Celebrating Magazine's "After the Fact"

Poor "AFTER THE FACT" by MAGAZINE. Let us pause now to honor its memory.
I played that cassette compilation of the Manchester, England post-punk combo to death in college.
In my defense, that cassette deserved to be played until it was worn to inaudibility. It is packed with wonderful (and a few weird) songs.
Last night, I finally cobbled together enough songs from the Magazine debut "REAL LIFE" and the compilations "RAYS AND HAIL" and "SCREE" to recreate my long-lost cassette compilation on my iPod.
Things kick off in raucous fashion, with the Magazine classic "Shot by Both Sides." This classic song was co-written Magazine frontman Howard Devoto and his former BUZZCOCKS cohort, Pete Shelley.
Devoto left the Buzzcocks because he wanted to create more experimental music -- less of the "three-chord" stuff favored by the punk movement.
This experimentation comes to the fore in the third song on "After the Fact." "T.V. Baby" is dominated by a strangled saxophone and Devoto's warbled vocals.
"After the Fact" includes a Captain Beefheart cover ("I Love You You Big Dummy"), a spoken-word piece that sounds like dialogue from a horror film ("The Book"), a James Bond theme song ("Goldfinger") and enough catchy, memorable songs ("Rhythm of Cruelty," "The Light Pours Out of Me" and "A Song From Under the Floorboards") to make you play the cassette until it simply won't play any more.
Thanks to my newest playlist, I can give "After the Fact" the type of memorial it deserves: I can listen to it.