Customer Reviews

Secondhand Daylight

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I can't really say more than other listeners here have already said, but let me just add that in my 35 years of collecting music, "Secondhand Daylight" is one of my top ten albums. It's the only album I can remember seeing here that received 5 starts from every reviewer, save one, whose main complaint is that some songs are scary! That's a complaint? Yes, there are some eerie, creepy songs here. Check out the cover - a head on a pike in a barren, scarred landscape! But, these songs are about the horror of emotions and relationships and nations, the way people treat each other. No one has ever said it with more clarity or humor than Howard DeVoto, undoubtedly one of the finest lyricists of our time, up there with Peter Hamill and Roger Waters.

This was the first punk/progressive album. Magazine invented the genre and were followed by many imitators and devotees, but none who did it as well. Unfortunately, they never again achieved the level of the art form that they reached on this album. Other albums had flashes of this same brilliance, notably their first, "Real Life," which is a great work in its own right, leaning more toward rock than progressive, but "Secondhand Daylight" is strong from start to finish.

Brilliant musicianship by one and all, and yes, Barry Adamson makes of the bass a paintbrush in a way uniquely his own, as did J.J. Burnel and John Entwistle. I find the songs here have not aged at all. Anyone interested in the annals of rock and progressive rock should not miss "Second Daylight." Magazine were a seminal band, and this is their hallmark.

I hope I can express in words how important and viceral this album is to me, so here I shall attempt the impossible. Discussion of this album is almost impossible as it is pure aesthetics and aural alienation personafied. An album whose perfection is conceptually so far ahead of it's time that I haven't bothered buying anything since this period because essentially nothing *new* or worthwhile has happened.

This album floated out of a tape deck late one dusky evening as a girlfriend and I kanoodled for the first time when I was 14 years old, I am now 30. I was scarred deeply by the eerie perfection and calculated paranoia this work evokes and found myself literally entering an altered state. I am a professional musician of a family of muso's and consider myself a serious knowledge on music. This album is without a doubt probably the most influential and perfect record I have EVER heard in my life. John Mcgeough's (Guitar) Vichey French minimalism and elegantly oblique saxophony is superlative and sublime. Mcgeough it should be noted wrote the long play instrumental that to this day sends shivers up my spine, he wrote it on piano and then transcibed it to other instruments.

Barry Adamson (Bass) as one reviewer correctly pronounced, IS the bottom end of the world as he weaves his ultimate fat, liquid-toned, fretless flanged, bass lines that thump and resonate so deep and hard, he surely proves that nobody plays bass like him in the world. Listen to the end of Cut out Shapes for the most mind blowing pulsing, phat bass lines as genius Devoto sings, "We met in a psychiatric unit!". Every track on this album is a total masterpiece including one of my all time favourites "Feed the Enemy", "No room to move, no room for doubt!"

From the bizzare album art work in weird sickly yet soothing psyche ward green, the head and mask on a stake, to the playlist and the way it has been ordered, this album attained a perfection so beyond the conceptual understanding of the post punk genre, that it essentially flopped! But to me that was it's greatest secret and success, because without a doubt mediocrity rules. That these guys never made another album like this, their last, Magic Murder and the Weather, came very close in some instances, is absolutely tragic! This band as far as I am concerned were from outer space to be playing music this beautiful and utopian in 1979, what with Dave Forumula's menacing and erudite carnavalesque synth lines and the drummers fabulously boxy/reverb skins and slightly phased cymbals... PERFECTION!

I ache when I listen to this record because I wonder if anyone else out there understands just how incredible this entire album is and how perfect this combination of musicians were I won't even get into Devoto, the guy was a narrative-noir of self effacing angst and without being tuneful perse pulls off being the greatest singer. This band was an ART BAND and even that doesn't do them justice, in the same way the Doors were an Art Band; performance art! I learnt more from Mcgeough as a guitar player growing up than anyone else, he was my god, as was this band.

If you want to take the next logical step, check out my other all time favourite band and album. Mcgeough left Magazine to join Siouxsie and the Banshees, although he did write and play on Kaleidescope (Christine and Happy House, are incredible!) get the album JUJU and you will realise the same eerie perfection discovered from Second Hand Daylight. I could go on forever about this album but feel a deep sense of connection with other reviewers here who have recognised it's genius also, and breathed the thin air!

Once upon a time way back when I was in college and had a lot of time to sit around listening to music I ran out I purchased a copy of 'Secondhand Daylight" I had found used. I was in my Siouxsie and the Banshees phase and had read that John McGeough (who had been briefly in the Banshees) had played guitar for Magazine. I was intrigued to find out he had spent some time in a mental institution whether or not this was actually true, it seemed pretty cool to me. As with most recordings that are my absolute favorite, I hated this record when I first listened to it. The first thing I could compare it to was Roger Waters in a really bad mood with a severe head cold. Needless to say, I finally came around and grew to love this music. It is beautiful, haunting, brilliant and funny and very far ahead of its time.

As an avid music listener for over 35 years I am still interested in new bands and new musical ideas. I bought this album immediately on it's release over 20 years ago and I was knocked for six by the sheer power and complexity of the music. Nothing has moved me so much since. At the time I liked the idealism behind new wave but still liked the sophistication of progressive music - this album combined both to perfection....

Though not as poppily accessible as some of Magazine's other work such as "Correct Use of Soap", this CD is a masterpiece. I remember being 17 and hearing "Permafrost" (edited version) on the radio for the first time. It sounded unlike anything else I ever heard. Pink Floyd didn't even come close because Magazine is darker, scarier, less hippie-ish and more musically sophisticated than the Floyd. Best (or worst, depending on your viewpoint) of all, Magazine never achieved the widespread acclaim in the U.S. that the Floyd did, and hence avoided falling prey to excess and boring repetition. If you like dark music with pop overtones, "secondhand daylight" is for you--it perfectly captured my teen angst!

Since the other reviewer doesn't like this, I feel that I should pay Magazine the respect which this album should garner. This is by far, one of the eeriest albums of all time and it takes a lot of influence from Pink Floyd! The songs are so haunting that they leave your mind in a trance (Permafrost & Cut-out Shapes) Barry Adamson proves that he is without a doubt one of the best bass-guitar players to ever walk the earth. Devoto's lyrics are cold and haunting, but also a little witty at the same time. Check this album out and you will be knocked flat by the aestenics. Dave Formula also performs very well!!! ---Doug

Magazine were a highly innovative punk band for their time, who in the long term have influenced everyone from the Sisters of Mercy and Bauhaus right up to Britpop acts such as Supergrass and Blur in places! Containing original Buzzcocks frontman Howard DeVoto and Banshees/PIL guitarist John McGeoch, this great CD takes you through a highlight in their careers! FEED THE ENEMY is slow, brroding and scary in places! RHYTHM OF CRUELTY is a punky progressive rock crossover with some great analogue keyboard melodies over gothic guitars. DeVoto's vocal style is unique, ranging from positively moody and saracstic(on BACK TO NATURE and I WANTED YOUR HEART) to wailing and punky(R.O.C.). PERMAFROST is a love ballad with a difference and TALK TO THE BODY contains guitar work that would not sound out of place on an old Rolling Stones number mixing oddly with effects-laden bass and DeVoto's artful ramblings. Altogether, a classic album. As for the reviewer who said this is music for sacrificing chickens to - there's nothing wrong with that, providing you make a good roast dinner afterwards! Ha ha ha.

If you are looking to buy your first MAGAZINE cd, some reviewers on Amazon will tell you to get THE CORRECT USE OF SOAP first because it's the most "accessible." My recommendation is: Start with the best--REAL LIFE. Get SECONDHAND DAYLIGHT next. Try THE CORRECT USE OF SOAP third. As for the accessibility issue--it's true; I didn't particularly like SECONDHAND DAYLIGHT the first time I heard it. But after a few more listens, its brilliance started shining through. Is it goth? Is it punk? You be the judge.

You're probably not reading this unless you already know who Magazine was. If that is true and you haven't ever heard this album, there is only one thing to say: you've been waiting far too long. Buy it now.

For the rest of you: Magazine was probably the first "post-punk" band, really before there even was a "post" punk. This is a brilliant, sophisticated album that stays true to the spirit of its late 70s punk roots while enormously refining and expanding that sound. Let me be clear, this most certainly isn't a "punk" record in the usual sense. It uses keyboards, textures and complex arrangements that add enormous scope to the work, yet it is never in danger of slipping into the art-rock excesses that (in part) prompted the punk explosion in the first place. Just trying to list all the bands that came after which owe a debt to this work would fill the entire review.

This is not bright and bouncy pop. If you've never heard Magazine, it may be a good idea to start with "Real Life", the group's first album. Though less coherent and powerful than Secondhand Daylight, Real Life is not as dark and has more direct, traditionally structured tunes and shows its punk roots a bit more clearly.

The musicians are all solid professionals and there are just no words to properly praise Barry Adamson's sublime bass work on this record. Howard Devoto's lyrics are incisive and powerful, albeit not gentle, and add depth and intelligence to this record. Although a few of the keyboard effects have become a bit dated, overall the album sounds quite fresh and vital and has held up as well as, if not substantially better than, any other rock music of comparable age.

I know that it may be a bit hackneyed to describe something as an "unappreciated" or "overlooked" or "undiscovered" (etc., etc.) masterpiece, but that doesn't mean it isn't a valid description. There is no final arbiter of this issue. In the end it's all just a matter of opinion and in my opinion, Secondhand Daylight is a classic.

There are few records so maligned and yet so magnificent as this one. The backlash this record inspired at the time of its release was so strong it practically stopped the band in its tracks. Secondhand Daylight was adventurous, expansive, even grand at a time when it was the kiss of death to do more than play two-minute uptempo dance rock songs. There were sax solos, rich keyboard textures, tempos below 100bpm... the album even includes a longform instrumental track! All this from the guy who started the Buzzcocks! While all those supposed criticisms were in fact true, they failed to get anywhere near the heart of this wonderful record. First and foremost, let me mention lead singer Howard Devoto's lyrics and his unique delivery of said in song. Here's a couplet for ya: "This is what all things come to/Come to peices in our hands." Beginning to end this record is built on that acerbic, subtle wit, delivered arch & frosty in Devoto's trademark conversational sneer. The band behind him acts to provide counterpoint, conveying the ache & the beauty the singer seems unable or unwilling to voice, not at odds but in collusion... to illustrate and to evoke. These are unique players all and Secondhand Daylight gives them their greatest opportunity to perform the sort of magic they were capable of. A record full of twists, not least of which was the twisting of what could exist within the framework of the punk movement, or in its wake. This was a hugely audacious record, and I wish they'd had the courage to stick by their convictions. Their next record is a corker as well, but more of a strategic backstep, and then the band began to disintegrate. There was only one more inferior studio recording and a live record and then that was the end of the story.