Magic Neighbor

From Young God Records
The queen of heartache and dreamy bliss
returns with wistful/sad/hopeful songs,
always deeply felt and beautifully orchestrated
Artwork by Dean Buchanan, fantastic painter from New Zealand

Released in September 2009 by Young God Records, Magic Neighbor is Lisa Germano’s eighth studio album and one of her most compositionally graceful efforts. Clocking in at just over 30 minutes, the album is a brief, tightly woven chamber-pop daydream, piano-led, wistful, and eerily calm.

There’s a surreal domestic stillness to the record, like looking out a kitchen window at a quiet, distorted world. Beneath its soft orchestration lies Germano’s ongoing exploration of emotional withdrawal, unspoken grief, and vanishing identity.

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No.	Title	Length
1	Marypan	1:20
2	To the Mighty One	3:34
3	Simple	2:55
4	Kitty Train	2:13
5	The Prince of Plati	3:26
6	A Million Times	3:27
7	Magic Neighbor	2:47
8	Suli-Mon	3:05
9	Snow	4:13
10	Painting the Doors	3:22
11	Cocoon	2:57

Packaging & Design

The CD version of Magic Neighbor was released in digipak format with a foldout booklet with lyrics on one side and seascape painting by New Zealand-based painter, Dean Buchanan. Buchanan’s artwork is also represented on the cover.

Additional Versions

The advance promo version of Magic Neighbor was released in a standard jewel case without cover artwork. The back cover features the press release by Michael Gira and selected quotes from Pitchform, Dream Magazine, and the NY TImes.

The liner artwork features black and white, heavily filtered image of Lisa by Jim Merrill.

Press Release

Following the release of Lisa’s last album for YGR “in the maybe world,” and a good deal of subsequent touring, Lisa hid herself away for a long while, and I was beginning to despair, then suddenly this beautiful music started coming my way. I think this is one of her best albums yet. The song “snow” is a jewel, ripe with Lisa’s typical naked emotion, a gentle elegy, exuding warmth and healing. The depth of feeling in her words and singing is truly remarkable on this album, and she never fails to tug at my heart. Somehow it’s both sad, wistful, and hopeful, all at once. It’s very private, solitary music.

In my view it’s deeply engaging, and I often stop what I’m doing and drift off with it into its world when I listen to it—time and troubles disappear for a short while. For some reason her music reminds of early Disney songs—fuzzy and dreamy. Thinking about it today, I also thought of the great—and neglected—music that Tom Waits did with Crystal Gail for the movie “One From The Heart.”

In any event, she’s resolutely in her own space, and within that space she sculpts songs and miniature, delicate sonic environments like no one else. To sit down and spend some time inside her songs is a tremendously rewarding experience, and I hope you’ll partake.

— Michael Gira / Young God Records

Critical Reception

“…delves into those bleak hours before the sun comes up, with raw emotion that’s calculated to disturb. Stark, gorgeous songs weave a spell of deep-seated loneliness coupled with unceasing introspection; the album is a gut punch from the first hanging, ethereal note.”
Salon.com

“Lisa Germano pushes confessional intimacy to unsettling extremes… Unashamed candor often spells dreary self-indulgence. In Germano’s insightful hands, it’s fascinating and strangely exhilarating.”
Blender

“…Listening to Lisa Germano’s music is a painfully intimate experience, as if a teenage girl were revealing her cutting scars in a cafeteria corner… achingly vulnerable and bristline with passive-aggressive anger…”
NY Times

Related Press

Personnel

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