Magnum - Great Adventure : The Jet Years 1978-1983 (6CD)

 

My friend Paul and I discovered Magnum as teenagers. We even had three tracks from Kingdom Of Madness played as a request on Phil Easton's Great Easton Express Radio City show. That album was released towards the end of 1978 and their debut album saw them [resented as a new band when they had already been around for five years. Bob Catley and Tony Clarkin were already in their thirties. 

In fact Dave Morgan, friend of Jeff Lynne and Richard Tandy was in the band originally. Morgan had written two B Sides for The Move appeared, as well as founding Tandy-Morgan and adding Backing Vocals on ELO's Balance Of Power.

The band were signed to Don Arden's Jet label. Magnum have experienced a revolving line up through the year, but have remained the constant of Catley on Vocals and Clarkin on Guitar and songwriting. Although, known by many as Hard Rock, the band specialised in a sort of Pomp Rock, built on big melodic riffs. 

Clarkin's songwriting initially was built partially on the medieval, but as the time went on, they became more and more AOR or Melodic Rock. as they are to this day.Kingdom Of Madness remains an outstanding album from start to finish.

The follow up, Magnum II was a little harder than that debut and the Leo Lyons Production was a little basic and earthy. It still sounds great, particularly the wonderful All Of My Life, which also revealed their penchant for vocal harmonies.

Their live reputation allowed both a Live EP and Live album, Marauder, to be released and although much wasn't added to the songs, it did reveal how good they were as a live outfit. Chase The Dragon arrived in 1982 and adds much more depth to the songwriting and arrangements.

Whilst, not losing the bombast and melody, the riffs were heavier and Clarkin's Guitar was even more adventurous. The Spirit probably best encompasses what Magnum are about and The Lights Burned Out is a real Lighters Out moment.

The band's final album for Jet is very different to what had gone before. The Eleventh Hour took a bit of getting used to as a fan. It was much more low key and restrained. Songs Like The Word, So Far Away and inp articular, Hit And Run show a Pop Rock side to the band previously hidden and this gentler sound shows a fine other side to the band.

Magnum would leave Jet, but  would go on to big things with a much simpler commercial chorus led sound and the band filled much larger venues with big sounding ditties such as Just Like An Arrow Days Of No Trust and Start Talking Love.

This set rounds up all the Jet studio and live output as well as early archive recordings and B Sides. Available on Cherry Red's HNE label, it is a reminder of some wonderful memories and how great it all sounds now. There are not too many Pomp Rockers as great as this lot could be.

You can buy rh six disc set here.

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Armchair Oracles - Nothingeveris

 

There seems to be a current theme growing here. It is all coincidence of course, but Armchair Oracles were featured in our first year when we were largely not quite sure which direction we were heading in and still surprised at the amount of  interest.

We covered In Machina, the Norwegian band's second album and it is a wonderful listen, something I still play regularly now. You can read the In Machina review here. Here they are with their fourth album and it as splendid as I expected it to be. The band show a mastery of melodic Pop Rock.

Although centred around the 90s Pop Rock explosion, the band can be anything that you want them to be from 70s gentleness to Glasgow TFC 90s. From The Posies to AOR and with large slabs of Power Pop. Everything is so damn catchy.

You want some latter-day Beatles 60s Pop, well here's Across The Divide. How about some 80s Fuzz Pop, then listen to Undertow, a mesmerising riff driven affair that you can imagine Jon Auer playing. Distorting Mirror is noisy 90s College Rock to shake your long hair too.

Yet, White Horses is incredibly gentle as is Juniper Tree which is wistful 70s Classic Rock. Time To realise is a cross between West Coast Rock and Stealers Wheel. There's even some awesome Psych Pop for this genre obsessive with the magnificent No Reason.

Armchair Oracles master Guitar led Melodic Rock in a Jack Of All Trades, Master Of All way. Nothingeveris is an album to listen through from start to finish and then to start again. It is a fantastic example of how uplifting Pop Rock can be. Completely Outstanding!

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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The From - Tomorrow Was Better

 

The From is San Francisco's Dave Silva and Tomorrow Was Better is a great Pop Rock album. Its foundations are built around great 70s New Wave, predominantly UK, but there are diversions into other great Pop Rock.

For instance, Friend Collector is a dead ringer for and Birds is a mix of West Coast and Country Rock, but the vocal is prime time Graham Parker. Wasted On You edges towards Classic Rock, but also has more than a hint of Van Morrison.

The Sweetheart of L.A. is more American a cross like a twanged up countrified version of Any Trouble and has two endearing Guitar breaks. That is the beauty of the album, the mixture of styles is incredibly endearing  and effective.

It is however at its best when it is straight ahead New Wave, By Your Side and Carry On being the examples. The former is very Plimsouls, even The Romantics. The latter is splendid UK 1978 UK New Wave, think Stiff Records, although Guitar Wise it is more than a little Cheap Trick.

The album really sounds like a reissue of a 1978 album and that is the greatest compliment that you can pay it. The period seems intentionally nailed, both production and material wise. Wonderfully so. This is a cracking little offering.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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Listening To This Week Playlist

 

The latest Listening To This Week is here, running as usual from Monday to Sunday. The Way the October days have fallen means that this a rare fifth in a month edition. 26 songs for you this time. There is no song preference in track order, just what we think flows.  I do hope that you can listen to all the songs across this week. The last listed is as great as the first and you have all week to listen.

This weekly playlist is solely for submissions, not the usual stuff that we dig out ourselves. All embeds open in new windows to aid scrolling. Links to the artists will also appear on I Don't Hear A Single Social Media sites over the next 24 hours. This will help you to discover more about the artists who appear here.

Portable Radio - Absentee

No Tears - Electric Eyes

Cult Figures - Mr Producer

Zivi - Faded

Silent Forum - Here's The Email

NATL PARK SRVC - Now You See Me

Dave Cherub - Superstar

The Infinity Chamber - The Opposite Of Everything

TwoMinutesHate - Killing Me Softly With This Job

Nicke Backman - Do You Really Wanna Know

Bobby Wallisch Jr. - The Third Pill

FloodHounds - Quicksand

Reprint - Immersion

Bad Manors - State Of The Art 

Brian Lisik -& Hard Legs - Blood In Their Eyes (Feat The Bizarros) 

Waash - It Goes On

Livingmore - At Ease

EVNTYD - Suffer Me

Tom Costello And The Turnaround - Southbound

Reclining Nude - EZ$

Zoramena With Ben Vogel - Speck Of Dust

Howlin' Circus - Baghdad Blues

Swamp Music Players With Hilary Beckett - Free Conor TV

Ruiz! - Stupid Old Git!

Nolan Trotter - But With Love

Thunderclap - The Littlest Monster

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Trans-Canada Highwaymen - Explosive Hits Vol 1

 

I think the majority of you know my feelings about Tribute albums. I have a real what's the point of hearing artists perform songs that are very familiar to me when I can listen to the originals. There are exceptions, such as when a completely different take on the song is attempted.

However if anyone had asked me if I was interested in a supergroup that featured Moe Berg, Chris Murphy, Craig Northey and Steven Page, the answer, of course, would be where can I hear the album. These are from bands that have been worshipped across Anything Should Happen and here.

Our love of The Pursuit Of Happiness is unmatched and Moe Berg's Production work has featured heavily with the newer bands that we cover. Steven Page is much loved for his time in Bare Naked Ladies and in particularly The Vanity Project album with Stephen Duffy.

Chris Murphy is adored because of our beloved Sloan and we raved about the Anyway Gang album. Craig Northey's band Odds were recently reviewed here and the new album has featured heavily in the most popular reviews and still does.

This album is also different because the songs are Canadian Top 10 songs from 1969 - 1975 and so non Canadians may know some, they probably don't know them all. It was like hearing the song for the first time in some cases.

There is also the gem which is the new song " Theme From Trans-Canada Highwaymen ", the video of which is above. To suit the period, the album is designed as a K-Tel pastiche. The whole album is a joyous affair as you would expect from the people involved.

You can buy the album at the band's website here. It is also available to buy and listen to everywhere.

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Thomas Walsh - The Rest Is History

 

I first caught up with Thomas Walsh in those hazy Anything Should Happen days and it was more as fans of The Move and boy were we obsessive about all things Wood, Lynne and The Move. He introduced me to Pugwash and I was absolutely hooked.

I'm at an age where at times it's easier to stay in than go out, but I always ventured out for Pugwash, a great live band who welcomed all with bonhomie and large amounts of wit. I'd lost touch with Thomas a bit since, all my fault as I Don't Hear A Single became so all encompassing.

So it is wonderful to hear the first album under his own name. As you would expect, The Rest Is History is chocka with melodic Pop Rock, it is what the man is best at, but the mastery here is that Walsh has not lost what he excels at, but added some really interesting diversions.

Hooking up with Brent Rademaker's Curation Records has been a marriage made in heaven. This really does seem to be the year of Curation, quality follows quality. Plus seeing Michael Penn guesting on the fab Jangle Pop of Take Your Time, we really do need another album from Mr Penn.

Everyone Back In The Water is probably the standout, a cracking mix of Psych Pop and Glam Rock, it is a corking listen. On Born Of Kamchatka, you can imagine the song being played on Hawaiian Beach and Walsh manages to mix an Orbison like vocal on the verse to a Beach Boys chorus.

There's a real George Harrison feel to Man Lies Down Again which adds an ace Neil Hannon Guitar solo. Witchcraft and Tribal are words that you could use to describe This Is My Fortress, a real outlier that works wonderfully as a marked departure from all this great Pop.

A Good Day For Me is the biggest reminder of the old Pugwash days and has a chorus that is unreservedly Jeff Lynne And the closing We Knew is a real lighters out Orchestral Abbey Road special, a magnificent close to a really special album.

You can listen to the album and buy it on Vinyl, CD or as a download here.

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Portable Radio - Counting To Three

 

Portable Radio's debut album is a real favourite of ours. So good that it appeared in our Best 100 albums of 2021. It revealed a mastery of West Coast Sunshine Pop that just oozed melody and harmony. You can read the review of that self titled album here.

It is also great to see Robyn Gibson involved. The Junipers were one of the first bands that we covered all those years ago at the start of IDHAS and I loved the Bob Of The Pops adventures. Fans of Portable Radio's debut (and there are many) will not be disappointed with the follow up, quite the reverse.

Counting To Three is awash with wonderful vocal harmonies and singalong choruses with some magnificent arrangements. The vibe is still largely California 60s. Plenty have try to get this period nailed, few succeed and too many albums just wash over you in an air of nothingness. This album doesn't.

I have to direct you first to the song that the album revolves around. Absentee is an absolute crackerjack of a song. More than a little Beach Boys vocally, a killer chorus and most relevant, a baroque arrangement that is outstanding and turns piano pop into something much much more. It is a song that is worth the admission alone.

Counting To Three though enters into different genres. Where There Is Love is Disco Pop with a Philly Soul orchestral arrangement and more than a Rock Your Baby instrumental feel. Not Today is more than a little Gilbert O'Sullivan I Feel Like A Dog is McLagan like Piano Pop, part UK Glam Rock, part 70s Pop Rock.

Fancy Like Champagne is all happy clappy with a great Brass arrangement. Song for Alison & Ted is top notch 80s Indie Pop that you can imagine being an American Sitcom Theme. Live Wire is graced with an unexpected synth line that is particularly 80s.

I felt it would be difficult to better that debut album. The fact that Portable Radio have bettered it is a great credit to all. Counting To Three will certainly appeal to all the yearning Jellyfish fans out there and will be high in this year's Best 100 Albums. Absolutely Excellent!

You can listen to and buy the album on Vinyl or as a download here.

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Blueburst - Significance

 

Craig Douglas Miller reaches his 50s after two decades of battling multiple demons and a music career abandoned for those 20 years and what a debut solo album this is. The hook up with Marty Willson-Piper has resulted in a wonderful Pop Rock affair with the emphasis on Rock.

The Church hasn't been the same for me since Willson-Piper left and when Peter Koppes followed suit that was it for me after being a fan from the very early days. Miller is also congratulated because I haven't heard Marty play like this for ages. Significance is absolutely awesome,

This album is about Miller though and his second coming and although I had loved a couple of the lead up singles and added them to Listening To This Week, but even with the quality of those, I didn't expect the album to be this great. I wrongly felt that the singles would be the centrepieces, they are just part of the joy.

The album is essentially great 80s Indie Rock and Miller's vocal is incredibly close to Michael Stipe, but the material is more in line with mid period R.E.M., not as pensive, but certainly more Guitar led. It is when those solos come in, particularly the Psych Pop ones that the album truly hits the heights.

Vanish is a fantastic opener, very The Church like and therefore there are large dollops of Psych, wonderfully large dollops. The album is in no way a REMathon, but Executioner's Song is very Athens Georgia, however Finito is very Peter Gabriel.

Senseless is the closest that you get to a mainstream ballad and Amplify Me probably the most mainstream. But for a Psych Pop freak like myself, it is Kick My Tires that is the one. The Guitar playing is paint strppingly splendid. I've played it over and over since I first heard the single.

As if the quality on show were not enough, I am greeted by a cover of Rush's Bravado with added guitar histrionics and a restrained, almost not there drum track that doesn't try to emulate Neil Peart's wonder and if anything makes you concentrate more on the excellence of the song without playing air drums. Significance is an outstanding Rock album at a time when there are few about. Well done Mr Miller!

You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on Vinyl, CD or as a download. 

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