Sydney's Magnetic Heads choo choo choo choose a dark, new wave track for next single, 'What You See Is What You Get'

Sydney-based alt/post-punk outfit Magnetic Heads release their latest single, ‘What You See Is What You Get’; the third single to come from the band’s forthcoming debut Album, ‘Moral Outage’ which is due on August 13th.

In 2020, Sydney band Magnetic Heads released their first new music after a lengthy hiatus. 'The Street', and its recent 2021 follow-up 'Time Of Your Life', were glorious tastes of their return to the recording studio, where singer/songwriter Des Miller and producer/musician Liam Judson (Belles Will Ring, Lewis Goldmark) have created a sublime collection of melancholic pop songs that navigate both the dance-floor and existential concerns with heady emotion and lush drama.

The new single, 'What You See Is What You Get', is akin to an intoxicating fusion of Air, Kraftwerk and Joy Division. Its dreamy, interstellar cloud of synths raise Miller's seductive melodies skyward, soaring above the punchy drums and handclaps that punctuate the atmosphere with angular, post-punk precision.

Kicking off with a wash of layered vocal ‘aaaaahs’ (which build and pan, and bring to mind the intro to 10cc’s ‘I’m Not In Love’), Magnetic Heads deliver a joyful-yet-melancholic New Wave sound that cues lasers and and a dark, smoke-filled nightclub. Whether the hook of ‘choo-choo-choo-choose’ is a clever and random Ralph Wiggum reference is to be determined, but be damned if it doesn’t lodge into the back of your skull.

Of the track, Miller points out that the song is a note to self to remember that the huge soupy mess of our past actions are not worth obsessing over and regretting - that what matters is our next choice.

As Miller explains, he's addressing the choice of optimism and conviction over regret and lost opportunities – grasping the proverbial ball and running with it. "There’s a brutally elegant philosophy that suggests reality is a figment of our perception; that what you see is what you get. I’m interested in the slippery phenomena of agency and identity – the gap between what we think about ourselves, what we do, what other people perceive and how they interpret those perceptions.”

’What You See Is What You Get’ is out now on all streaming platforms, while debut album, ‘Moral Outage’ comes out on August 13th.