Sounds Jul 1981 by Neil McCormick

Howie: deciding to bury Magazine before the bubble bursts by Mike Laye

A MAGAZINE of short stories - their own story comes to a short end with this LP - a special full stop. Devoto's departure from the group that twisted so magnificently around his persona forces an unexpected perspective on this - the last edition. The four studio L.Ps and one live LP of Magazine now must slip into a line of history - they become a serialised novel - and this record contains the final chapters - the twist - the climax - the denoument (sic) - did the butler do it after all?

But such facts continue to elude the listener because "Magic - Murder And The Weather" is the fifth Magazine LP - but not the last Devoto recording. Here there are more short stories - more wicked observations and carefully shadowed confessions pressed into the world of pop by the shining musical machine of Magazine. Here there be monsters - disguised by the glistening innocence of the medium.

Magazine are a pop group (part II). They have moved from the heaviness of "Real Life" and "Secondhand Daylight" to an insidious musicality that first came to the surface on "The Correct Use Of Soap". Magazine clean up their act! Sharp and bright - they draw you in and please you with a beat and melody - worry you with the unusually applied make-up of their arrangements - and irritate with the lure of learning - like a book you can't put down despite the unhappiness it may cause you. These are the great man's secrets.

I don't like Howard Devoto's voice. It is hard and unmusical - and though he has lost the cloying melodrama of earlier days he remains a harsher noise. But he survives as a singer because of his songs. Dense - intricate observations - they unravel both as documentary and as metaphor - revealing their secrets slowly and pertinently rather than in the one great obvious rush of most pop. Devoto avoids accusations of obscurity by his accuracy. He avoids accusations of aloofness by the dark undercurrent of emotion that runs through even the most frivolous-sounding of his songs - and forces its way to the fore in his most gripping.

Devoto has a rare approach to song-words - and a rarer success with them: he reminds me slightly of Iggy Pop circa "The Idiot" and "Lust For Life" - but he reminds me more of such novelists as Josef Skvorecky - not relying on human action - but on human existence for his inspiration.

Magazine have proved a fine match for his ability. Their music combines the breadth of sixties pep with an '80s hardness and inventiveness; it manages both to reflect the mood of his words and to open them up - make them more accessible. Although "Magic - Murder And The Weather" is not as immediately striking as "Soap" - it opens with a track that is their closest ever to being a real POP pop song. "About The Weather" is a desperate love song - a frightened self-reflection that is kept bouyant by a driving Motown beat - ringing piano - sharp chords and female backing vocals. It is magnificent. I sing it in the bath - I sing it on the bus and I don't get strange looks from Kim Wilde fans.

The rest of the album is not as openly friendly - but it is often more brash and adventurous. The rhythm pattern are unusual without being complex - the bass inventive in a way Stanley Clarke forgets how to be (carefully) and the keyboards and guitar can be emotionally shredding ("Come Alive") or playful and funny ("Suburban Rhonda").

Let's talk about music we love to make and hear. Let's talk about the magic in things so plain - the murder in people we know. Let's talk about the weather. Real Life - part four. Magazine have made another album that may be easy to avoid - but only at a cost to yourself. This is the embrace of thought and emotion.

Now Devoto's attentions will be elsewhere - his stories appear in some other form. This is good. Magazine were a special group - but adventure and exploration are important in order to retain freshness and interest - vital in the area of new discoveries.

This Magazine will be incorporated in new mastheads - perhaps losing impact but gaining diversification - and Devoto undoubtedly moves on - always trailing a line of triple dots. To be continued-

NME 23 may 81

Sounds 20 jun 81

1. [About The Weather]
2. [In The Dark]

12" only

• [Operative, The]

MAGAZINE : Magic - Murder And The Weather (Virgin)