Secondhand Daylight + 4 [Extra tracks, Original recording remastered]

In 1979 just about the worst insult you could throw at a band was to call them "prog rock". So new wave trail blazers Magazine were taking a very bold step with their second album "Secondhand Daylight", featuring lengthy tracks of stately progression, an instrumental and (shock horror!) synthesisers.

They were criticised some years ago by someone whose name I can't remember for being little more than a "sneery Genesis". That reviewer probably had "Secondhand Daylight" in mind especially but it does the album and Magazine in general a huge disservice. Devoto's lyrics are full of caustic wit and his dissection of relationships outshines any of Phil Collins' efforts by several million watts. And the instrumentation is taut and purposeful. No pointless noodling here.

Whilst side one (as was on the original vinyl) is a set of self-contained songs, including "Rhythm of Cruelty" which harks back most strongly to their debut album, side two (as was) opens with the sinister pulsing instrumental "The Thin Air". This proceeds without a break into the shifting, restless epic "Back to Nature". This is followed by the more raucous uptempo "Believe That I Understand" which can be regarded as the twin to "Rhythm of Cruelty". The album reaches its glacial climax with "Permafrost", a stark, deliberately paced (and verbally explicit) triumph as uncompromising as the Antarctic itself. In a sense the bonus tracks could almost be dispensed with because "Permafrost" is such a superb, emotionally exhausting finale. But there they are, and in themselves well worth having too.

So did Magazine go prog on "Secondhand Daylight"? You decide. If they did they were paying far more regard to Peter Hammill than Mike Oldfield. In any case "Secondhand Daylight" is a bonus in anyone's collection, deep and crisp and even. With synthesisers!

Not to discount debut album Real Life (1978) or 1980's The Correct Use of Soap, but Secondhand Daylight stands out as the best Magazine longplayer (best not mention the patchy Magic, Murder & the Weather). Apparently it received scathing reviews, people invoking prog, which they probably would have done had Ian Curtis been alive when Closer came out.
Excepting single Rhythm of Cruelty, with its killer-opening line ("I brought your face down on my head, it was something I rehearsed in a dream"), it's a downbeat collection, rooted in a bleak tone. This, perhaps, has made it appealing and singular and to me one of the great albums of a great era (see Y, Dub Housing, Unknown Pleasures, Metal Box, The Affectionate Punch...).

Feed the Enemy feels very much like the next step on from instrumental tracks on Bowies's Low & "Heroes" albums, no surprise as producer Colin Thurston engineered those records (sadly Thurston died recently - RIP). The futurist synth & sax intro are very Bowie, Barry Adamson & John McGeoch's playing is amazing as the song builds and Howard Devoto comes in with another great opening line: "It's always raining over the border, there's been a plane crash out there/In the wheatfields they're picking up the pieces/We could go look & stare." This fits very well with the literature of JG Ballard for me...The song is strange, "you could dance with me and punch me through", ...Magazine feel a little neglected- unlike say, Joy Division. Nice to note that McGeoch also played the sax, the intro recurs as a solo, taking the song to its conclusion...

Rhythm of Cruelty sticks out loads, it's the closest thing to tracks like The Light Pours Out of Me and Shot By Both Sides; an instrumental like The Thin Air is more typical of the album: bleak, vast...Back to Nature is in many ways the centrepiece of the album, not far off seven minutes long, it is probably the best moment from co-writers Devoto & Dave Formula. Bowie lost it after "Heroes", Wire perhaps took on the mantle with 154, or Magazine did with the double-whammy of Secondhand Daylight & The Correct Use of Soap, & by 1981, Associates would take on the influence and expand with Fourth Drawer Down & Sulk. Bowie never sounded this wild, Back to Nature goes all over the place, a song of great complexity, as the band come in to just Devoto and Formula. Adamson's basslines sound as great as those of Bernard Edwards & Jah Wobble...

My favourite track from this album, & one that sums it up well is Permafrost, solely written by Devoto with sensitive bassplaying from Adamson (McGeoch's part is less noticeable, which might account for the guitar-inflections of Soap, or him joining Siouxsie & the Banshees). The bass, drone-like keyboards and machina-drumming are perfectly suited to Devoto's alienated lyrics, "Today I bumped into you again, I have no idea what you want, but there was something I meant to say", the chorus memorably hardcore- Samuel Beckett on William Burroughs pills. Permafrost sounds simply huge, McGeoch's solo is great- but not long enough, the song really should be an half-hour piece of Can-epicness. Perhaps more an anti-guitar solo?- there's a sense that this is just a machine-rhythm and there is little left to say. A bleak, but perfect end to a classic album...

Real Life & The Correct Use of Soap may be the better introductions to Devoto & co (or the compilations Rays&Hail and Where the Power Is), but Secondhand Daylight remains their masterpiece.

After the heaps of praise garnered on Magazine's debut album, "Real Life", their second "Secondhand Daylight" was critically mauled. Seen as pompous and bloated, more Pink Floyd than post-punk, so the knives were out! But this is actually Magazine at their most audacious and experimental. Helped in no small way by the late Colin Thurston's superbly elegiac and cool sounding production. In fact this album was his first production job.

Opening like something from Bowie's "Low", with Dave Formula's skewed synths and John McGeoch's distant sax on the instrumental intro to the excellent "Feed The Enemy". This is one of my favourite Magazine pieces. As the into fades, Barry Adamson's pumping bass comes in and we enter Devoto's paranoid landscape. There is an epic quality throughout the album which is maybe why it met with such negativity. No one did epic then. But Magazine didn't want to be a punk or new wave band. They wanted more! The highlight for many is the huge "Back To Nature" with its tautly controlled build up. Deep bass synth notes lead into a huge wall of sound as the song reaches its climax. The cool veneer of the album is best exemplified by the impersonal malevolence of "Permafrost" with typical John Barry styling by Formula.

This remaster highlights the unusual and distinctive production to its max. Nicely done by Sean Magee. The bonus tracks, all from singles of the period and include the very wonderful "Give Me Everything" which is as good as anything on the album. As I mentioned in my review of "Real Life", the packaging is pretty uninspired. The layout lacks excitement and is lazy. For instance reference is made to an inside photograph by Richard Rayner-Canham, but that is the band photograph which appeared in the inside of the original LP gatefold sleeve and is not reproduced anywhere on this re-issue. There are recording credits given, but no band credits. Lazy! The artwork was done by one of EMI's own in-house design team. They should have done better and really spoils what is otherwise a very welcome re-release of a truly great album!