Magazine's The Correct Use of Soap: C/D...

Yes.

Come on people, you are ruining my voib! I'm just glad I didn't crow about my finding Tom Verlaine's Words From The Front, too.

I like 'Philadelphia' a lot, though I remember having a conversation with Devoto in which I told him I wanted that first line

Your clean-living clear-eyed clever level-headed brother
Says he'll put all the screws upon your newest lover

to build into a whole scenario. It's like Chapter One of a twisted and interesting novel, yet the subsequent lines seem random and unrelated, leaving you wondering whether line one isn't just wordplay after all. Devoto was like: 'You and I write songs in different ways, Nick. Mine are much more fragmented, suggestive. I don't feel the need to explain everything away. But you're free to finish the story in your head however you like.'

I don't know how to live, I only know how to disappear
And I don't want to travel and I don't want to stay here

By the way, if anyone objects that 'Touch and Go' was from 1978, I'm thinking of a new and expanded version they recorded for a John Peel session around the time of 'Correct Use Of Soap' which was better than the original.

A long time ago, he had been greatly interested in the question why almost every song, verse and lyric were so easily solved and the clues left behind by almost every composer so easily discovered.

Gradually he had arrived at all sorts of interesting conclusions and in his opinion the main reason for it lay not so much in the physical impossibility of concealing a lyric as in the composer himself.

Almost every composer is subject, at the moment of the invention, to a breakdown of his reasoning facilities and of his will-power, which are replaced by an amazing childish carelessness just at the moment when he is most in need of caution and reason.

According to his conviction, therefore, it would seem this eclipse of reason and loss of will-power attacked a man like some disease, developed gradually, and reached a climax a short time before the lyric was actually invented; it continued the same way at the moment of invention and for a short time afterwards, then it passed off like any other disease.

But the question whether the disease was the cause of the lyric or whether the lyric itself, owing to some peculiarity of its nature, was always accompanied by something that is very much like a disease, he did not feel able to answer.

The Great Beautician
1985

(S'funny you should say, last night I repeatedly listened to that exact bit from Upside Down, wishing that the intro and chorus weren't so, uh, silly. The verses are atmospheric as hell though.)

ie most boring first: the best fourth and last => this is an unusual trajectory

Momus I wish you'd asked him whether he was embarrassed about the hilarious bathos of certain desperate rhymes from 'motorcade'

all 1st 3 albums have strong and weak points - the one which has matured best for me though is 2ndhand daylight (which was the one i thought the weakest of the 3 until about 5 yrs ago)

haha can remember when i first heard the opening track in '79 - 'fuckin hell - this is like prog again!'
gtr solo on 'permafrost' is a thing of wondrous beauty, like mcgeogh's gtr transforms itself to mercury

m,m+w i never liked enough to buy - got the 2 or 3 trax i liked from jpeels show onto c90

have been hesitating about the boxed set - got the 'scree' CD which had alot of the singles/b-sides already

'upside down' is wonderful - u r all deaf

"Stuck" = best song EVAH!
"I'm A Party" = best song evah!
"Sweetheart Contract" = best evah!
"I Want To Burn Again" = best...!
etc

Real Life their best? hahaha - OK I'll take "My Tulpa" but you can keep "Motorcade"

this is the best one by a mile

although listening to it in midst of horrible break-up = go on push ALL my buttons why dontcha mr devoto

"you never knew me" = honestly nearly burst into tears

anyway maybe not by a mile coz the first 2 are ace n all but i'd definitely say it's the best

The opener is absolutely thrilling, then it seems to be mostly filler. High grade, interesting filler, but not quite up there with Real Life's standards, or some of Secondhand Daylight.

The opener is like The Cure's "Primary" but about 10,000x better. After that it stays absolutely vital. I just love the harsh sound, the contrasting melancholy tunefulness, the pleading, squealing instrumentation...

And there's nary a weak point. Even "Sweetheart Contract" is completely worth it for the outro alone. These songs have such cumulative emotional punch. I think this is the pinnacle of what Devoto was aiming at. I might be wrong. The other two albums are certainly brilliant.

although listening to it in midst of horrible break-up

right now?

ongoing, and the fact i'm the asshole means devoto's REALLY speaking to me

As long as you're not confessing you're proud as hell of that fact.

Turn it off before you get to Sweetheart Contract.

I didn't, and it hurt. And no I'm not fucking proud, dude. I've had my self-esteem run through a pepper mill and my priorities held dripping like guts in front of me.

Hence why this album was a really good/bad idea.

I'm gonna listen to it again.

o u were quoting. duuuuuh

I don't know
I don't know whether I ever knew you
But I know you
I know you never knew me

Sardonic, ambivalent delivery of these lines + sweet female backing vocals (something used plenty and plenty effectively on this album) = one of the truly great emotionally-ravaged choruses

The correct use of soap is to wash away dirt. This is a break-up album. One of the best. Because it is Devoto who is being washed away.

I've turned into Bimble.

One of the best albums ever. I need to get another copy--wore mine out.

slays me dead. every time. just an inexcusably brilliant piece of music.

apparently they played this in its entirety at their latest comeback gig, affirming its position at the top of the pile

The Peel sessions disc that originally was only in the box is available separately now. Highly recommended.

This album is superb. And Hannett's touch on this is the lightest I've ever heard from him.

I'd probably replace "Thank You" with the single they recorded at the same time, "Upside Down", mostly because they're not doing anything with it that Sly Stone hadn't already done by remaking it on There's a Riot Goin' On.
If you want a real change of pace, you could put the b-side "The Book" on the album as well, or instead.

Upside Down needs a better chorus but the verses are just a hell of a vibe, one of my favourite Magazine bits

I like the Peel Session version of Thank You better

I'd probably replace "Thank You" with the single they recorded at the same time, "Upside Down", mostly because they're not doing anything with it that Sly Stone hadn't already done by remaking it on There's a Riot Goin' On.
If you want a real change of pace, you could put the b-side "The Book" on the album as well, or instead.

― Halfway there but for you,

reissue cd has both of those b-sides added as extras.