I connected him to that poem's message about the good and bad in life. It all depends on which road you take."
Even as the creative methods taken from Get Back proved a hindrance early on, while making Magpie, Peach Pit continued to draw inspiration from the Beatles' classic and distinct approach to melody, as well as the multifarious sounds explored within their side projects--from John Lennon's exploratory solo output and Wings' psych-pop odysseys to George Harrison's side-long reveries. "We're always trying to make our records very diverse-sounding," Smith explains, "and with those guys, every single record has a million different types of songs on it."
Indeed, Magpie is the most sonically kaleidoscopic record yet from Peach Pit, from the unfolding psychedelic micro-opus captured on "Outta Here" to the up-close romanticism of "Did You Love Somebody," which is described by Smith as a "super-stripped-down love song," "I'm in a relationship now," he explains. "This song is from one lover to another asking, 'Did you love somebody before me?' It's about that curiosity that sometimes creeps in, and can develop into insecurities. Who were the people that they loved before you? Are they experiencing this for the first time?"
There's the lusciously loopy guitars on opening track "Every Little Thing," deeply reminiscent of the six-stringed heroics on George Harrison's All Things Must Pass; as for the long-worshipped "Am I Your Girl," the song's dream-pop confines are imbued by cinematic cues as well. "It's a song that we pulled out from way back in the day, when we were a much younger band," Smith states, before explaining that the lyrics take inspiration from a line uttered during a pivotal scene in the classic film Call Me By Your Name as well as his real-life experiences.
"I literally wrote that line down when I heard it, and the song came together really quickly afterwards," he explains while discussing the song's thematic bent. "It's from the point of view of someone I was with when I was younger--a first love, where when it ends, it's just the most painful thing. The song is from her point of view, as though she can tell that I'm thinking of her again."
Magpie represents the band's culmination of everything Peach Pit have accomplished so far, from the deeply felt indie-rock sound they've already become well-known for to the psychedelic touches that surfaced on records like You and Your Friends and From 2 to 3. "All those different pieces make us a unique band," Smith ruminates on the band's mission thus far, before accurately concluding that they've achieved new heights on this latest triumph: "That's what we've done here, and what we wanted to do from the start."
