Track Listing

1. Prize
2. Breakdown
3. Great Disaster
4. Vicious Companions
5. So Far Away
6. Hit And Run
7. One Night Of Passion
8. Word
9. Young And Precious Souls
10. Road To Paradise
11. Word
12. True Fine Love
13. Prize
14. Breakdown
15. Vicious Companions
16. Road To Paradise
17. Prize
18. One Night Of Passion

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11934 in Music
• Released on: 2008-02-26
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .26 pounds

Customer Reviews

Arty hard rock at it's peak
I have to admit, this is my favorite Magnum album. To me, it exemplifies everything Magnum had set out to do before their drop into 'pop rock' in the eighties. But I also know that this was not a very successful album for them- which kind of makes sense.

On this album Magnum were producing themselves, and so had a lot of creative freedom. This shows through quite clearly as there is a lot of 'arty' stuff here- this is truly progrssive rock. The music much more experimental than 'Chase the Dragon' and it's predecessors, but with the hard rock edge that is the Magnum sound.

The first half of the album is probably the best, with the synth-laden 'The Prize' providing a powerful opening number. 'The Great Disaster' is a great energetic track in the style of 'The Battle' with some great musicianship involved. 'The Word' is nice relief from all this, showing that Magnum could still write a ballad without losing their hard sound. 'So Far Away' is just weird- either you like it or you don't.

However, this does not fit everyone's tastes and I'm aware of this. Most of the material made after this album is nowhere near as hard or progressive as this, yet it was the bands most popular era. Thus, fans of the earlier Magnum material will be most likely to like this. Others will almost certainly hate it.

ROAD TO PARADISE???
After the success of 1982's Chase The Dragon, Magnum could be forgiven for thinking that the big time was just around the corner. However, The Eleventh Hour represents one of the most difficult periods the band would ever have to endure.
What's a shame is that this, Magnums fourth studio effort is a good, solid record. The first four tracks, The Prize, Breakdown, Vicious Companions and The Great Disaster, get the album of to a flying start and show guitarist/songwriter Tony Clarkin becoming more adept at creating good songs of a shorter length. However, with the exception of the excellent One Night Of Passion and the anthemic The Word, The Eleventh Hour runs out of steam a little. All in all though, Magnum managed to create a follow up to the superb Chase The Dragon that more than holds its own, and with some more inspired cover artwork by Rodney Matthews, The Eleventh Hour is a decent package.
Magnum's major problem that year was a lack of marketing muscle from the record label and also being forced to self produce the music, for cost cutting purposes. Couple this up with the end of The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal movement in which the band had been carelessly pigeonholed, and the albums lack of major league success isn't so much of a mystery. However, good times were only a couple of years away, and Magnum would never sound the same again. In the meantime, sit back, relax and enjoy one of the bands more forgotten efforts. A guilty pleasure indeed.

A Forgotten Classic
As a long time Magnum fan , I recently rediscovered my vinyl recording of this album , and realised there are a number of classics here that have been overlooked on the live circuit over the years . In fact , Tony Clarkin alludes to this in the sleevenotes interview he gave for this remastered expanded edition of the album .

The original album features a band reaching towards the pinnacle of their career ( the next album was 'On A Storytellers Night' ) , and the maturity and variation of the songwriting by Mr Clarkin exemplifies this .

As well as the original album , there are included some live recordings and remixed versions of tracks that add to the quality of the album overall .

So if you're a Magnum fan , or even a fan of prog rock , this is definitely worth a look .