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Breath of Life (Magnum album)

Breath of Life is the 12th studio album by English rock band Magnum. It was released in 2002 by SPV.

Breath of Life
Studio album by
Magnum
Released25 February 2002
Recorded2001–2002
StudioMad Hat Studios, Wolverhampton
United Kingdom
GenreRock
LengthRegular: 58:49
Limited: 74:58
Disc 2: 00:00
LabelSPV
ProducerTony Clarkin
Magnum chronology
Days of Wonder
(2000) 		Breath of Life
(2002) 		Long Days, Black Nights
(2002)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
MelodicRock.com[2]

Breath of Life is Magnum's comeback album after a break of more than six years. The album marks the return of Bob Catley (vocalist), Tony Clarkin (guitarist) and Mark Stanway (keyboards). Clarkin produced the album during summer 2001 at the Mad Hat Studios in Wolverhampton.

Clarkin says, "The break since the middle of the Nineties was definitely necessary for me. Since the end of the Seventies, in fact since we embarked on the preparations for our debut recording Kingdom of Madness, not a single month had gone by in which I didn't work for Magnum, composed for the group, or at least thought of them permanently. For almost twenty years, all my thoughts had revolved around the band. I needed a break to clear my head and to be able to devote myself to the band again with renewed energy."[3] – Tony Clarkin, 2002.

During his sabbatical, Clarkin worked as a producer, wrote songs for other artists and brought out two albums with Hard Rain together with Bob Catley. Both "Still" and "Dream About You" were demoed by Clarkin and Sue McCloskey. Bob Catley has stated that Breath of Life presented a mix between the styles of Magnum and Hard Rain.[4]

The album was originally intended to be a double CD release containing a free CD of old Magnum material. However, SPV reduced the package to a limited edition version including three additional tracks on a single CD to lower costs. The double CD was released in Japan.[5]

All of the drum parts on the album are drum samples or were played by Tony Clarkin.[5]

Track listing

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All tracks are written by Tony Clarkin, except where noted

Original 2002 release
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Cry" 5:14
2."This Heart" 4:03
3."Everyday" 6:34
4."Still"Tony Clarkin, Sue McCloskey4:02
5."Dream About You"Tony Clarkin, Sue McCloskey4:15
6."Breath of Life" 4:48
7."After The Rain" 4:03
8."That Holy Touch" 5:11
9."Let Somebody In" 4:19
10."The Face of an Enemy" 3:47
11."Just Like January" 4:29
12."Night After Night" 7:55
Limited edition bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
13."The Flood (Red Cloud's War)" (Live)6:30
14."Back Street Kid" (Live)5:29
15."We All Need To Be Loved" (Acoustic radio session)4:21
Disc 2 (Japanese edition)
No.TitleLength
1."The Flood (Red Cloud's War)" (Live)6:30
2."Back Street Kid" (Live)5:29
3."It Must Have Been Love" (Live)5:53
4."We All Need To Be Loved" (Acoustic radio session)4:21
5."Only A Memory" (Live)6:12
6."Born To Be King" (Live)5:58

Additional Japanese sleeve notes

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"The only information I can give you on these tracks is that every tour we recorded each night straight onto DAT at the desk so we could check later on the bus how we played and which song went down the best or died whatever the case maybe. We soon abandoned this idea because it drove us nuts but the sound engineer continued to record every show but without stating when or where we were at the time. I think he went nuts as well.

"'We All Need To Be Loved' was an acoustic session for the radio and 'Born To Be King', 'It Must Have Been Love' and 'Only A Memory' on these live versions are different to how we did them on the final albums.

"To leave you with one thought at the end of a tour we could have sixty or seventy DATs to listen to, we never did, so now it's up to you."[6] – Tony Clarkin, 2002

Personnel

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Additional musicians

  • Wally Lowe – bass guitar (on disc 2)
  • Mickey Barker – drums (on disc 2)

Charts

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Chart (2002) Peak
position
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[7] 67
UK Rock & Metal Albums (OCC)[8] 14

References

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  1. ^ AllMusic review
  2. ^ MelodicRock.com review Archived 29 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Magnum Archived 14 May 2003 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Interview with Bob Catley of Magnum, Rok Podgrajšek. therocktologist.com, 2012.
  5. ^ a b Magnum | Interview | Lords of Metal metal E-zine – Issue 14: March 2002
  6. ^ Clarkin, Tony (2002). Breath of Life – Sleeve Notes. In Breath of Life [Japanese Edition] (pp. 18) [CD liner notes]. Japan: Nippon Crown Co. Ltd.
  7. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Magnum – Breath of Life" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 30 October 2023.
  8. ^ "Official Rock & Metal Albums Chart Top 40". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 30 October 2023.
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