Elefant "The Black Magic Show"

Amazon.com's smart technology recommended me this album because I bought the Mellowdrone album (2++6 album of the year?). Well, the technology works, because I am now buying the album. [iTunes USA here].

AMAZON.COM: Elefant frontman Diego Garcia leveraged a privileged upbringing to indulge his taste in Bowie and the '80s UK Ian Curtis/Robert Smith/Morrisey pantheon via his workhorse NYC-based club band. The three years of heavy touring that followed their well received Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid debut has toughened up Elefant's sonic hide considerably on this follow-up, offering an intriguing atmospheric backdrop for Garcia's lyrical postures. Those literary (the title track and single "Lolita" reference Russian classics) and cinematic (the Black Orpheus-rooted "Brasil") allusions balance nimbly between intellectual ambition and artistic pretense, powered by a solid pop craftsmanship beneath their moody textures and driving beats. Fused with the album's unusual creative genesis (most of the songs were written in Garcia's ancestral Argentina home), those sensibilities imparts an inviting exoticism that stretches from the predictable cabaret angst of "Sirens" and upbeat "Uh Oh Hello" to more challenging hybrids like "The Clown" and "Why." Garcia and company wear their '80s influences proudly throughout, yet bring enough fresh ideas to the mix to avoid being mere slaves to precious retro-fashion.