By Jim Rowland
Fans of legendary Brum melodic rockers Magnum, and indeed the whole rock community, have just been dealt a massive blow with the sad announcement that guitarist, song writer and founder member Tony Clarkin has passed away, following the news in December that he was suffering from a debilitating spinal condition. At least some consolation for fans comes with the now poignant release of the brand new album ‘Here Comes The Rain’, Magnum’s 23rd studio outing.
There are few bands that have been more enduring, prolific and consistent than Magnum since the release of their debut album back in 1978, and Tony Clarkin wrote all the songs. Over the past twenty or so years, they have released an album every two years like clockwork, and if you take a random pick of any of those albums – from ‘Princess Alice and the Broken Arrow’ to ‘Escape From The Shadow Garden’ to ‘Lost On the Road To Eternity’ to the most recent ‘The Monster Roars’, the consistently high standard of their work is quite astonishing. And that is of course in addition to those classic early albums from the late ’70s through the ’80s. Magnum have come up with the goods time and time again, and this latest, potentially final, album is no exception.
‘Run Into The Shadows’, ‘After The Silence’ and ‘Borderline’ are big, beefy Magnum anthems, whilst the title track, along with ‘Some Kind Of Treachery’, ‘The Day He Lied’ and the prog-tinged ‘I Wanna Live’ are the type of mid-paced dramatic epics that Magnum have always done so well.
The keyboards of Rick Benton play a leading role over much of the album, and it could be argued there’s less full-on up tempo hard rocking numbers on the album, with the notable exception of the excellent ‘Blue Tango’, with Tony Clarkin really letting it rip on this heavy belter. ‘The Seventh Darkness’ is quite a belter as well, with the added twist of a brass section adding a jazzy element, proving that whilst Magnum are good at sticking to what they do best, there’s always room for a little innovation along the way.
In view of this week’s news, I cannot really say that Tony Clarkin has gone out on a high with ‘Here Comes The Rain’, simply because everything that Magnum have put out has been consistently on a high, and this, his last, is another one. We could perhaps look upon it as a parting gift. ‘Here Comes the Rain’ will be available in CD + DVD, double vinyl LP, box set and digital download formats, once again with some excellent artwork from Rodney Matthews.
It’s not really the time to speculate on the future of Magnum right now, rather it is time to pick up any one of those twenty three albums – I might start at the beginning with ‘Kingdom Of Madness’ – and celebrate the wonderful music Tony Clarkin has given us over all those years. He will certainly be greatly missed.
- ‘Here Comes The Rain‘ is due to be released tomorrow (Friday 12 January).
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