Music Banter - View Single Post

jackhammer · 07-30-2011, 05:48 PM

^^

Quality write up there

Magnum were unfashionable even in the 80's and never really got the balance right in terms of band imagery and direction.

Those magnificent Rodney Matthews album covers from the early 80's suggested an all out Prog band but Magnum were all about melody first and structure second but this ultimately was a hindrance for the band as they were so hard to market.

They produced many moments of what you term AOR but then they could make much longer songs with tempo changes both musically and stylistically and this is what most fans in the U.K remember them for.

The 1988 album Wings Of Heaven is a perfect example. It's an 8 track album with 5 tracks of insipid ballads or AOR inspired music but then we have Wild Swan, One Step Away and the superb 14+ min Don't Wake The Lion which are among some of the very best tracks they have ever done.

Such a frustrating band in that they were almost always forced by their various record companies to come up with radio friendly songs but unleashed from that the band really came into their own.

The memorable far outweighs the banal for me with The Spirit, The Prize, Soldier Of The Line, How Far Jerusalem and Kingdom Of Madness along with the aforementioned Wings Of Heaven tracks suggesting much more than just another AOR band.

07-30-2011, 05:48 PM	#4 (permalink)
jackhammer Ba and Be. Join Date: May 2007 Location: This Is England Posts: 17,331	^^ Quality write up there Magnum were unfashionable even in the 80's and never really got the balance right in terms of band imagery and direction. Those magnificent Rodney Matthews album covers from the early 80's suggested an all out Prog band but Magnum were all about melody first and structure second but this ultimately was a hindrance for the band as they were so hard to market. They produced many moments of what you term AOR but then they could make much longer songs with tempo changes both musically and stylistically and this is what most fans in the U.K remember them for. The 1988 album Wings Of Heaven is a perfect example. It's an 8 track album with 5 tracks of insipid ballads or AOR inspired music but then we have Wild Swan, One Step Away and the superb 14+ min Don't Wake The Lion which are among some of the very best tracks they have ever done. Such a frustrating band in that they were almost always forced by their various record companies to come up with radio friendly songs but unleashed from that the band really came into their own. The memorable far outweighs the banal for me with The Spirit, The Prize, Soldier Of The Line, How Far Jerusalem and Kingdom Of Madness along with the aforementioned Wings Of Heaven tracks suggesting much more than just another AOR band. __________________ It be my music and film collection. “A cynic by experience, a romantic by inclination and now a hero by necessity.”