BRAND NEW MORNING

Not brand new ...

I sometimes recognized the title song 'Brand new morning' on a sampler and was surprised. A good, solid rock song with some prog patches. So I was curious about the whole release.

The songs are Hard/Heavy Rock similiar to Thunder, Whitesnake etc. and of course with the unique voice from Bob Catley. Not bad and many fans of rock music might be satisfied.

But for me and I think for a lot of prog fans who usually want to hear more complex songs this is too simple. Only 'Brand new morning' and 'The scarecrow' bring us closer. The rest of the songs are leaving me alone with the question 'Where have I heard this before?'

So my conclusion is: Good but not brand-new and not enough to be an excellent addition to any prog music collection.

Some facts about British mega rockers, Magnum. Never heard of Magnum? Read on! Magnum's first album Kingdom of Madness was released in 1978. This album, Brand New Morning, was released two years ago. That's twenty-nine years folks. Obviously there's a lot of history behind this band, which one could probably write a book about but here's the condensed version.

They say that timing is everything and I believe it. I've seen it my whole life. Humanity is a mass of trends, some short term, some intermediate and some long term. Magnum formed in 1975 and Kingdom of Madness was released in 1978, about the time when punk rock was taking off. Nevertheless, everyone didn't gravitate to punk and Magnum was good enough to keep churning out albums. A visit to their website reveals the listing of forty-six albums not counting the new release, Princess Alice and the Broken Record, slated for release next month. If it's as good as Brand New Morning, I'm a buyer.

Brand New Morning

If despite their thirty-two years in existence, Magnum is new to you, let me make an admission, they are new to me as well. I started about three months ago with the acquisition of Brand New Morning and from subsequent acquisitions and downloads I have made since; I may have started with if not their best, probably their most consistent album.

Magnum music is essentially rock. The tempos run from medium to medium slow. Their strength seems to be in their memorable catchy choruses and extraordinary musicianship.

This twenty-first century version of Magnum finds them updating their music somewhat but overall it is very much like their pre new millennium music. Magnum's lead singer is Bob Catley has a gravely Sammy Hagar/Bob Segar voice

Conclusion

I like this album. My first inclination was to rate all songs five stars, but after further review I decided only four songs were truly five stars. Of the nine songs on the album, all were at least four stars. Four were bonafide five star songs one, Immigrant Song was four and a half with the remaining four - four stars.

The title track, Brand New Morning, with a solid hard rock feel, not unlike Def Leppard, vied with We All Run, a soft, head bopping number with an ultra catchy chorus; The Last Goodbye, a strong rock number with a great piano intro and another great chorus and Scarecrow, a medium slow tempo, feel good, ten minute number all seem to vie equally for the album's best song

After the whole hit and miss ordeal with the first two Magnum albums I decided that there wasn't any reason for me to pursue the bands other releases. Of course that didn't stop me from listening to Brand New Morning but the reason for that was entirely different.

One of my friends at KTH (Royal Institute of Technology) is a huge fan of '70s rock bands like Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, Saxon etc. So one day after a brief discussion it turned out that he also was a huge Magnum fan. Although we seemed to have entirely different tastes when it came to the band's career he still recommended me to check out some of their later works and ultimately agreed to lend me his copy of Brand New Morning.

Well the album does indeed show a totally new side of Magnum for me starting with the heavy title track Brand New Morning which was actually not bad at all! I was really surprised by how great Bob Catley's vocals still sound although he's been in the business for more than 30 years. Tony Clarkin has acquired a totally different style where his guitar basically creates a wall of sound the Bob's vocals bounce off while the rest of the instruments are there to keep the groove going.

Still many of these songs are very forgettable and listening to this album today on Spotify brings almost no memories to me. It doesn't really help that many of these songs make me think of other popular bands like Whitesnake or even Sonata Arctica!

No, Brand New Morning is by no means a return to form, at least not the one I experienced on their 1978 debut album.

**** star songs: Brand New Morning (6:17) We All Run (4:54) The Scarecrow (9:50)

*** star songs: It's Time To Come Together (4:36) The Blue And The Grey (5:53) I'd Breathe For You (6:27) The Last Goodbye (6:28) Immigrant Son (5:35) Hard Road (5:21)

Just another morning

The previous Breath Of Life album had been a return to form for Magnum after three weak albums in the 90's. While it lacked standout tracks like Days Of No Trust, Wild Swan, and Don't Wake The Lion from 1988's Wings Of Heaven, Breath Of Life was clearly the best that Magnum had done since that album. The present album, though also far better than any of the weak 90's releases, fails to live up to the relatively high expectations set by Breath Of Life. It certainly doesn't take things anywhere beyond Breath Of Life in either quality or style. Like all the previous Magnum albums since the mid-80's, this one too is full of melodic (Hard) Rock with catchy choruses. Fans of Asia and Styx should sit up and take note! The progressive touches that occasionally sneak into the band's oeuvre, is not wholly absent here, but it is slightly less apparent than on Breath Of Life. Also, I find this album less energetic and passionate compared to the immediate predecessor.

The distinctive vocals of Bob Catley is a large part of what makes the typical Magnum sound and his voice is again stronger here than in the 90's. The most important thing in melodic Rock is, of course, the melodies themselves. These ones are not particularly memorable, but neither are they bad as such.

This is not terrible music by any means, but Prog fans will most probably be less than impressed by this album