Magdalena Bay Turn Existential Pop Into Art on ‘Unoriginal’

With “Unoriginal,” Magdalena Bay lean into their love-hate relationship with pop’s recycling machine and come out gleaming. The track feels like a candy-coated confession: shimmering synths, a beat that pulses like anticipation, and vocals that hover between self-mockery and self-celebration. While the title claims sameness, the song makes you feel its texture, as though being “unoriginal” has its own distinct flavor.

Lyrically, the tune captures that peculiar anxiety of modern creative life: the endless loop of sounds, images, and voices, all bleeding into one. There’s a crispness to the way the duo present imitation not as failure but as a condition—you are a remix of someone’s remix, yes, but that doesn’t preclude you from being your version. Backed by bright, glistening production, “Unoriginal” becomes an anthem for creators who know the rules are pre-written yet still choose to play.

On the sonic front, Magdalena Bay is tightening its operation. The synthwork is slick and playful; the hooks land with precision. There’s a kind of controlled volatility in the chorus, where the melody lifts just enough before the beat kicks back in. Mica Tenenbaum’s voice straddles the line between synthetic and organic, contributing to the song’s thematic ambivalence about originality and artifice.

What makes “Unoriginal” especially compelling is its refusal to ignore its own frame. You feel the band winking at you: yes, this is catchy, yes, this is pop, yes, you’ve heard this before—but also: but you haven’t heard it like this. And that self-awareness doesn’t hollow out the song; it enriches it. It becomes part of the message—that in an age saturated with sound, being aware of your influences is not weakness, it’s resonance.

In short, “Unoriginal” is both comfort and challenge. Comfort in that it gives you a melody you can latch onto; challenge in that it asks you to question what that melody means, where it comes from, and where it’s going. It’s pop for thinkers, dance for watchers, confession for creators. And if being unoriginal is the condition, then making something this sharp and alive within it feels like a victory.