― Famous Athlete, Wednesday, 13 November 2002 03:56 (twenty-two years ago) link
"Shot by Both Sides" is about as high energy and close to the Buzzcocks sound as they get. Magazines other music is a more of a restrained intensity.
― earlnash, Wednesday, 13 November 2002 04:12 (twenty-two years ago) link
I think Rays & Hail has been superceded by a new b/o called Where The Power Is, although there's very little difference in contents.
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 10:16 (twenty-two years ago) link
― bham, Wednesday, 13 November 2002 10:41 (twenty-two years ago) link
I ahve the 3cd comp that came out a year or two ago which has loads f live and alternative versions and most of the main albums. Also it tended to turn up fairly cheap for quite a while.
― tigerclawskank, Wednesday, 13 November 2002 10:49 (twenty-two years ago) link
― jon (jon), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 10:58 (twenty-two years ago) link
― James Ball (James Ball), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 10:58 (twenty-two years ago) link
― original bgm, Wednesday, 13 November 2002 13:22 (twenty-two years ago) link
― James Ball (James Ball), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 13:25 (twenty-two years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 15:44 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Aaron W, Wednesday, 13 November 2002 16:29 (twenty-two years ago) link
― matt riedl (veal), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 18:52 (twenty-two years ago) link
"The cigarette between the flame and your face"
― Dr. C (Dr. C), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 20:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
My favorite band of all time. They are flawless in all ways. Each of their 4 albums is a masterpiece that stands on its own, unique from the others. I find it surprising when I recommend the band to someone and they are left unaffected. 'The Correct Use of Soap' is my favorite album ever. Perfect. Let's face it: they had a legendary guitarist (John McGeoch) and bassist (Barry Adamson), a keyboardist who wasn't afraid to dabble in prog (Dave Formula), and one of the more original and inspired vocalists. I have never felt so enamored of a band. I highly recommend purchasing their 4 albums:
Real Life - 9.9 - Their punkiest album, equal parts guitar riffs and kayboard. Their most popular album, and I can see why. Fun, angsty, a masterpiece.
Secondhand Daylight - 9.8 - More goth-inspired. Keyboards and thumping bass are what this album is all about. The songs here are more sprawling, many of which have a certain soundtrack quality. Of course, there is no obsense of rockers ("Rhythm of Cruelty" and "Back to Nature" for starters). Highly underrated.
The Correct Use of Soap - 10.0 - More of a new wave funk approach on this one. McGeoch's guitars are back. Adamson is in top form (check out the Sly cover "Thank You" and the dance-floor funk of "Stuck"). As each song ends, excitement begins to grow in anticipation of the next.
Magic, Murder and the Weather - 9.5 - More of a cold new wave synth affair. This album is practically unknown. It's a shame too, since what we have here is a very effective 'album.' The only obvious single is "About the Weather," an almost disco (?!) number. The rest of the album has a cold, detached feel (thanks to Hannet?) filled with synth washes - McGeoch had quit before this album was recorded. There's a lot going on in this album, which requires close listening in order to appreciate. One of the more interesting albums in my collection.
Magazine perfected the 40-minute album. Period.
― Patrick South, Monday, 27 January 2003 00:59 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Paul (scifisoul), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 04:06 (twenty-one years ago) link
Magazine just seem too innaccesible to many listeners of "funky" music today. Maybe the get-under-yr-skin lyrics are too creepy. For me the brevity and concision of said lyrics is the just-right compliment. Synths used to be used routinely to sound "creepy" and it just got second-rate in the 'eighties. Here was a band that used the synth, guitar, piano and bass elements in a thoroughly ahead-of-time way,.. OR, preferably, Magazine used those synth elements for seemingly the just-right balance of menace and the bass for drive and funk, again balancing adamson's effortless virtuosity and party tricks for max timbral and harmonic interest w/out sounding in the least bit pretentiously well-endowed. I think they got the balance of then-new technologies just right, with lyrics to match the sinister-yet-upbeat sound.
Having smirked at mark's 1
― george gosset (gegoss), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 18:57 (twenty years ago) link
― george gosset (gegoss), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 18:58 (twenty years ago) link
So 20 years of Magazine and i still find all the albums irresistable in each their own way, not yet sick of one song. The songs don't seem to get better, they're just pretty perfect to begin with.
Albums ? 1
― george gosset (gegoss), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 19:00 (twenty years ago) link
btw, HELP please,Any remix/ remaster advantages
to the recent 3CD box sets and new greatest hits CD, despite placement of the songs so far off album context as to raise Morley's concerns again and confuse listeners still more ?
After all, the "essential" 3CD Maybe It's Right to be Nervous Now doesn't even contain the mighty "Philadelphia" ...
― george gosset (gegoss), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 19:14 (twenty years ago) link
Any remix/ remaster advantages to the new 3CD and greatest hits ?
― george gosset (gegoss), Friday, 31 December 2004 06:01 (twenty years ago) link
Your comments on 'Magic' are OTM. The sound's fragmenting - odd to think of McGeoch as the glue that tied the sound together, but he might have been.
― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 31 December 2004 15:04 (twenty years ago) link
― george gosset (gegoss), Saturday, 8 January 2005 10:56 (twenty years ago) link
― Dr. C (Dr. C), Saturday, 8 January 2005 12:17 (twenty years ago) link
i agree that whatever their role, Adamson, Formula and McGeough bought new sound mixed textures together/alone whatever -- their goal of introducing an alternative set of sounds to mainstream music + crossover with punk "menace" has to be acknowledged in addition to the teamwork of said soundmakers perhaps coordinated by Devoto (but obv. the whole band was v. ambitious and v. different and who really knows which way around it was).
yes, have to accept all contributors as equals in this extraordinarily talented band (and response(?) to punk)
― george gosset (gegoss), Saturday, 8 January 2005 12:46 (twenty years ago) link