Illuminate (album)

(2018)
(2020)

"**Illuminate**" (also known as "**Lucid**") is the fourth studio album by Magic Wands. The album was released on December 4, 2020.

## Background

The band published a fragment of C.G.E.O.Y.L.on June 11, 2019 through their Instagram stories. Later the fragment was published in the Facebook group with the meaning of the acronym.

The track Blue Cherry was uploaded to the band's SoundCloud account surprisingly on September 21, 2019, its description said: “New album in the works”. When a fan speculated that the title of the new album would be: “Transmission from Mars”, he asked through the Facebook group but Dexy clarified that the album would be called “Lucid”.

The band published a fragment of Bat Babby on January 22, 2020 through their Instagram account.

On February 8, 2020 the band published three different music videos for the track that gave the album its name.

Throughout the month of February 2020, Magic Wands shared a couple of recordings in the studio recording the album, they even created a secondary Instagram account for those recordings. On February 28, the band shared a tentative tracklist through their Instagram stories.

Then the album changed its name from “Lucid” to “Illuminate” and the band shared a tentative publication date that would be in June 2020. Due to the covid-19 pandemic the band postponed all the dates of the album's pre-release tour so it is believed that the album will also be postponed to 2021 and not to June 2020.

On March 23 the band shared a snippet of the song “Honeymoon” ensuring that this track would be part of the album, the song probably emerged during the same month.

On May 8, 2020 the band shared the first tracklist of the album along with a 25% promotion for the purchase of previous albums, posters and other merchandising. On May 20, 2020 the band shared a studio recording where a fragment of the song could be heard, the caption of the photo ensured that the song, “Honeymoon”, would fall shortly. However, it was not until the next day that they published the cover and date of the single on their second Instagram account. On the day of the single's release, the band shared a couple of videos through their secondary Instagram account.

On June 13 the band performs in Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles for Creation Drea Machine (a collaborative events series based out of Los Angeles and London) where they play the Illuminate track for the first time. Two days later, on June 15, the band completely changed the design of their official page, one of the many changes was that they implemented the option of “Join the Cult”. Basically fans had to enter their email and in this way they would receive exclusive material and news from the band. On June 19, 2020 the band released the second single from the album, “Honeymoon” on all streaming platforms.

The band announced the release date of the single “illuminate” on their secondary Instagram account on July 21, 2020, alongside the cover.

On August 12, the band shared the cover of the new single, “Tangled Love”, and the release date (September 2). On August 16, the band shared the Angel Dust music video through virtual cult.

The band officially releases the music video for the album's lead single on September 18 via The Zine UK.

On November 5, the band shared a snippet of the track and the single's release date on their social media. That same day they shared a fragment of what is believed to be the music video.

## Music and composition

Chris Valentine for Spill Magazine:

> “Illuminate is Magic Wands expanding on what we did on our other albums, and I think it’s the best record we’ve made yet. We were still faithful to our original idea of all things “magic, love and dreams” and I think we captured that more than ever on this album. Dexy and I both avoid “reality” in “reality” as much as possible and we especially do so in our music, and I think this record is a great example of that—whether it’s the “non-studio” “studio sound” that we get or the imaginative lyrics which can border on the surreal.
>
>

> Everything is purposefully hazy and distorted but equally blissful with the sounds. We like the dreamlike quality we have captured, but the songs aren’t background music, they have their definite structures and beats. We also purposefully keep our arrangements very simple, and musically most of the songs only have three or four chords. Overall it’s really an unconventional pop record, and although we use certain 80’s style sounds it’s always with a futuristic angle, we never want to sound like a throwback or anything retro, and we especially don’t try to sound like anything out there today. If we’re inspired by anything it’s all the magical things from the 80s, combined with the 90s song structures that we like combined with our futuristic utopian dreamscape we always aim for. It’s like a daydream when you’re still aware of what’s going on around you, but still lost in the reality of your own imagination”
>
>

## Critical reception

Spill Magazine opined:

> “Produced, mixed and recorded themselves in their home studio over the past six months, this inspiration for this album lies in introspection, escapism, fantasy, love and dreamscape scenarios. This offering follows singles  ‘Blue Cherry’, ‘Angel Dust’ and ‘Cyan Blue’, which also appear on the album, packaged nicely with many new delights.”
>
>

American Songwriter:

> “Caught somewhere between some reality and mostly the imaginary, Magic Wands set the scene of their fifth album *Illuminate*. Finding it challenging not to produce a reflection of the times, *Illuminate* isn’t brimming with contemplations of the world’s events. It’s a figment of Dexy and Chris Valentine’s imagination, a mirage of music evading real life.”
>
>

## Artwork

The album cover is a photograph of model Gracie Rose Chapman underwater during the filming of the music video for the album's first single, Angel Dust.

## Singles

* The first official single from the album is “Angel Dust”, released on March 20, 2020, the music video was released through the band's YouTube account on September 18 via The Zine UK.
* On May 24, 2020 the band releases the album's first promotional single, “Bat Babby”, only on SoundCloud.
* On June 19, 2020 the band released the second single from the album, “Honeymoon” on all streaming platforms.
* On August 4, 2020 the band released the third single from the album, “Illuminate” on all streaming platforms.
* On November 13, 2020 the band released the fourth single from the album, “Blue Cherry” on all streaming platforms."**Angel Dust**""**Bat Babby**""**Honeymoon**""**Illuminate**""**Blue Cherry**"

## Track listing

On May 8, 2020 the band shared the first tracklist of the album along with a 25% promotion for the purchase of previous albums, posters and other merchandising. On December 1, the band revealed the final tracklist on their social media. All tracks were written and produced by the band.

## References

1. ↑ https://soundcloud.com/magic-wands/blue-cherry-demo
2. ↑ https://youtu.be/vgUY6Yivnwg
3. ↑ https://youtu.be/o5U59A6fd-c
4. ↑ https://youtu.be/Enui2saLW6E
5. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/B9Puvi5hRJVw6wqJuux1uq6EB7MLUfbKIsGsJA0/
6. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/B-F\_s4cBN\_neiEvD86JxkPy4-iy7KhsGTFN7Qc0/
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 https://www.instagram.com/p/B\_8UT-IhgPT5MN0zpCI897QoHlGGH5UnFSyyMI0/
8. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CAbeqZGBZZgohOMleorw5ZvbuQX3CJFpCs1r1U0/
9. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CAdtrBIhgKWiuknkpgwTdu1DNUmAg4jnol2inA0/
10. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CBmetF0BuhlRcsads-uN70bm67m6BRUf20hAAs0/
11. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CBZnsMcBBgO/
12. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CBZn7lphLUQ/
13. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CCqnrYEhyKIubCcuoLjQNFWnzmFrjUvesmI4vY0/
14. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CC7UuDFBdxock6\_x5yTBXh4EGuBznQ9lfeRMHI0/
15. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CDzJOdhhTdF\_dsk2v3LSS-lYbpNwn0V1xhUOPE0/
16. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CD93HKrhbtVtIveGbPQ2LvlGfmWbavlbvz5UeY0/
17. ↑ https://twitter.com/thezineuk/status/1306861274454806528
18. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CHOQLqEhkl-/
19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 http://spillmagazine.com/spill-album-premiere-magic-wands-illuminate/
20. ↑ https://americansongwriter.com/magic-wands-escape-reality-on-illuminate/
21. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CIRMvkfBpIo/