Magazine "Real Life"

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Don't know much about these guys besides the fact that I have "Singles Going Steady" and one of my favorite car albums. I heard "Shot By Both Sides" and loved it! Some say this is the place to start for them. Should I?

Famous Athlete, Wednesday, 13 November 2002 03:56 (twenty-two years ago) link

"Real Life" is a good album. The collection "Rays & Hail" has the highlights and a couple of song off of each of their other albums.

"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

It's tough to chose between Real Life and The Correct Use Of Soap as the best Magazine album although as earlnash suggests the earlier stuff (ie Real Life) is closer to Buzzcocks.

I think Rays & Hail has been superceded by a new b/o called Where The Power Is, although there's very little difference in contents.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

Glib music journalist comparison: Buzzcocks meets Roxy Music.
Real Life is undoubtedly excellent, but you need a Best Of as well - some of the later singles are superb.
Someone said here recently, I think, that John McGeogh has turned out to be one of the most influential "alternative" guitarists (cf Johnny Marr, John Squire etc)

bham, Wednesday, 13 November 2002 10:41 (twenty-two years ago) link

Correct Use of Soap is excellent.

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

I think all their albums are patchy. But if a comp has 'shot by both sides;,'give me everything' ' permafrost', back to nature' 'feed the enemy' and '(song from under the) floorboards' on it - buy it!

jon (jon), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 10:58 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yes, I got the box set for about £11 or so in an HMV sale - ridiculously cheap.

James Ball (James Ball), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 10:58 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yeah, I got that box as well. Awful packaging!

original bgm, Wednesday, 13 November 2002 13:22 (twenty-two years ago) link

Ah, but at least it fits nicely on my CD shelves unlike all those bastard outsize ones.

James Ball (James Ball), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 13:25 (twenty-two years ago) link

all four magazine LPs have good songs and great lines: "it came to pieces in my hands" = my favourite

mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 15:44 (twenty-two years ago) link

I started with Real Life and worked my way forward... I kind of wish I'd started with Correct Use of Soap, just cuz it's the most polished and whatnot. But they're all great albums.

Aaron W, Wednesday, 13 November 2002 16:29 (twenty-two years ago) link

I love CORRECT USE, but the CD I have of it sounds really thin (I have 3 worn-out copies on LP and they don't sound thin). My CD of SECONDHAND DAYLIGHT, on the other hand, is boomin' and mastered righteously. Go figure. Very few duds in the whole lot, all the albums.

matt riedl (veal), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 18:52 (twenty-two years ago) link

**all four magazine LPs have good songs and great lines**

"The cigarette between the flame and your face"

Dr. C (Dr. C), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 20:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

two months pass...
I posted this in another thread, but it's probably lost. I'm not sure how this whole organization system works (I just got here).

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

he mentioned "Stuck" ! good on ya

Paul (scifisoul), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 04:06 (twenty-one years ago) link

one year passes...
yeah, "Stuck" >> "Song from ..". And yes, other threads on this, but Momus pretty much OTM and so not worth repeating, esp. considering the other thread he pointed to.

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.

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.

Having smirked at mark's 1

george gosset (gegoss), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 18:57 (twenty years ago) link

... smirked at mark's 1

george gosset (gegoss), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 18:58 (twenty years ago) link

... smirked at mark's 1 less than two equals three less than/ eaual to 4th albums quality appreciation above and having dismissed "Magic, Murder & the Weather" as least interesting in terms chords, bridges and sheer "rock", i now have to agree that it is one of the most curious brave and funky efforts I own. One of the oddest and most interesting real synth albums.
Whereas "Secondhand .." and "Correct .." are both great whole albums with a holistic sound, "Magic .." seems to track the vignettes more colourfully, the sound arsenal more intimately linked to the lyrics subject and the whole aural/timbral range unique at the song vs. song level. Most Underrated.

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

=2=3=4 + scree + play (live). Get all the albums.

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

repeat !!

Any remix/ remaster advantages to the new 3CD and greatest hits ?

george gosset (gegoss), Friday, 31 December 2004 06:01 (twenty years ago) link

George - no. None IMO.

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

I think Formula, Adamson/McGeoch and Formula/Adamson/McGoech/Devoto were the creative units. Devoto more often than not seems to have been the musical glue (in addition to being responsible for overall 'atmosphere' as well as vocals) but i think that at least Formula, Adamson and Devoto gave the band it's distinctive sound.

george gosset (gegoss), Saturday, 8 January 2005 10:56 (twenty years ago) link

What I was meaning was that McGeoch is often seen as the creative icing on the cake - adding really memorable sounds and textures, but not formally a *writer*. I don't know how they wrote or how the song credits were dished out. Dave Formula is an absolute hero of mine, fwiw, not many keyboard players as creative as him, and some damn good sounds too.

Dr. C (Dr. C), Saturday, 8 January 2005 12:17 (twenty years ago) link

a band dubbed the new wave of punk with new post-punk tools, ie distinctive non-guitar-chords yet guitar nuances, new bass sounds and synths as yet another secret weapon.

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


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