There’s no such thing as an album that’s a perfect 10 – but there those that are one notch below. The 9’s is an occasional series which explores some of those records.
Released: 1997
About
Mick Head’s twentieth century career mishaps are the stuff of legend; a former Pale Fountain, with their successors Shack he was a pincushion for the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune. Rebooting himself as The Strands with brother John and ensconced in a Liverpool studio with no time constraints, The Magical World of.. took two drug impaired years to make and then a further couple to be released. What emerged was arguably his masterpiece, a Mersey hallucination of Love and The Byrds that first cocoons and then enchants the listener.
Why a 9?
Like his hero Arthur Lee, Head was able to master whatever style he turned his pick to, from the starlit folk of Hocken’s Hay through the appropriately nodding louche of X Hits The Spot, whilst the feather light opener Queen Matilda was a troubadour’s work of skill and sorcery. With typically abysmal luck however any sort of Britpop tailwind it might’ve earned if released at it’s peak had blown out by the time The Magical World of... limped into a hubristic sunlight. It’s cult status though somehow suits; hard to find and harder to accidentally stumble upon, three decades later you can still be the best mate ever by introducing a lucky neophyte to it’s consuming wizardy.
Why Is It Important?
The list of bands in thrall to their mentors – Big Star, Love, The Byrds, The Small Faces, The Beatles, you do the matching up – is almost endless. Very few of these disciples though have ever gone much beyond derivation, a feat The Magical World of…achieves at least in part, with a stoned glory. It’s with no little irony that Mick Head’s best album is his least recognised, but he long ago learned to live with the idea that fate is a cruel mistress.
You Should Listen To
Queen Matilda, X Hits The Spot, Glyns and Jaqui, It’s Harvest Time, Hocken’s Hay, Loaded Man.
The Voice Of Unreason 