Real Life

Magazine's Real Life is post-punk ground zero. Singer/lyricist Howard Devoto split from Buzzcocks to be less musically direct and therefore more adventurous with his new outfit. Taking the groundwork laid by his previous band and applying the artsy abstractions given to the basic rock formula pioneered by the likes of Roxy Music, David Bowie, and Krautrock, Devoto chose his new partners well -- partners who were talented musicians, not afraid to display their skills. (Well, actually, the flat-drumming Martin Jackson would be gone after this, replaced by the much better John Doyle.) Magazine were never about finding a riff, bashing out a knuckle-dragging rhythm, screaming about everyday young-adult angst, and taking a break after every two minutes. The arrangements and structures here -- as on each successive Magazine recording -- are herky-jerky, tightly wound, unpredictable, and incredibly dynamic (for one great example of the latter, check the onset of the breakdown just before the three-minute mark of the opening "Definitive Gaze"), perfectly suited for Devoto's swoopy, livewire vocal tendencies. Even the most punk sounding song here, "Recoil," sounds a little bizarre when compared to most of Magazine's contemporaries. And then there's the more daring aspects, like the spacey keyboard passages (some of which haven't aged too well, though they're hardly Asiatic) and Devoto's lyrics, a how-to manual for many songwriters that followed, from Momus to Thom Yorke. Often cryptic and very open to interpretation, his wordplay is always enough to command interest and provoke analysis. It might be up for debate as to what the best Magazine record is, but Real Life is an undeniably terrific debut, thanks in no small part to the Devoto/Shelley-penned "Shot by Both Sides" and the thumping "The Light Pours Out of Me." Everything else is gravy. - All Music Guide