Real Life (1978)

Real Life is the debut studio album by the English post-punk band Magazine, released in June 1978 by Virgin Records. It reached number 29 in the UK Albums Chart. The album includes a re-recorded version of the band's debut single "Shot by Both Sides", and was 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 and art rock. It was also included in the 2005 book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Background and recording

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. 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 Virgin's The Manor 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.

Release

Real Life was released on LP and cassette in June 1978. It peaked at no. 29 on the UK Albums Chart. "Shot by Both Sides", the album's only single, peaked at no. 41 on the UK Singles Chart.

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.

Reception

Real Life has received critical acclaim since its release. Jon Savage said in Sounds: "A commercial, quality rock album then, with deceptive depths. All is not revealed." 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.

Andy Kellman of AllMusic noted a perceived influence from Roxy Music, Iggy Pop and David Bowie, but felt that "instead of playing mindlessly sloppy variants of 'Hang on to Yourself,' Search and Destroy,' and 'Virginia Plain'" they were "inspired by the much more adventurous Low, The Idiot, and For Your Pleasure." In a mixed review,The Irish Times called it an "exuberant debut" but felt "it leant too heavily on Dave Formula's keyboards". The Guardian observed that "John McGeoch's unpredictable, distress-flare guitar solos and Dave Formula's bold, busy synths gave Devoto's sociopathic disgust a terrifying grandeur which influenced, among others, Radiohead and the Manic Street Preachers.

Legacy

Real Life is included on several "best of" lists. It was included in The Guardian's "1,000 Albums to Hear Before You Die" list in 2007.Sounds also ranked it at No. 89 in its "100 Best Albums of All Time" list in 1986. In 2006, Uncut ranked it at No. 37 in its "100 Greatest Debut Albums" list.