Bag Raiders’ first album in 10 years sounds more like a second debut for the duo
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04.09.2019

Bag Raiders’ first album in 10 years sounds more like a second debut for the duo

Words by Leland Tan

In the wake of the ‘Shooting Stars’ fandom, Bag Raiders are back with something fresh and energetic.

After fragmented releases since 2009, Bag Raiders have bequeathed an album consisting of heavyweight entries for the impending Australian summer and year-end festival seasons all over the globe.

The Los Angeles-based Sydney duo have spent the better half of a decade touring across cities and continents and cataloging their travels in sound. But amongst peppered EPs, their lucidity and prowess has never been more secure than on Horizons.

For ‘Wild At Heart’, the pair employ a choir of kids for its chorus, pining on nostalgia and the energies of youth. ‘Medicine’’s hooks could ostensibly be born out of an American modular mishap, and the introduction of the sunken vocals from Panama in ‘How Long’ irrefutably bleed into the crafting of ‘Breakdown’.

‘In This Life’ fantasises of an era long passed, while ‘Lazy’ is infused with UK-garage even Disclosure would be proud of. Lyrically the album oozes intricacy and exuberance, even in woeful ensembles like ‘Lightning’, which features Brisbane’s The Kite String Tangle, and one of the album’s few acoustic endeavours ‘I Need You’.

This follow-up to their 2009 release pegs more like a second debut for the duo. And that’s because it undoubtedly thwarts any of the foregone labels that critics have impaired them with since being embroiled in the viral meme-science that is ‘Shooting Stars’.

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