Review MAGNUM ‘Here Comes the Rain’

It’s almost becoming a beloved tradition that a new album by Magnum is released at the beginning of a new year. Since ‘Sacred Blood Divine Lies’, which was unleashed at the beginning of February, all of the following records hit the record stores in January and the newest album ‘Here Comes the Rain’ doesn’t break with tradition either.

Magnum fans have just had to deal with the bad news that the upcoming tour had to cancelled due to Tony Clarkin’s illness, which gives the new longplayer all the more important momentum.

For me it was the iconic ‘On a Storyteller’s Night’ that introduced me to the fascination of the Magnum sound and it was the following ‘Vigilante’ album that strengthened the enthusiasm. In the meantime we have moved on many, many years and Magnum are still releasing high quality albums. Driven by Tony Clarkin and Bob Catley, the band manages to stay true to their sound. It is timeless rock music that is characterized by great melodic arcs and a wonderful alternation of rock and soulfulness as a basic element.

With ‘Here Comes the Rain’, by the way a very fitting title for all fans in Northern Germany where it rains since weeks, Magnum have put ten songs on the record that cover the entire spectrum. I must confess that I needed a few rounds though before the beauty of the album unfolded.

It all starts with a song called ‘Run Into the Shadows’. It’s a typical Magnum song where Clarkin’s guitar sets the tone while leaving enough room for Catley’s extraordinary voice. The musical journey continues with the rather epic title track, which is quieter but not balladic. A Magnum anthem follows and is called ‘Some Kind of Treachery’, whereby the very calm verse turns into a relatively powerful chorus.

However, the strongest part of the album is in the middle section. On the one hand, there is the snappy ‘Blue Tango’, in which Magnum show that they can still rock powerfully. ‘The Day He Lies’ follows, an epic highlight with hooks you can’t resist. A song that breathes the spirit of the 80s. ‘The Seventh Darkness’ continues with a lot of verve and it’s the horn section giving the song an unusual twist.

With ‘Broken City’ it gets calmer and very emotional again before ‘I Wanna Live’ and ‘Borderline’, two more songs of great quality, finish off the album.

With ‘Here Comes the Rain’, Magnum prove that good music has nothing to do with age. Rather, it is a mixture of creativity, musical vision, saavy and passion which are the driving forces behind an excellent album. ‘Here Comes the Rain’ is such an album. It is a first musical highlight in 2024 and hopefully many more of them will follow.