Search - Magazine :: Maybe It's Right to Be Nervous Now

Post-Punk 101 ("What's Post-Punk?")

Salah Hassanpour | Toronto, ON CANADA | 04/25/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ever wonder what the heck people are talking about when they mention "post-punk"? Simply put, the term refers to, in general, UK bands that shined in the few short years between Punk ('76-'78)and New Wave ('81ish onwards). Although the most famous post-punk band would be Joy Division, a closer examination of the era reveals Magazine a close second. And like JD, Magazine grew out of the punk movement: Just as Joy Division were the punk band Warsaw, Magazine lead-singer Howard Devoto was in the (excellent) punk band The Buzzcocks long enough to record what is now considered the first independent punk record, The Spiral Scratch EP (Now available as the CD Time's Up), in 1976. But apparently, sweet vocal harmonies over three-chord riffs weren't exciting enough, and so Devoto left to form...Magazine, best described as Kraftwerk (loads of synths, courtesy of keyboardist Dave Formula) meets The Damned (arch mannerisms, all-too-clever cynicism), but that's just the surface of things. Barry Adamson's bass work; gritty, edgy and in-your-face funky all at once, as well as John McGeoch's guitars; thin and sharp punk riffs one second, Mediterranian-inspired swirls the next adding the aggresion and tension, not to mention John Doyle's competent drumming laying a backbone... all fuse together to create a truly unique sound. Oh, and biting lyrics weaned on loads of existentialism and dour German philosophy. Well, that covers just about the first half of the first disc on this ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL 3-disc compilation. And if it means anything to you, I'll bet you my life savings at least one member of Radiohead dropped whatever he was doing when this baby dropped in the record stores.The 80's (as documented on disc 2) saw Magazine expanding their musical references: Sly Stone covers ("Thank You"), piano ballads ("Song From Under The Floorboards"), glam-rock regressions (The unbelievable "Vigilance") and, er, disco? ("Thinking Flame"). Some might argue that by the end ('81), Magazine had gotten too over-produced and too lush-sounding, that they'd washed the grit from under their shoes and forgotten the menacing vacuosity and punk edge that made them so exciting. Despite the tongue-in-cheek kookiness though, there's nary a whiff of boredom in the latter stuff......although, in a manner of speaking, there is on disc 3 (all the BBC Radio 1 Sessions): The cover of the Buzzcocks' "Boredom", which is the real highlight.If you've read this far, I'm afraid you've wasted a great deal of your personal time. You should have listened to "The Light Pours Out Of Me", "Rhythm Of Cruelty" or "Give Me Everything" instead and let the music speak for itself. And if you did both and are still unimpressed, then I've wasted your time. Sorry. You can go back to listen to Belle and Sebastian now."

The Light Poured Out Of Them

Thomas Horan | Chapel Hill, NC | 04/30/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Maybe It's Right To Be Nervous Now (a line from the song Philadelphia) collects all of the b-sides, alternates, and rarities that appeared on the Scree compilation, the bulk of Magazine's now out-of-print live album Play, and the complete radio sessions recorded for John Peel's legendary BBC program. The liner notes contain no essays or interviews, but production and recording information is provided for each track, and there are lots of wonderful photos. Fans who already have Scree and Play probably wish that the Peel Sessions were available separately. But I don't see how anyone could really regret acquiring this three-disc box. The music is icy, Nietzschean post-punk for disaffected intellectuals. Magazine use the angular riffs of punk, the eerie synthetics of prog, and the fluid bass lines of soul to augment Howard Devoto's wry lyrics, which he delivers with deadpan precision. You can spot traces of their work in almost everything that came after them, but nothing sounds quite like them. If you're a first time listener, start with their third album, The Correct Use Of Soap. If you've heard them already, maybe it's right to purchase this now!"

The rise & fall of postpunk's pioneers

John L Murphy | Los Angeles | 10/20/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"These three discs supersede earlier 1990s CDs that supplemented the four original studio LPs. The live-from-Australia LP Play--which seems to also be made superfluous in similar if not identical choices of concert tracks on this new collection-- had never to my knowledge been reissued on CD. The box contains Peel Sessions formerly incompletely gathered, what had been the posthumous b-sides collection Scree, and all but one song ("Motorcade," a very puzzling omission in the box set) from the late 80s compilation Rays & Hail. As an avid fan of, well, half of their Correct Use of Soap--but what a half!-- and to a lesser degree most of Real Life & Secondhand Daylight, this suits me admirably.



I admit, however, never warming up to their last LP Magic, Murder & the Weather. It too is represented, and for my tastes signals on the latter part of the second disc a marked decline in listenability, compared with the best material from their first three LPs. Naturally, the last LP had their "hit," the uncharacteristically perky About the Weather. First surprise: it's not on the compilation. Luckily, most of the choices come on that disc from Correct Use rather than Magic, Murder, so the compilers may share my general preferences.



The organization of the CDs follows the chronology of the band in the first two: they are even subtitled by the respective LPs' "era." Two each per two discs: live, alternate mixes, and earlier versions mingle with studio tracks from the original LPs. These document the shift from the angular, harsher pioneering post-punk, heavy on atmospheric keyboards and increasingly aligned with John McGeoch's guitar and Barry Adamson's bass--the meshing of these two wonderful musicians with Howard Devoto's voice (an acquired taste, but as an ex-Buzzcock he and Pete Shelley do share remarkably a similar attitude as expressed in their delivery if not the same pitch! It must be a Manchester thing.). This is not easy music to listen to, and demands attention rather than being relegated to mood-setting (unless you're in a misanthropic snit).



Like fellow Mancunians The Fall at this time, Magazine (I always liked the word's double meaning-- shot by both sides indeed) trafficked in an educated but sour sensibility, seasoned by existentialism more than the poses of the New Wavers that such as Devoto (and ME Smith and Shelley and their bands) unwittingly foreshadowed, but always overshadowed with a far more integral, rather than superficial, awareness of the challenges in a grim urban society.



Two reasons for docking a star, not for the drop-off in the contents when the last years of the band arrive, but for the presentation. 1) Liner notes beyond terse identification of players on and origins of the cuts would have been preferred to the booklet's many pictures but no text. Nice graphics, to be sure, but no information. No critical essay, no history, no overview's given.



2) Where is the song "Philadelphia"? That's where the line from which the title of the anthology is taken. Perhaps a perverse reminder, by its absence, of the contrary nature of Magazine, subverting expectations and refusing (until arguably near the end) to give in to the media circus and the pop charts. Despite this oversight and a few other songs I would have preferred to yet another frantic rendition of the Captain Beefheart 'I Love You Big Dummy' or the vertigenous Sly Stone cover or some of the rather forced languor on a few b-sides, this is the collection those few converted fans who respect the legacy of this creative and recalcitrant lot must have, of course."