Magnum - The Essential Collection

Storytellers cut off in their prime

Every lover of melodic, grandiose hard rock ought to own at least one Magnum album, but is this the one? Well, as an introduction to the band it succeeds pretty well, starting appropriately with some of the highlights of their Queeninfluenced 1978 debut, Kingdom Of Madness, and carrying on the story through to 1985 and the undisputed classic On A Storyteller’s Night. The problem is, that’s as far as it gets. The 16 tracks here are mainly well chosen, and display the quality and variety of the band’s songwriting and performance throughout, but there are already several excellent compilations dealing with this part of the band’s career. Any Essential Collection surely requires something from Magnum’s Polydor period, which, after all, included career highlights Wings Of Heaven and Vigilante. The supposedly ‘comprehensive’ sleevenote is simply a good but brief band biography, sorely lacking in comparison with the lavish booklets of the 20th anniversary CDs Castle put out a few years back. Great band, great music, nicely packaged, but only half of the story.

Metro | METRCD 218

Reviewed by William Pinfold
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