Real Life

Very solid British post punk. Parts of it sound like Bowie and that’s always fun

The Good: I’ve always preferred magazines to newspapers!
The Bad: That is’t real… life…
The Ugly: Uncertain what kind of magazine this is…

If someone would’ve bet me money, I’d have said that the opening song is more than familiar, at least to me!
I got all excited thinking that, perhaps, I’d been enjoying Real Life for longer than I thought. So I greedily clicked the wikipedia button, thinking that I would be told that Definitive Gaze has been used in mayor tv series, or movie productions… or something… to find that the name doesn’t even link to a separate Wiki page…

Then it dawns on me… I’ve been playing catch up on about 15 odd albums which, for one reason or another, I’ve not had the chance to really sit down and listen to… and this is one of them.
I have, however, started listening to this album on a couple of occasions… which means that this is where I’d heard the first song over and over again…

Now I need to consider whether or not trying to finish this list is good for my sanity…

Back to the band… I kind of like it, sometimes I love it… but at no point is there a “wow, I really needed to hear this before I die!” kind of feeling going on.

The consensus seems to be that, Mr D in all his wisdom, is pissing off one too many persons with his list.
This here not being a bad album, just uncertain why we’d have to hear it…

So yeah, sorry… 3*

Wasn’t too bad. Thought it’d be awful based on the album cover and reviews. But there’s some groove and melodies here that made my ears perk up a lot. 2.75/5

This is a terribly written review, but I ran it through a Korg synthesizer so that makes it better, right?

Favorite track(s): My Tulpa, Shot by Both Sides, The Light Pours Out of Me

I liked Real Life a little more than i was expecting to. Barry Adamson was involved on this (he was the bass player by the way) so i did at least expect this to be pretty good. While the album does lack the creativity that his mock film soundtracks, Moss Side Story and Oedipus Schmoedipus, I still found it to have a pretty enjoyable post punk, almost glam rock sort of sound. I think that this is an album where the back half shines more than the front half with a lot of those songs being really good especially on those guitars and melodies. In fact, i was initially gonna give this a high 3 stars but as i kept hearing those back half songs, that was enough to push it to a 4.
Best Song: Shot By Both Sides (Single Version)
Worst Song: Recoil

This album is a real mixed bag for me. It really jumps the gamut as far as post-punk goes.
Some more straight punk type stuff, some more goth rock type stuff (Like Motorcade), some weird 70's post-punk type stuff like David Bowie and Iggy Pop were doing.

Overall, it's better than most 70's post-punk I've listened to (Especially the aforementioned Motorcade), but with the quality IMO being pretty hit and miss, it's not doing a ton for me personally.

Had never heard of this band. Not bad. I appreciate their energy. They don’t sound like everybody else. The vocalist’s tendency to over-enunciate when wanting to be dramatic is a bit annoying. But using 3/4 time is a nice touch (The great Beautician in the Sky)- sounds like a punk waltz with a bit of merry-go-round music thrown in.
I’m not saying this is one of my favorite albums, but at over 700 albums in, it’s nice to hear something with originality.

I’m at a 5.

Between the two 1978 post-punk albums we’ve gotten on back to back days, I can safely give this one the nod. This is a really good album. I can’t say I’ve heard of Magazine before this, but some of their members went on to do big stuff with other bands (namely Siouxsie & The Banshees and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds), so their talent level combined here makes for a pretty cool set of tracks, especially for 1978. Straight out of the gate with the buzzy & bassy intro of “Definitive Gaze”, the album never really hits a lull point instrumentally, managing to mix together some Kraftwerk-y synth use, some Bowie-esque guitar work, a bit of prog influence & just a touch of grunge / metal to come, for an eclectic mix of styles that holds up really nicely. It’s hard to fully classify this as post-punk, but whatever it is, I liked it a lot.

Lyrically, I think this album tends to be pretty strong; there’s a few times where the metaphors / intentions feel really loose, but parsing them feels like it’s meant as a satisfying bonus. Truthfully, you can get away with ignoring the lyrics on this album, save for whatever manages to catch your ear, which is usually pretty intentional. I don’t want to type a bunch of paragraphs about what I think each track means, but I do want to specifically point at “The Great Beautician in the Sky” – I think the idea of God as a beautician, pampering people with makeup (religion) as a sort of society-approving temptation is a really fascinating bit of imagery. The song doesn’t really spell that out, but that’s what I took it as.

Vocally, while I do think it takes a bit of time to get used to the slightly nasally tones of Howard Devoto, once you settle in, his vocals do end up sounding alright, especially by the back half of the album. It is still the weakest aspect here, but it’s not THAT bad. There are points where he overdoes some of the scratchier / aggressive tones, but that’s just a quirk to get used to. If nothing else, he’s usually got the right mood in his voice to get the emotions of the track across. I know vocal control to indicate tone should be second nature, but there’s a lot of post-punk albums we’ve gotten where the vocalists just feel sort of samey throughout, so even a bit of exaggerated emotion is better than sticking to a default setting.

Ultimately, I think they all blend together well. The witty songwriting covers for some of the odd vocal moments, and when the songwriting itself feels a bit too clever or confusing, the instrumental energy of the album more than covers for that. It’s a super satisfying 41 minutes if you just kinda loosen up & let yourself get into it, with a lot of variety across the board. After you get past the slightly long outro of “Burst”, the album really opens itself up, with the final 4 tracks being my favorite ones here. I love an album that feels bigger the longer it goes, & this fits the bill nicely. Hence, a 5, and a pretty strong 5 at that. It certainly feels like a seminal post-punk album, and I’m glad it’s on the list.

I seemed to be only getting rubbish albums lately and this was another one!

I will not include the bonus tracks from the 2007 remastered edition in this review.

I had at least heard of the English post-punk group Magazine before; their single "The Light Pours Out on Me" from their debut album was later covered by Ministry. Formed by frontman Howard Devoto after he left Buzzcocks, and also featuring a young Barry Adamson on bass in the original lineup, the band would become highly influential, and Real Life would be considered one of the first British post-punk records. How does it hold up decades later?

I can certainly say this is a real kooky record, complete with squelching synthesizers, John McGeogh's crunchy guitar riffs, Barry's thick bass lines, Martin Jackson's tight percussive beats, and Howard's rowdy talk-singing vocals. The tracks here are stacked with distinct and memorable hooks, all the while Howard described the seedy underbelly of his view of society with such dark, twisted lyrical imagery. Songs like "Shot by Both Sides", "Motorcade", "My Tulpa", and the aforementioned "The Light Pours Out on Me" effectively captured the lingering danger in this world.

That said, I'm not sure every track fully gripped me. I wasn't into the carnival-esque waltz that opens "The Great Beautician in the Sky", or how slurred Howard's delivery was on "Recoil", even if the fast-paced instrumental composition was stellar save for the stilted outro.

Still, I enjoyed Real Life and can recognize how instrumental Magazine was for the post-punk genre and the acts that would follow.

it was ok

Apparently I have listened to this album before, though I don't really remember it. I had already saved a couple songs to my likes on Spotify.

I think I was expecting a little too much from this. After reading a couple reviews I was sure I would love this album a lot. A few songs in and I'm not exactly sold. I really do like it but I'm not quite to the 'oh man I love this and will listen to more from them' point yet.
I ended up really liking this a lot. I don't think it is a perfect album but as I listened I liked it more and more. I can see why people say it was ahead of its time, but maybe just by a few years. I'll definitely revisit this one to see if I was just off at first or if this is a better/worse album than I thought. As of right now I call it a 4/5.

Early post punk? I like it!

Tight tight tight. Hyperactive melodic bass gives this a relentless propulsive energy, powerful high-up the neck dirty rhythm guitar bursts into surprisingly rock solos and melodic lead parts. Lots of tension building up and up then bursting out into a big major chorus. Some basic 1st gen punk songs as starting points but too much chaos and musicality to stick to that formula - instead they get weird and artsy. Absolutely rips.

Some solid rock and roll. Never heard of these guys, but I liked their style.

Very much from what I would consider the "smarter" end of the punk spectrum (Buzzcocks obvs, Stranglers etc) with Devoto's unique choppy snarling vocals powering everything along. Gets a little bit samey, but "Shot By Both Sides" is an absolute masterpiece that is worthy of a re-listen any time. The drum build into the chorus that then just keeps going..........*chefs kiss*

Only ever heard shot by both sides before … this was unexpectedly excellent 👍

I thought I had never heard of this band.
Until 'Shot By Both Sides' came on. Ah yes I remember that.
I wonder why they didn't break into the bigtime because a lot of this album is really good. Though it kinda loses its way towards the end.
Solid.

What a journey. From the very opening choords this was interesting, but I'm not sure I was ready for where this was going. Solid 5.