Real Life

初期バズコックスのメンバーだったハワード・ディヴォードが新たに結成したバンド、マガジンの代表作。放出される事なく内側にこもった熱量を音に転換したかのような、ダークで耽美なサウンドが形成するポスト・パンクのひとつの完成形。

REAL LIFE, Magazine's 1978 debut, might be the first true post-punk album. Bandleader Howard Devoto had been the co-leader of Manchester's Buzzcocks, one of the first and most important U.K. punk bands, but he left shortly after the recording of their first EP, SPIRAL SCRATCH. Forming Magazine with guitarist John McGeoch, keyboardist Dave Formula and bassist Barry Adamson (later a noted soundtrack composer), Devoto married the manic energy of the Buzzcocks to a darker and more ambiguous lyrical and musical vision. REAL LIFE is undeniably bleak--"Motorcade" concerns the JFK assassination, and other titles include "Recoil" and "Burst"--but there's a certain black humor in tracks like "The Great Beautician in the Sky". Purists should note that the version of "Shot By Both Sides" here is a much different and somewhat inferior re-recording than the classic 7". That version is available on the singles compilation RAYS AND HAIL.|