Customer Reviews

Vigilante

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

 

 

I first heard this album in basic training for the British Army in late 1986, a recruit friend playing this on his tape recorder while doing laundry. I'd never heard of Magnum and thought they were a new group, my friend soon filled me in on what I'd missed.

Now while I like some of the early stuff (Just Like An Arrow & How Far Jerusalem amongst the few), this album is the definitive Magnum album for me. Produced by Roger Taylor of Queen, this album shows the group in true radio-friendly rock mode and the influence of Taylor is clear when you listen to other material. A lot of rock purists are not so hot on this style, but it's the only way I listen to rock so I'm happy. There's not a duff track on this album, even though Magnum didn't get their commercial breakthrough until the follow-up single Start Talking Love a few years later (before sadly fading away again).

Best tracks : Need A Lot Of Love, Midnight (You Won't Be Sleeping), When The World Comes Down & Back Street Kid, although the rest are not far behind. Although it's very much an album of it's time, it is still a big player in my house.

I have to say that I'm terribly biased towards Magnum and I make no apology for that but this is surely one of the truly great albums and must rank alongside Bryan Adams' Reckless, Mac's Rumours and the like. From the haunting 'Need a Lotta Love' to the powerful title track and the sublime 'Midnight', this album has the lot. If ever a track was a 'headphones on, volume up and wallow', Midnight is it. 'Midnight' is remixed on Chapter & Verse but was produced by John Taylor ( Queen ) and you can tell - the drumming's up and kills the sax. Forget the 'best of' compilation albums - if you're going to get one Magnum album, get this. I bought this in '86 and even today, it still has pride of place in a CD collection of over 750. Get this and you can keep your lottery ticket in it - you'll always know where it is.

This album has been a long-time favorite of mine. It is the second Magnum album that I discovered, "On a Storyteller's Night" being the first (and my favorite). Being from the U.S., I had never heard of them until I spent time in Germany as a high school exchange student in 1989. Their sound was distinctly original and new to me, yet the melodies have a sense of familiarity.

I now have almost all of their albums, except for the most recent few. While this album is more mainstream than many of their albums, the musicianship is nonetheless stellar. These are great songs that are easy to listen too.

For those of you who are new to Magnum, this album is among their most commercial, radio-friendly albums. It is simply great. Many of their other albums have more artistic compositions. If you were to take the 2 or 3 radio friendly songs from each of their other albums and put them on one cd, you would have something similar to this one.

In short, it's a great cd. It's not my very favorite of theirs, but it is among the top 3 or 4 (and they have a lot of albums!).

I love Magnum, but I can't summon a lot of enthusiasm for their 1986 album Vigilante. Coming on the heels of the more epic and majestic On a Storyteller's Night and The Eleventh Hour, the radio-friendly Vigilante just leaves me a bit cold. There were lighter, pop-influenced songs on both previous Magnum albums, but they were the exception, not the rule. Vigilante is a lighter, pure AOR album from start to finish. Perhaps this is due to record company expectations (Vigilante was the band's first album on Polydor) or the influence of Queen's Roger Taylor as producer. Whatever the reason, Vigilante just strikes me as a major departure from the "true" Magnum sound. The songs here are decent enough, but I can't help but miss the more epic rock songs that the band does so well. And was anyone supposed to take that cover image seriously after On a Storyteller's Night's powerful magnificent art?

I may not love the album, but I am surprised that it hasn't been reissued. The only version on CD I've been able to locate is a Japanese import, and the sound quality is not terribly impressive, especially compared to the remastered Magnum albums Castle/Sanctuary has released in recent years. Hopefully a cleaned-up version will be released at some point.

Magnum's "Vigilante" is their most commercial sounding album, and it might as well be their finest effort ever. Some would say it's time typical and some will say that it has little in common with the early Magnum. Well, that might be the case but the fact is that this album is very good - strong material, well performed and well produced. Magnum deliver quality rock with a lot of melody from the start to the end. You get rockers as well as ballads, and Magnum have not included a single filler on this solid album. Highly recommended!

Well I am.... I have to say in all honesty.... A true Magnum fan, In the past I followed them all the way to see them perform live and at there very best, which was in my own personal opinion...All the time ! Vigilante is certainly one of Magnum`s finest example`s of good solid heavy rock on any one given Cd ! "Need a lot of Love" is one of there finest along with "Vigilante" of coarse ! And there is also track`s like "Lonely Night" and "Midnight" on there too ! I personally have all Magnum`s Cd`s as I`m so into there genre of music and culture ! I Simply could`nt be without ! But if you like a bit of Live in concert Magnum then i recomend that You get you`re hand`s on Magnum`s "Live" cd !