Los Angeles-based retro Rock duo The Magenta Rainbow releases their cinematic experience with their debut concept album, 'The Tale of Purple Wilson.'
While coming through with a fun and spacious soundscape, The Magenta Rainbow also wants listeners to question life's most daunting questions. With their debut album, 'The Tale of Purple Wilson,' The Magenta Rainbow brings listeners into a dynamic and retro Pop-Rock space. Consisting of Kellan Meador and Marnie Price, The Magenta Rainbow geared their debut album towards children and anyone in need of a transcendent escape.
Opening the album with the introduction track, "Opening the Magenta Rainbow," this piece delivers more of a poetic and narrative nature. The Narrator, Nick Court, opens the tale by describing the album's protagonist, Purple Wilson. A Barney meets Owen Wilson type of character; Nick Court goes on to tell Purple Wilson's dreams of climbing Rock Mountain. As he continues speaking of Wilson's endeavors towards his journey, he's accompanied by The Magenta Rainbow's silky smooth production/instrumentals that offer a highly cinematic and spacious soundscape.
Moving into the album's first musical piece, "Purple Wilson," here we get to know the protagonist a little better with help from The Magenta Rainbow. The song opens with Kellan Meador's broad and powerful vocals exclaiming Purple Wilson's optimistic and positive outlook. Accompanied by background vocalists Brittany Campbell and Candace Quarrells, they offer a warm and pleasant atmosphere through their uplifting delivery and the surrounding instrumental's natural groove. With each song's organic and electronic elements, The Magenta Rainbow offers a highly catchy experience with each key, unique percussion pattern, and ear-worm melody.
With the next piece, "Alone with the Empty," we hear another narration track featuring Nick Court. While opening with a saddening yet slightly comedic tale of Purple Wilson getting booed off stage as his audience expected more grit and soul from him, he goes on to tell of the crushing sensation that Purple felt. Through soft woodwind instrumentals and humorous brass, this piece offers listeners a slice of emotion and lets them feel sympathy for our protagonist.
Swiftly shifting into the next track, "Nihilism," the song opens with groovy and upbeat drum patterns, retro 70s-style keys, and Kellan Meador's warm and powerful vocals. As he begins singing of those nights where we feeling nothing at all, Marnie Price joins in and takes the track by storm with her equally powerful and bright vocals. The production gradually grows to be incredibly light and cheerful, primarily through bright keyboard melodies and unique percussion patterns. Perfectly capturing a musical experience to Purple Wilson's distraught moment, we're excited to see where the rest of the album takes us.
Another narrative piece by Nick Court takes the album's spotlight with "The Beauty in Purple." This track offers a darker, more introspective, and reflective tone to Purple Wilson's story. Opening with his emptiness playing an exterior character and ripping his eye out, the empty begins to chat maniacally chat with Purple and explain that there's nothing else to see in rock bottom but himself. Through haunting and eerie production, the track truly gives a chilling and cinematic experience. As Nick Court continues to speak of Purple Wilson's eye physically morphing into Blue-Zilla, we jump into the next tune.
Continuing with another beautiful transition into "Good Lookin," the song opens with a bright string soundscape, groovy keyboard melodies, and warm organic drum patterns. As Kellan Meador begins singing of his shyness and wanting to break out of his shell, Brittany Campbell and Candace Quarrells enter the track's background and offer a mesmerizing vocal experience. While Kellan Meador continues singing an empowering and inspirational message of standing firm in who you are, we begin to feel even more sympathy for our little purple protagonist.
With the next narrative piece, "A Huge Sassy Orange," we continue to hear the story of the empty tormenting Purple Wilson and showing him the lessons he must learn. The empty then rips off Purple Wilson's ear and explains that there isn't anything to hear in rock bottom but himself. As Purple Wilson questions himself and watches his torn-off ear morph into L'orange, she then caresses Purple with tenderness and explains his awareness issue. These narrative pieces of every other song truly add depth and texture to The Magenta Rainbow's entire album.
With another sweet transition, the next song, "Are You Aware," opens with soft synths, a plucky bassline, and mid-tempo drum patterns. Marnie Price takes center stage in this song, as she opens the track with her vibrant and celestial vocals while pouring lyrics of illogical thinking and realizing one's inflated ego. The piece offers this transcendent ambiance that drifts through our speakers with pure ease and bliss. We also must note the conceptual brilliance that The Magenta Rainbow has captured while teaching children of relevant issues through a relatable and engaging character.
Through the next narrative piece, "They Fell in Love," this piece offers listeners a heartwarming experience through the animated eyes of Purple Wilson. While beginning the tale with L'orange and Blue-Zilla falling in love, as they once were Purple Wilson's Eye and Ear, we must note the conceptual excellence once again, as we're genuinely locked into this experience to see how it plays out. Not to mention the piece's orchestral production and instrumentals, the song quickly transitions into the next.
With a groovy and Rock-infused intro to the next track, "Gotta Best Friend," the song opens with short and bright keyboard bursts, a mid-tempo drum beat, and a punchy electric guitar. Capturing their Rock side with this track, Kellan Meador sings of his appreciation for his best friend while also singing incredibly comedic lyricism that strikes a laugh. As Marnie Price takes the spotlight and continues to sing with the same life and vibrance, they both offer an incredibly exhilarating atmosphere, especially through the instrumental breakdown that ends the song with a bluesy and soulful flair.
Opening the next narrative piece, "Out of Rock Bottom," by continuing the tale of Purple Wilson, we hear more of a realizational lyrical message. As Purple Wilson continues to scrape the edges of rock bottom, he begins to lose his purple hue and vibrance. Meeting up and chatting with the empty once again, Purple tells his dreams of wishing to climb Rock Mountain while the empty urges that he'll stick around wherever Purple lands. As Purple Wilson realizes that what's best to do is to move forward to the next best thing in life, we highly appreciate the sound message that The Magenta Rainbow has captured with this compelling character.
"How the World Works," opens with bright keyboard melodies, a steady rhythm guitar, and warm percussion patterns. Kellan Meador quickly makes his vocal appearance and offers an anthemic feel through his upbeat delivery. While singing about how the world works and realizing that our turmoil is what makes our good days even better, we can feel this natural sense of energy and passion exude from The Magenta Rainbow's groovy instrumentals and optimistic lyricism. Ending the song on a highly passionate and inspirational note, we adore what the spirited duo has captured with this album.
Ending the project off with the last narrative piece, "Top of a Mountain," we hear the final chapter of Purple Wilson's journey to the top of Rock Mountain. While he rocks his way to the top and is nothing but ready to soak in the bliss and fame that the top of Rock Mountain has to offer, he looks around and basks in nothingness. With samples of a chilling breeze flowing by, we can feel the album come to a reflective end where the listeners can put their ego aside and question what their next best move is.
We highly admire the conceptual, musical, and cinematic brilliance that The Magenta Rainbow has captured with their album, 'The Tale of Purple Wilson,' as it makes for a compelling, transcendent, and knowledgable experience.
