Young Magic's Healing and Horizonless Pop

Young Magic's new album Still Life opens and closes with a track called "Valhalla," a reference to the mythic citadel of the souls of dead Norse warriors. It's a kind of invocation, though a somewhat strange one, since singer Melati Malay wrote the song in a small shack in Indonesia, sifting through memories of her late father and parsing her complicated feelings about an alien homeland. The spirit of wanderlust and musical curiosity is also successfully conjured on Still Life, with compelling touches of various genres and native instruments blending seamlessly with the band's polished, synth-y sheen. Click the player above to hear Malay and collaborator Isaac Emmanuel talk about what went into their spiritual but danceable new record.