Magazine
Album: No Thyself
Label: Wire-Sound
Tracks: 10
Website: www.wire-sound.com

All set to rock the autumn trees to their very roots, Howard Devoto - once brilliantly described as the "Orson Welles of punk" - has not only decided to continue his regrouping of the criminally neglected (until very recently anyway) post-punk innovators he's only gone and released an album of brand, spanking new material - the first in 30 years.

In almost any other circumstances this would be a disastrous state of affairs - a once defiant and proud band taking advantage of their undoubtedly influential back pages to scoop a few quid that'll see them into their dotage. But give thanks and praise for Devoto has pulled off a masterstroke in fashioning a record that more than holds its own with Magazine's first generation highlights from their scratchy debut Real Life (1978), through the stately Secondhand Daylight (1979) to career high The Correct Use of Soap (1980) and easily surpasses their best-forgotten post-split swansong Murder, Magic and the Weather (1981).

And there is much in No Thyself that sounds like the Magazine of yore, although fully seasoned fans may find Devoto's 1983 solo album Jerky Versions of the Dream a more satisfying comparison. Still, there's a sense of drama, a playful devotion to making an impact and unexpected lyrical journeys - notably on the a-little-bit-wrong Other Thematic Material in which Howard gets all unnecessary and carnal.

No matter, Noko's guitar is well to the fore throughout, the driving force behind album stand outs Do the Meaning and Hello Mister Curtis (with apologies), while The Worst of Progress… is probably the best example of why Magazine are routinely trotted out as an influences by scenesters keen to grab a slice of retro-cool.

Elsewhere, Holy Dotage and The Burden of a Song are classic Magazine and Final Analysis Waltz captures a band in splendid musical form.

"The connoisseur's choice" says the back of the promo sleeve. Hard to argue really.

Nick Churchill