Out of the brilliance of the Buzzcocks came Howard Devoto and his band Magazine. In the same nature as Eno leaving Roxy Music, all of a sudden as a fan one is spending more money on record releases by these two artists. The same goes for Buzzcocks and Magazine. Eno needed to move on from the Roxy Music /Bryan Ferry format, and do Devoto had to remove himself from The Buzzcocks world to make new music that is more orchestrational and borderline, theme music for various spy films that are never made. Like Ferry, Devoto surrounded himself with incredible musicians/songwriters John McGeoch (the guitar hero of post-punk Scotland), Barry Adamson (who knows the importance of theme song to an imaginary film), Dave Formula, and Martin Jackson.
"Real Life" is one of those albums that came into my life at the perfect time and place. I heard its first record/single "Shot By Both Sides," and to me, it was more powerful than the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the U.K." The feeling that Devoto couldn't trust either side and the fact that he's surrounded gave the listener the sense of the dread of such cinematic works as "The Third Man." Where all the sides are being played, and one is just part of the system that offers supply and consumes. Still, a powerful song and performance that is one of the great 45 rpm single that uses that format as both restrictive and contained within its 7 inches.
Magazine is very much the perfect vehicle for Devoto's creepy Kafka-like character within the noise made by the band. Majestic, riff-orientated, with overtures to the Brecht/Weill world as well. It's music that is a well-designed puzzle, which again reminds me of Roxy Music. At the height of Punk, Devoto and company offered structure and somewhat an operatic approach to their songs. Not big budget theater mind you, but opera for the gutter, where one is laying there and looking up at the stars, or at the very least, looking at the theater's (venue) ceiling. "Real Life" suggests that listeners were perhaps living in a dream of their own, or someone else's reality. Devoto like a surgeon, or at the very least, a gourmet chef, cut into the bone of the song, and delivers a meal that's perfect, but also full of after-taste approaches that linger on one's mouth, ears and eyes.
There are classics on this album such as the above-mentioned song as well as "The Light Pours Out of Me" (too bad Sinatra never covered this song), but my other favorite besides "Shot By Both Sides" is "The Great Beautician in the Sky," which has a drunk Brecht quality that appeals to my sensibility. Indeed a remarkable album from a great band.
