Like most Apples in Stereo albums, New Magnetic Wonder is more a portfolio of Robert Schneider's recording experiments and Beatles-worshipping jangle pop than a fully realized song cycle. The lyrics, sung in Schneider's widely ranging voice, at times seem like filler, flailing along behind the fast-paced chords and percussion, but that's to be expected from such a prolific artist. He may not be writing poetry, but he is providing the listener with nearly an hour of fun, light-hearted pop music.
Sonically, New Magnetic Wonder is more varied than most albums of short songs by a single artist. Schneider employs on his albums many of his friends as collaborators, who provide a large palette of sounds for him to record from. One collaborator here is Jeff Mangum, the reclusive singer of Neutral Milk Hotel, the influential lo-fi group of the mid-90s and, in this critics humble opinion, the greatest band of all time.
The use of vocoder, female vocals, late 70s-influenced power-pop sounds and lounge-like 1950s-style horns and xylophones, along with traditional electric guitar, keeps listening ears perked. Nearly all of the songs are recorded in a manner halfway between traditional pop and lo-fi; the recording methods are most obvious on Schneider's vocals, which sound cassette-like, even when played on better-than-laptop speakers. The nuances in recording are all intentional: Schneider grew very experienced in the technical aspect of recording during his many years studying microphone placement and production methods with the Elephant Six music collective.
Different recording methods on short, vignette-like tracks such as "Mellotron 1" and "Vocoder Ba Ba" cause them to stand out, along with the mix of unusual instruments with which these songs experiment. The 46-second track "Joanie Don't You Worry" features Schneider's voice played through a vocoder, along with handclaps, which provide an organic contrast to the synthesized vocals. Vocoded vocals play a part in other songs as well as backing tracks.
In the excellent "Sunndal Song," which is sung by backup singer and Schneider's ex-wife Hilarie Sidney, vocoded backup vocals echo during the chorus, blending with the fuzzy bass. Also notable are the instrumental tracks "Mellotron 1 and 2," which feature harp, jazzy and muted drums and electric guitar, evoking Doris Day or Edith Piaf. These instrumental vignettes and short sonic experiments are sprinkled among the more pop-oriented songs, yet are in no way woven in as intros or as refrains, as one might expect.
