Establishing the mood with an immersive and cinematic energy featuring textured drums and cosmic notions, 2nd Magpie Project opens Divine Intervention with a high emotional quotient and the situational lyrics, “We travel for an hour, parked the car on the beach, told each other secrets as the moon lit the waves, I think about it now, you’re far out of reach, time and the tide have carried you away, you took away my breath, filled my heart up with light…”
The opus expands with poetic prowess into a tale of love, grief and the highly relatable difficulty of what it is like to move forwards after losing someone who meant everything. Essentially, Divine Intervention is about the shadow of someone that remains after a profound relationship ends.
There is something immediately reminiscent of Elliott Smith in the intimacy and melancholia. Fans of Sufjan Stevens would also be able to relate, yet 2nd Magpie Project is truly designing a universe of his own. There is philosophical depth at play here, especially with the hook and the title. The concept of Divine Intervention feels like a reference to gratitude and the universe, so despite the emotional turmoil, there is a notion of catharsis and acceptance. Artist Chris Barnham describes it as, “Grief is the shadow cast by love: Divine Intervention is about a big love that casts a big shadow.”
There is no doubt that Divine Intervention holds a cinematic allure. We could imagine it landing a sync placement in a Luca Guadagnino or Sofia Coppola film, or perhaps a show like Normal People, The Leftovers or Six Feet Under.
The band’s intentional philosophy of finding the positive in difficult situations is rather poignant here. We learn that name 2nd Magpie Project intelligently comes from the old rhyme, “One for sorrow, two for joy…” which actually cements our universal interpretation.
Needless to say, we are deeply moved by Divine Intervention and have added the immersive opus to our New Music Spotlight playlist and our TIMELESS playlist, whilst we continue to stream the wider discography of 2nd Magpie Project, including On the Beach, and Get A Gun (And Learn to Shoot).