Real Life | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | June 1978 | |||
Recorded | March–April 1978 | |||
Studio | Virgin Mobile and Abbey Road Studios, London | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 41:24 | |||
Label | Virgin | |||
Producer | John Leckie | |||
Magazine chronology | ||||
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Singles from Real Life | ||||
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Real Life is the debut studio album by English post-punk band Magazine. It was released in June 1978 by record label Virgin. The album includes the band's debut single "Shot by Both Sides", and was also preceded by the non-album single "Touch and Go", a song from the album's recording sessions.
Real Life has received critical acclaim and is considered a pioneering post-punk album. It has also been described as new wave [1] and art rock. [2]
The album was written over the preceding year by the band, with Howard Devoto providing all of the lyrics. The two earliest songs, "Shot by Both Sides" and "The Light Pours Out of Me", were co-written with Devoto's former Buzzcocks bandmate Pete Shelley. The majority of the material on the album was written by Devoto in collaboration with guitarist and founding member John McGeoch. "Motorcade" was co-written with the group's keyboardist, the classically trained composer Bob Dickinson, who played with the group in mid-1977 before being dismissed without warning at a meeting convened by Devoto in November of that year. Dickinson has cited the influence of Erik Satie on elements of the keyboard part in this song. In early January 1978, Dickinson was invited by Devoto to play for a few gigs but he declined the offer due to his ongoing postgraduate electronic music research at Keele University. The music for the album's final track, "Parade", was written by Dickinson's replacement, Dave Formula, with bassist Barry Adamson. "Definitive Gaze" was recorded for a Peel session as "Real Life" on 14 February 1978.
Having toured much of the album through 1977 and early 1978, the group's then lineup of Devoto (vocals), McGeoch (guitar and saxophone), Adamson (bass), Formula (keyboards) and Martin Jackson (drums) recorded the album in sessions using the Virgin Mobile and at Abbey Road Studios between March and April 1978. The album was produced and engineered by John Leckie.
The original artwork and monoprint for the album were designed by Linder Sterling, with photography by Adrian Boot.
Real Life was released on LP and cassette in June 1978. It peaked at no. 29 on the UK Albums Chart. [3] "Shot by Both Sides", the album's only single, peaked at no. 41 on the UK Singles Chart. [4]
The album was reissued in remastered form by Virgin/EMI in 2007, along with the other three of the band's first four studio albums, and included four bonus tracks and liner notes by Kieron Tyler.
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [5] |
The Guardian | [6] |
The Irish Times | [7] |
Mojo | [8] |
Q | [9] |
Record Mirror | [10] |
Sounds | [11] |
Stylus Magazine | B+ [12] |
Uncut | [13] |
Real Life has received critical acclaim since its release.
On its release, Jon Savage said in Sounds : "A commercial, quality rock album then, with deceptive depths. All is not revealed." [11]
The album was ranked at no. 20 among the top "Albums of the Year" for 1978 by NME , with "Shot by Both Sides" ranked at no. 9 among the year's top tracks. [14]
Real Life is included on several "best of" lists.
All lyrics are written by Howard Devoto.
No. | Title | Music | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Definitive Gaze" | Devoto, John McGeoch | 4:25 |
2. | "My Tulpa" | Devoto, McGeoch | 4:47 |
3. | "Shot by Both Sides" | Devoto, Pete Shelley | 4:01 |
4. | "Recoil" | Devoto, McGeoch | 2:50 |
5. | "Burst" | Devoto | 5:00 |
No. | Title | Music | Length |
---|---|---|---|
6. | "Motorcade" | Devoto, Bob Dickinson | 5:41 |
7. | "The Great Beautician in the Sky" | Devoto, McGeoch | 4:56 |
8. | "The Light Pours Out of Me" | Devoto, McGeoch, Shelley | 4:36 |
9. | "Parade" | Barry Adamson, Dave Formula | 5:08 |
No. | Title | Music | Length |
---|---|---|---|
10. | "Shot by Both Sides" (Original single version) | Howard Devoto, Pete Shelley | 4:01 |
11. | "My Mind Ain't So Open" | Devoto, John McGeoch | 2:18 |
12. | "Touch and Go" | Devoto, McGeoch | 2:58 |
13. | "Goldfinger" | John Barry, Leslie Bricusse, Anthony Newley | 3:50 |
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Chart (1978) | Peak position |
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UK Albums (OCC) [3] | 29 |
Siouxsie and the Banshees were a British rock band formed in London in 1976 by vocalist Siouxsie Sioux and bass guitarist Steven Severin. They were widely influential, both over their contemporaries and later acts. The Times called the group "one of the most audacious and uncompromising musical adventurers of the post-punk era".
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Howard Devoto is an English singer and songwriter, who began his career as the frontman for punk rock band Buzzcocks, but then left to form Magazine, an early post-punk band. After Magazine, he went solo and later formed indie band Luxuria.
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A Kiss in the Dreamhouse is the fifth studio album by British rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees, released on 5 November 1982 by Polydor Records. The record marked a change of musical direction, as the group used strings for the first time and experimented in the studio. Guitarist John McGeoch played more instruments, including recorder and piano. For Julian Marszalek of The Quietus, the release proved the Banshees to be "one of the great British psychedelic bands."
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"Shot by Both Sides" is a song written by Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley, and performed by the English post-punk band Magazine. It was released in January 1978 as the band's first single, reaching No. 41 on the UK Singles Chart and appearing, a few months later, on their debut album Real Life. The song has been cited as a seminal work of the post-punk genre, as well as of pop punk and new wave.
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[S]ynthesizers, saxophones and songs that dared to exceed the five-minute barrier.