Alex Bingham, fully eight years old, was sitting in the backseat of his friend’s car on the way home from the neighborhood pool, sun just touching down on the horizon, when he first heard “Dancing Queen.” He felt the tock of the drum machine in the rubber soles of his Keds. A bemused passenger, he rode the exuberance of the chorus vocal up to the climactic bittersweetness of its end–what accounts for that minor chord under ”you can dance, you can jive?” What does it even mean, “having the time of your life?” Known mostly for his musicianship and production in the indie rock / folk worlds of Hiss Golden Messenger , Beth Orton , Watchhouse, Lou Hazel , and Libby Rodenbough over the past decade, Bingham embarks on a glimmery new chapter of that mission with his debut record as Magic Al, Good Grief. In 2022, Bingham was blindsided by the deaths of his best friend, his aunt, and his college roommate within a few months. As he mourned, he remembered those days of drippy popsicles and nascent hormones, turned to his eight year-old backseat wonderment and began chasing the mysterious technicolor universe of feeling that radiates from the heart of a dance song. The process waterfalled into co-creations with songwriter and vocalist pals, including Rosali , Joseph Terrell , Amelia Meath , and Molly Sarlé The collaborative tracks complement solo instrumentals in a unique kind of producer’s mixtape. It’s an ode to endurance by way of joy-making; to dancing as a target and a cure.

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Magic AL

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