50 GREAT ALBUMS IN MY 50th YEAR (Part 18)

In which it all came together quite perfectly.....

Dave Formula, John McGeogh, John Doyle and Barry Adamson don't put a foot wrong across its 40 minutes from the opening blast of the punk-like Because You're Frightened to the fade-out on A Song From Under The Floorboards, a track which many regard as the best the band ever recorded.

But it is the vocal delivery of Howard Devoto, backed astonishingly and beautifully throughout by Laura Teresa, together with the flawless production from Martin Hannett that takes The Correct Use of Soap waaaaaaay above all the other Magazine LPs.  Manchester music has rarely sounded better.

Make no mistake ladies and gentlemen, this record is a masterpiece and one that should be in the collection of every single person who claims to be passionate about music.  It's jammed with music that should have taken the pop charts by storm - the sort of anthems that many a 21st Century arena-filling bands would kill to be capable of composing.  It has one of the most gorgeous and tragic sounding break-up songs ever written.  It has a cover version of a funk record that somehow manages to sound hipper, cooler and more danceable than the original.

Then there's Howard's astonishingly bitter and manic lyrics - they're of a man who sounds as if he's on the edge of collapse from the intensity of modern day life....but unlike those of fellow Mancunian Ian Curtis, these are not desperate coded cries for help.  Howard is more like a mad street-corner evangelical preacher trying to warn everyone that the end of the world is nigh and we're all in the shit together. He really does know the meaning of life but it hasn't helped him a bit....so maybe it's right to be nervous now.

The reformation of Magazine a few years back remains an all-time happy moment. Having seen them perform in Manchester and Glasgow I wasn't sure about a third gig when it was announced they were playing Edinburgh.  Going along turned out to be a very smart move as the concert consisted of two parts, with the first being a run through of Soap in its original order......and I've not been back to see the band since as there's just no way that could ever be topped.

Another one in which I cannot choose any tracks over the others, so here we go:-

mp3 : Magazine - Because You're Frightened
mp3 : Magazine - Model Worker
mp3 : Magazine - I'm A Party
mp3 : Magazine - You Never Knew Me
mp3 : Magazine - Philadephia
mp3 : Magazine - I Want To Burn Again
mp3 : Magazine - Thank You (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Agin)
mp3 : Magazine - Sweetheart Contract
mp3 : Magazine - Stuck
mp3 : Magazine - A Song From Under The Floorboards

They were rather excellent live back in the days:-

 


The next selection in the rundown won't be so obvious.....