Melody Maker - Unknown Pleasures - 20 Great Lost Albums Rediscovered - # 10 Magazine - Secondhand Daylight

Magazine are still probably one of the more underrated bands of the late Seventies and early Eighties. Taking their name from an everyday object as was the vogue at the time, (see Television or Wire), their best known songs, Shot by Both Sides, The Light Pours Out of Me and Song From Under the Floorboards can generally be expected to elicit a positive response, though there were dissenters. Julie Burchill and Gary Bushell wrote fairly venomous reviews about them at the time, the venom generally directed at their leader Howard Devoto who was seen by some as a horrible pseud. Understandably. He was after all the man who brought Kafka and Dostoevsky to the rock table

But generally the critical response was positive. Paul Morley, Nick Kent and Jon Savage were notable supporters. As is Dave Simpson who wrote an article about them here. Secondhand Daylight is not necessarily the record that you'd expect him to focus on. Real Life and The Correct Use of Soap have generally been considered the albums to go to. But considering the nature of the book he was writing for, his selection of it was highly apt.

Dave Simpson  is a journalist whose writing doesn't excite me. His style is rather prosaic and he's prone to cliche. Nevertheless the article is well worth reading, notably for excerpts from an interview he had with Colin Thurston who produced the record and the account it offers to the making of the album, its recording process and the insights it gives to the main players behind the album.

It also might have led many to listen to the record itself. It's a remarkable one. More synth driven than other Magazine albums with keyboardist Dave Formula the main player rather than guitarist John McGeoch who generally was but here is relegated to rhythm. It has a couple of  upbeat miserabilist moments Because You're Frightened, which was released as a 45 though it didn't chart, (no surprise, there, Shot by Both Sides only got to # 41). A track where 'Look what fear's done to my body' is the hookline is not cut out for mainstream acceptance. The album was not a commercial success and record label Virgin applied some pressure.  The band returned with The Correct Use of Soap which was more approachable, but only in the sense that Magazine were ever approachable. Which let's face it, they never really were. That was all part of their essential charm. They were the itch you couldn't scratch.