This is a career-spanning box set of vinyl albums, comprising the four studio albums released 1978-1981 (Real Life, Secondhand Daylight, The Correct Use Of Soap and Magic, Murder and the Weather), the 2011 album No Thyself and a compilation album Rays & Hail, now beefed up to double album status with tracks from No Thyself. I'm not familiar with Rays & Hail, but I do have a couple of other compilations featuring rarities and alternative versions of songs, including the John Peel radio sessions.
I'm going to review this set in two sections. First my recollection from the time of original release and then second a review of the set as I play through it.
Back to the 70s
Howard Devoto famously left the Buzzcocks after the important and influential Spiral Scratch EP and set about assembling Magazine, probably one of the first post-punk bands, and a band which is probably far more influential than sales figures would suggest. At the time these albums were released, I was something of an impecunious student and within my peer group we'd often buy records to complement others' collections. I never bought Magazine at the time therefore, though I did later buy Real Life and The Correct Use Of Soap (as an import - it was an American cut-out) on vinyl, then much later Secondhand Daylight on CD from an interesting record shop in Rome, and still later Magic, Murder And The Weather as an mp3 download. So little in the box set really will be new to me.
Of the four 'early period' Magazine albums, Real Life always sounded like the emergence of a new post-punk - still with a vigorous sound but with Devoto's intelligent but often mysterious lyrics. It was critically well received. I remember that the follow-up album Secondhand Daylight had a fairly mixed reception, with some reviewers unfairly castigating the band for producing an almost prog-rock album (to be called Prog Rock at that time was a serious insult, and unfortunately these sorts of comments stick). However, I believe that the album's status has grown over the years, and while I recall it as a keyboard heavy album I think it's stood the test of time. Returning with The Correct Use Of Soap, Magazine teamed up with producer Martin Hannett for an excellent album (and a bunch of singles with matching packaging as I recall). By the fourth album, Magic, Murder And The Weather, guitarist John McGeoch had left for brighter possibilities with Siouxsie and the Banshees. I think by this time, the writing was on the wall for Magazine, and indeed the band's prime mover Howard Devoto left prior to the album's release. And that was that.
Until 2009, when the band reformed for some gigs and more importantly a new studio album, No Thyself, which to my ears is a really good effort considering 30 years had elapsed since Magic, Murder And The Weather.
So I found myself eagerly anticipating the arrival of the new bos set. How would the vinyl pressings sound (from 2007 remasters)? Why did they include Rays & Hail and not, say, the live album Play? I've heard via the Magazine Facebook page that a live album box set is in the works, which might explain that.
Forward to the 21st Century
In addition to the six albums, all on coloured vinyl, the box contains a pile of prints - reproductions of contact prints, cover art and oversized postcards. There's a carrier bag. And, unexpectedly, a copy of Dave Fomula's CD Satellite Sweetheart (which I already had). Each album is not shrinkwrapped, but comes in a plastic sleeve with a hype sticker bearing a quotation from Whispering Bob Harris - "Mmm...not bad, for New Wave". A nice touch. The box is pretty tightly packed, and adding a ribbon to help access the contents would be helpful.
I decided to play the albums in chronological order.
The descriptive summaries of each album come from the Wire-Sound website, as does the image of the box set contents above.
1. REAL LIFE : Recoil Red vinyl LP cut and pressed from the 2000 remastered recordings; photo inner sleeve featuring an interview with Dave Formula; a 12” x 12” art print based on Linder’s front cover monograph; and an unpublished contact sheet of photographs by Adrian Boot taken in 1978.
So, the vinyl is very red. Dunno about 'recoil' red. Seems like a nice pressing, no scritches and pops. It's been a long time since I played this album, and wow - it is so good. Really nicely produced with Devoto's lyrics clear and to the fore. The lyrics might be a bit opaque at times, but that's a pretty good thing in my opinion. Frankly I don't think there's a duff track on here.
I wonder why this repress omits the text on the front of the cover - it always seemed neatly nestled within Linder's art, which is in a very clear reproduction.
2. SECONDHAND DAYLIGHT : Permafrost Green vinyl LP cut and pressed from the 2000 remastered recordings; photo inner sleeve featuring an interview with Howard Devoto; a 12” x 12” art print based on Ian Pollock’s front cover monograph; and an unpublished contact sheet of photographs by Ebet Roberts taken in 1979; plus a replica 24” x 12” poster the original LP inner gatefold sleeve.
I guess there are always likely to be compromises with represses, and here the cover isn't a gatefold as was the original, though there's that 24x12 reproduction of the inner gatefold sleeve.
The inner sleeve notes are rather interesting, shame there's not more! They left me wanting to know more about the various suggestions for the album title, inspirations for sleeve design and the tracks themselves. The album seems a good pressing, very low noise, 'permafrost green' is quite transparent! Nice to hear the album off vinyl again after all these years have passed.
3. THE CORRECT USE OF SOAP : Philadelphia White vinyl LP cut and pressed from the 2000 remastered recordings; photo inner sleeve featuring an interview with sleeve designer, Malcolm Garett; a 12” x 12” art print based on Malcolm’s original front cover design; an unpublished contact sheet of photographs by BC Kagan taken in 1979; plus a set of 9 oversize The Correct Use Of Soap postcards, wrapped around and secured with a Magazine emblazoned belly band.
The Correct Use Of Soap is probably my favourite Magazine album, probably because it was the first album out after I was taking a serious interest in the band. Martin Hannett was also the producer of the day. The overall sound of the album is stellar.
As I recall, the sleeve of original release had a rather lovely 'unfinished cardboard' style, which extended to the singles derived from the album and its recording session. This repress has a glossy finish, which is a shame. The inner sleeve notes feature Malcolm Garrett's comments on the sleeve design. There was an over-arching design for Magazine's singles released at this time, with rough cardboard sleeves with holes exposing a colour coded record label, resembling sleeves of old 78rpm records. This design ethos spread over to the LP sleeve, printed inside out to give a roughened cardboard design. So I still don't have a copy with the original sleeve design (my old copy is an American 'cutout' with a shiny sleeve).
The music still sounds fresh to my ears, with a startling clarity. Devoto's vocals really come through well.
4. MAGIC, MURDER and THE WEATHER : Poison Pink vinyl LP cut and pressed from the 2000 remastered recordings; photo inner sleeve featuring an interview with John Doyle; a 12” x 12” art print based on Malcolm front cover imagery; and an unpublished contact sheet of photographs by Jamie Morgan taken in 1980.
Perhaps a little unfairly treated by the critics (and myself) at the time? The suggestion was certainly that the band was disillusioned, with McGeoch having departed for the Banshees, and Devoto leaving the ship prior to the album's release. But the inner sleeve notes have an interview with John Doyle, who recalls the recording sessions as business as usual, though a late stage call on Martin Hannett to mix the album seems to have been disruptive.
Doyle also comments that some of the album has 'a leanong towards Sixties Spy/B-Movie type material". I do recall interviews at the time that claimed the band had sought after John Barry to produce the album but that he was either unable or unwilling to do so. I have no idea if there's any truth in that memory!
Despite having a digital copy of the album in my collection, I'm definitely less familiar with this album than its three predecessors. On revisiting it via this vinyl copy, I do think it's an album that exceeds its reputation - though I'd rate it a bit lower than those albums. There's definitely less of a sense of the lyrics containing cryptic lines popping out of nowhere.
The inner sleeve also features a slightly odd group photo with John Doyle looking like a character from a 1950s Agatha Christie TV show, Ben Mandelson in a really odd outfit and Barry Adamson looking a bit ground down...
5. NO THYSELF : Of Course Orange vinyl LP cut and pressed from the 2011 recordings; photo inner sleeve featuring an interview with Noko; a 12” x 12” art print based on Odilon Redon’s front cover etching; a 12” x 12” two-sided lyric insert; a No Thyself carrier bag; and a replica Vive Le Rock press advertisement first published in 2011.
In the 30 years that elapsed between Magic, Murder and the Weather and No Thyself, Howard Devoto released a solo album and two albums with Noko as Luxuria, contributed three tracks to a now deleted LP by Bernard Szajner, collaborated with former bandmate Pete Shelley to produce an LP, Buzzkunst. Despite that activity, this album came as a surprise release to me. I was aware that Magazine had reformed and had played some gigs, but I never really expected an album to surface! On release I bought it on CD, owing to the presence of an extra track, so a vinyl copy is new to my collection.
The LP has some interesting liner notes from Noko, the guitarist in this iteration of Magazine. While Barry Adamson played the live dates with Magazine, he was unavailable for the recording sessions, which is a bit of a shame. But the recording sessions appear to have been something of a modern 'distributed' affair anyway, and might not have suited him.
Anyway. the album really does sound like Magazine - maybe because of Devoto's vocals, but also I think because of the music. Considering this record followed a gap of 30 years since the previous Magazine LP, that's quite an achievement.
A thoroughly enjoyable LP to listen to!
6. RAYS & HAIL 1978–2011 : Burn Again Yellow vinyl LPs cut and pressed from the 2000 remastered and 2011 recordings; photo inner sleeves featuring a personal overview by Rory Sullivan-Burke (author of the John McGeoch biography, The Light Pours Out Of Me); a 12” x 12” art print based on Damian Wayling’s original 1987 CD front cover design; plus a set of 21 oversize postcards featuring illustrated lyrics of the compilation’s running order, all wrapped around and secured with a Magazine emblazoned belly band.
Of the albums in this package, this is an odd choice. It looks as though this contains tracks culled from the other albums in the box, and so it seems a bit redundant. In fact the version of Shot By Both Sides is the single version, and Parade is taken from the live album Play. A better choice might have been one of the albums of rarities and alternative versions (a good choice would have been Scree) or maybe even the John Peel radio sessions.
Whatever.
It's a good overview of Magazine's output, even if it's pretty much rendered redundant in this collection.
I think it's clear this is a box set for the obsessed and the aficionados, and I bet most purchasers will have these albums in some format or other. That said it is really very lavishly assembled and is a thing of beauty. The vinyl pressings seem to be good quality.
There's jibber-jabber on Facebook about a follow-up live box set. I've already got the double Play+, Real Life + Thereafter, and Live + Intermittent (which I recall as having variable sound quality) as downloads rather than as physical copies. I also have the two vinyl EPs released on Record Shop Days at some point - Once @ The Academy and Old World Charm. I wonder what else is in the tank? And whether live recordings would be worth the expense?