Since the start of the myprogmusic site at the end of 2015, the British from 'Magnum' have accompanied me with their albums which I enjoy reviewing on each release and, it has now become a sort of ritual: every two years, at the beginning year, it's one of the first opuses that I review. As a reminder, 2016 saw the release of 'Sacred Blood Divine Lies', 2018, 'Lost on the Road to Eternity', 2020, 'The Serpent Rings' and 2022 'The Monsters Roars'. Two years later, almost to the day, here is 'Here Comes The Rain', but this album title takes on a very special character because it is actually raining in the 'Magnum' house and among all the band's fans because, the new fell on January 7: 'Tony Clarkin', founder of 'Magnum' with 'Bob Catley' died. This release will therefore be the last for the guitarist who was part of this formation for more than 50 years, and the 'I Wanna Live' which is placed as the penultimate track is heavy with emotion, 'Bob Catley' singing "I want tell the world...I want to live". So, the best way to pay tribute to Tony is to talk about this album which is, like each opus of the group, filled with beautiful melodies that go straight into your head and never come out.
On the menu for this opus, 10 original compositions for 50 minutes of listening. From the outset, with 'Run Into The Shadows', we enter fully into the group's recognizable style with a well-paced first melodic gem and a chorus that we have an irresistible desire to repeat with 'Bob Catley', then the eponymous title continues with a mid-tempo which delicately tickles our eardrums with a beautiful melancholic side. Moreover, this is the general feeling that emerges from this album, because apart from the muscular rock 'Blue Tango', the whole is bathed in mid-tempos or ballads: in the mid-tempo department, we won't be able to miss 'Some Kind Of Treachery' and its calm verses enhanced by a magnificent piano/vocal duo, and 'After The Silence' and its catchy melody, then 'The Seventh Darkness' and its resplendent brass and, of course 'I Wanna Live', with this finale which brings tears to the eyes, are also remarkable compositions, without forgetting the final title 'Borderline' with a very beautiful last melody made in 'Magnum'. And finally, the two ballads 'The Day He Lied' and 'Broken City' add a little more emotion and are to be added to the best ballads of the group.
In summary, even if this last album was released in unfortunate circumstances, this latest album from the British 'Magnum' still proves to us that more than 50 years after their debut, that they are still capable of offering us very good melodic rock and I'm sure that 'Tony Clarkin' would have borrowed from one of his friends that he must have found up there this phrase so often repeated: "and the show must go on"... | |
