After an extensive UK tour earlier in the year in support of The Visitation Magnum added a few extra dates at the end of the year for the sheer fun of it (and to reach a few places missed on said extensive tour). This 4-date mini-tour also doubled as a wee bit of promo for the new best-of, Evolution*, the latest in a long line of Magnum compilations, but the first to focus solely on the 5 albums they’ve made since reforming a decade ago.
The 4th and final date was the very last to be added (quite late in the day it has to be said), and saw the band as the headline act at the grand opening of new rock venue The Sound in Carlisle. It was also, thankfully, one I managed to make a trip up North for, and capped what has been an excellent year to be a Magnum fan!
Not only did the band not play Carlisle earlier in the year – this was their first gig in Cumbria in over two decades, and the response demonstrated that they’ve been missed. There were quite a few Visitation t-shirts on show in the audience, which suggests many had travelled elsewhere to see them in the Spring, but that is no surprise; they are a band that sparks that level of devotion in their fans (and you thought it was just me…!)
Magnum's Bob Catley
The setlist was largely identical to that presented earlier in the year (at the Liverpool gig, for example), but that was entirely acceptable – after all, the majority of the crowd were hearing it for the first time and, more importantly, it’s a cracker of a set! Of course quite a number of the newer songs (Brand New Morning, Wild Angels, All My Bridges and the utterly sublime When We Were Younger) are amongst those featured on the new album and we were also treated to The Fall, one of Evolution’s two brand new tracks, which features the catchiest guitar riff heard in recent memory (in fact it’s possibly too catchy, it sticks in the head so much there isn’t room to remember any other part of the song!). As ever at a Magnum gig each number was followed by loud and long applause, but yes, it was old favourites such as Les Mort Dansant and Vigilante that really raised the roof. The former makes me teary at the best of times, and was more poignant than ever on a day where I’d learnt that a battalion from Carlisle had the misfortune to land at Gallipoli on 25 April, 1915, along with many soon to be slaughtered Kiwis.
The Gallipoli barracks at Carlisle Castle
Overall though it was a night of cheer and triumph, and even Tony Clarkin was caught smiling on a few occasions (only between songs, of course, but still a rare occurrence!). It's tempting to say that the band were in particularly fine form, but really they were just being Magnum and doing what they do best on any night. I hope to catch them on many more! (10/10).
Sorry ladies...didn't get a shot of Mark, so Al will have to do! :p
* Yeah, I know I'm a bad bad blogger and negelected to review Evolution upon release last month, but in summary, it's neat. With two tracks from each of the 5 SPV albums (most of which have had parts re-recorded - hearing real drums on the Breath of Life tracks is a treat for starters!) plus the two new songs mentioned above it provides a great snapshot of this era-in-progress and is an ideal starting or re-entry point for those unfortunate enough not to be right up to date with what the band's been up to for the past ten years. The re-recorded aspects and song selection also make it feel like a cohesive work rather than a hastily thrown-together cash-in album. If you only buy one Magnum release from 2011 (but why would you?) get The Visitation, but this is well worth your time, no matter what level of Magnum awareness you currently possess. (9/10)
First things first – this is NOT a review. Call me mad, but I like to actually digest an album thoroughly before subjecting it to critique, but that’s simply not the way the world (or more specifically, the internet) works in 2011, so here are some thoughts, based literally on my first time of hearing Magnum’s brand new album, The Visitation.
In short it’s clear that Magnum’s recent form (their previous two albums, Princess Alice and the Broken Arrow and Into the Valley of the Moonking,are on a par with anything they’ve ever released – no mean feat) was no fluke. As with those the new effort is entirely written and produced by band founder Tony Clarkin, a man who epitomises two terms that are bandied about with far too much regularity and little regard to fact: underrated and genius (He plays a mean guitar as well). As ever, vocalist Bob Catley instinctively brings Clarkin’s material to vivid life, seemingly effortlessly – it’s as if Clarkin/Catley were once a single entity somehow split into two, the symbiosis between them is so staggering. Indeed, it’s hard to think of a comparable relationship in rock history, only that between Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel springs to mind, and that only works if you actually like Garfunkel.
The above is not to denigrate the contributions made by the other band members; Magnum stalwart Mark Stanway (keyboards), Al Barrow (bass) and Harry James (drums) are almost as adept as Catley at adding further depth to the material. Barrow also does double duty, being primarily responsible for the layout and artwork of the entire package. While Clarkin is clearly the leader and Catley his 2IC, this is a band in the truest sense.
On a first listen, opener Black Skies didn't leap out at me like a good opener should, but with Doors to Nowhere and the title track following in quick succession, we're quickly in very comfortable territory. That might make it sound as though the band are resting on their laurels, but what I mean is they just scream 'MAGNUM!!!!" in the way only a band with a style all their own can manage. (Classic British rock, with shades of prog is accurate but doesn't do it justice). They certainly aren't afraid of trying new things, as the bluesy intro to Spin Like a Wheel proves, and as for the mid-section of album closer Tonight's the Night...lets just say it seems on the verge of going into doo-wop (or was it barbershop?!) before returning to 'normal' (the sudden burst of 'doo-doo-doos' sounded incongruous on first listen, but I suspect it's purpose will become clearer after repeated plays!).
There's a nice range of styles and tempos, sometimes within the same song (Midnight Kings for one), another Magnum trademark. Vocally, Catley sounds noticeably raspier than usual in places, with a few more listens I’ll probably work out whether or not this was deliberate.
Clarkin’s lyrics have always been several cuts above standard rock fare, and he handles subjects from ecology (Mother Nature's Final Dance) to human rights (Freedom Day) with his usual panache. The lyrics come across as being written by a deep man who thinks things over, rather than as hollow preaching, as can so often be the case. The only complaint I have lyrically is the absence of any ‘yeahs’ (Catley can make such a frivolous word ripple with meaning and intensity; hearing him sing ‘yeah’ is one of life’s minor pleasures…but I digress…)
When the time comes for a rating to be given I’d be highly surprised if I could go any lower than 95%...suffice to say that if you’re brand new to Magnum this is as good a starting point as any, so why not get yourself right up to date and work backwards from there (It’s what I did when Princess Alice… was released, hard to imagine that I’ve only been listening to Magnum for a little under 4 years…you see, it’s never too late!). I can't wait to get to know it better and see where it grows (and as soon as I've posted this I'll be off to start that process with spin number 2!). No doubt I'll come to wonder why I didn't love Black Skies instantly and why I've not managed to otherwise mention Wild Angels and The Last Frontier as though they made little impression on a first acquaintance.
The former is actually the first single, so have a listen to it yourself right here:
The album is available in three formats; the album and nothing but the album (featuring the Rodney Matthews cover art), a deluxe special edition containing the album plus DVD (housed in the ‘brooch on black’ artwork, but also featuring the Rodney Matthews art, so no, you don’t have to buy both!) and a super-special, over-the-top box with the CD/DVD package, plus the album in coloured vinyl and an LP-sized 48 page history of the band. (Anything I’ve forgotten? A do-it-yourself heart replacement surgery kit perhaps?) No doubt your own particular level of devotion to Magnum will determine the edition you go for, but while I consider myself to be a very big fan indeed, I settled for the CD and DVD combo, or the ‘middle-sized Mummy Bear’ version, as I’ve now deemed it should be called, so I can offer thoughts on that aspect of the release as well.
Whereas Princess Alice (definitely) and Moonking (I think!) had bonus DVDs centred on a ‘making of the album’ type documentary, here there are only a couple of slight, but interesting featurettes dealing with the album’s artwork, while the bulk of the DVD is taken up with performance material. Eyes Like Fire (a track that didn’t make the album) is here in a largely in-the-studio style video, but put together by the ever-reliable Tim Sidwell in such a way that it feels like something much more interesting than that suggests. Oh, and (again, based solely on a first view/listen) it’s an absolute cracker. I can only speculate as to why it didn’t make the album and who knows…perhaps it will make the next one.
The centrepiece of the DVD though is a 4-song performance culled from last year’s High Voltage Festival in London. So, half of that set then (yes, it was way too brief). Oh, and it’s in a different order on the DVD than listed on the packaging, running Brand New Morning, When We Were Younger, Les Mort Dansant, All My Bridges. It remains a fantastic performance and When We Were Younger even features lots of ‘yeahs’ to keep me happy…
Obviously, given that I was there, I do crop on on screen from time to time, but I promise that I won’t detract from your enjoyment, in fact I’m happy to guarantee you won’t even notice me at all. (I can also announce that I’ll be appearing as myself once again in Magnum’s next full concert DVD, due to be filmed at the end of April…so look forward to that!)
Somewhat oddly (although this was also the case for Moonking) the DVD also contains something the booklet doesn’t, namely the lyrics for the album, which, if you prefer to have a physical copy to refer to you can download in PDF form here:http://www.magnumonline.co.uk/media/viz%20lyrics%202.pdf (note that an earlier version was in a smaller font and repeated the lyrics for Black Skies twice, while leaving Doors to Nowhere out entirely; this was quickly corrected).
Right, so it's too early (in more ways than one) to start naming 'albums of the year' but if this isn't a contender at year's end 2011 will have been a VERY good year for music indeed...
Magnum beginner's guide:
My personal top 5:
Chase the Dragon (1982)
On a Storyteller’s Night (1985)
Wings of Heaven (1988)
Princess Alice and the Broken Arrow (2007)
Into the Valley of the Moonking (2009)
Missing from my own collection: A handful, mostly from the early 90s, of which Sleepwalking (1992) is probably the most highly-regarded.
Compilations: There are a tonne of them, and all have their merits, but the fact is Magnum is a band that if you like, you’ll love, so you’re going to want everything anyway, you might as well just buy the original albums in the first place.
Avoid: Paying attention to any idiot who uses the phrases 'Magnum' and 'dull mid-tempo plod' in the same breath…!
Several ghosts haunt this album and it is the end of an era in more ways than one. Around the time of the recording sessions the band elected to sack James William Guercio as their manager – he’d managed (and produced) the band from the beginning, and while he completed the sessions (or did he…Robert Lamm once posted that this was more or less a self-produced set, sorry Robert, but I don’t actually buy that!) this was the last time they would work together.
Perhaps even more significantly – and certainly more tragically – it was, of course, the last album recorded with guitarist/vocalist Terry Kath, prior to his untimely death in 1978.
To some degree Chicago were able to overcome these losses and soldier on, but I’ve always felt their reputation and integrity could have been better maintained had they not had to deal with both in quick succession (for many reasons I’d opt for the non-JWG album with Kath on board rather than a JWG-produced Kath-less Chicago album). While it wasn’t to be, the final collaboration between JWG and the original line-up did at least prove to be one of the highlights of the entire Chicago catalogue.
Song by song then:
Mississippi Delta City Blues kicks things off in fine style. Originally pegged for inclusion on Chicago V and actually issued on Live in Japan this old Terry Kath tune finally made it to an official (international) release just in the nick of time. The arrangement didn’t change much over time, but with all the elements in place – Kath’s guitar prominent (although not dominant) and some fine playing from Peter Cetera on bass, and one of Pankow’s best horn arrangements – not to mention Kath’s own fiery lead vocals – this is as fine an album opener as the band had provided listeners with since the first two albums.
Baby What a Big Surprise was, of course, the albums first (and only major) hit single, peaking at #4. An obvious follow-up to If You Leave Me Now I’ve always preferred it to its more famous predecessor – possibly in part because it hasn’t suffered the extreme overplaying of the earlier ballad. Cetera’s only writing contribution to the album, but far more notably also his only lead vocal – by comparison he would handle 12 lead vocals over the course of the next two albums alone. Trumpeter Lee Loughnane is rarely heard outside of the three-piece horn section; here he gets to demonstrate his talent, playing piccolo trumpet while Parazaider and Pankow sit the song out.
Till the End of Time is another ballad, but bears little resemblance to your ‘typical’ Chicago ballad; this one features swagger and a bluesy feel – oh, and a weak lead vocal courtesy of writer James Pankow. I’m not actually knocking it, as it actually fits the song quite well, but at the same time there’s a good reason Pankow’s vocals were never heard on a Chicago album again. Also, the song is structured to build to a satisfying climax with some great vocal interplay towards the end. The horns are used throughout, but mainly for colouring rather than as an integral part of the arrangement (much as they would be in the 80s – when they were used at all), strange given the song was written by the band’s horn arranger.
Robert Lamm, up to this point the band’s primary songwriter, contributes his first of only two compositions here. Policeman is vaguely Chapin-esque (lyrically at least) although it lacks Lamm’s former childhood acquaintance’s deftness for storytelling. His other contribution, Vote For Me, which opened side two of the original LP, is a fun, up-tempo piss-take on the promises politicians will make in order to get elected; unfortunately not much has changed since 1977 and this tune is unlikely to ever become dated. Both songs are solid, and while not amongst Lamm’s best, are light years ahead of his contributions to the previous record.
In between Lamm’s writing contributions, he provides a rare lead vocal on another band member’s song – Danny Seraphine’s Take Me Back to Chicago, the first of several tunes the drummer would co-write with David ‘Hawk’ Wolinksi over the next few years. There’s some nicely understated flute on the early part of the track, courtesy of woodwinds player Walt Parazaider. I’ve always felt this aspect was underused; Parazaider to my ears is a far better flautist than saxophonist, (particularly when it came to soloing - check out his terrific solo on the title track of the follow-up album, Hot Streets for an example of this). As with Till the End of Time this track starts slowly, before building to a crescendo dominated, in this case, by vocals from guest Chaka Khan. I have to confess that apart from (I think) ‘south side’ I can’t make out any of the Chicago-area place names she’s reeling off in the preach section, but it sounds great just the same. Still, it doesn’t sound like a song with hit potential, so it’s not particularly surprising that it only crept up to #63 when released as the third single – not helped, I’m sure, by the fact the album was already gone from the charts.
The last few tracks on the album are the best, starting with Kath’s Hendrix-inspired rocker Takin’ It on Uptown. As with many of Kath’s songs over the years the horns do not feature at all (actually online speculation maintains that Kath is the ONLY member of the band performing on this cut) but it doesn’t matter, this is simply terrific, and like Lamm, Kath has delivered something that blows his songs on Chicago X out of the water, only more so. Love that cowbell too… (Check out a live performance of this cut below – and notice the difference in the drumming between the studio and live versions – is that Danny Seraphine on both? I really don’t have a clue…)
This is followed by Lee Loughnane’s This Time, the song that should have been the second single – if not the first! Like Pankow, Loughnane sings his own tune, unlike Pankow he actually pulls it off with some aplomb. A mid-tempo rocker, this features a fantastic Kath solo, but listen to what he plays under the horn section when they take over at the end of the solo, now that is truly outstanding. Following the instrumental section the song actually runs out of steam for a few seconds, as the final verse kicks in with a whimper (it’s pitched at the same intensity as the opening verse, but given where the song had gone since then needed to be much stronger). Thankfully momentum is quickly regained, and you probably wouldn’t have noticed this minor quibble if I hadn’t pointed it out, so apologies for that…
Finally, the album closes with the first musical suite the band have offered since, depending on your point of view, III or VII. The entirely orchestrated The Inner Struggles of a Man is the perfect introduction to another Seraphine/Wolinski piece, Little One. Now, something strange happens here. Normally songs dedicated to band members’ children make me come out in a rash, but this is every bit as beautiful and heart-warming as it was intended to be, thanks primarily to Kath’s extraordinarily emotional vocal. Of course, Kath also had a young daughter, so perhaps it wasn’t a stretch for him, but it proves that his vocals were just as integral to the original Chicago sound and spirit as his guitar playing.
From the opening track, with his ominous laugh, to the closing track with his heartfelt vocal capable of making a grown man cry, this album belongs to Terry Kath, and would have done, even had senseless tragedy not been just around the corner. If looking for a silver lining at least we can say that he went out in style and Chicago XI serves as a fitting tribute to his many talents; something the ghastly Chicago X would not have done had it proved to be his swansong. Fans of the early albums need to have this one in their collections as well, regardless of what they think went wrong with Chicago after Chicago V. Strangely, and against all the odds, Rolling Stone actually gave this one a largely positive review…but don’t let that put you off!
In terms of chart stats, the album was Chicago’s first since their debut to miss the top 5 (albeit only just, peaking at #6) but more significantly its chart run was severely reduced, managing only 20 weeks on the chart; it’s immediate predecessor had lasted for 44 weeks; most earlier albums had spent well over a year in the charts. Also, that big (non-surprise) single spent 17 weeks in the Hot 100, so the album lasting in the Billboard 200 for only a few weeks longer than that is nothing short of shocking. Still, a top 10 platinum album can hardly be considered a flop, but it was far less than the album deserved given its quality, and pointed the way to Chicago’s declining (commercial) fortunes in the late 70s, regardless of the other issues they had to face at the time.
(Note that the 2003 Rhino reissue contains two bonus tracks, Pankow’s Wish I Could Fly and Lamm’s Paris. It’s pretty clear why the latter wasn’t developed further, but it would be interesting to hear Pankow’s effort with lyrics and a horn arrangement; perhaps the band would like to revisit this for a new release instead of doing yet another Christmas album? No? Oh well, just a thought…)
