Magazine

An accurate title, Where the Power Is successfully trots out the bouncier, assaultive side of Magazine. They were one of the best in the early era of post-punk, rarely doing anything mediocre. Released simultaneously with the triple-disc Maybe It's Right to Be Nervous Now, it oddly duplicates much of 1987's Rays and Hail compilation. So why not keep Rays and Hail in print and just reissue it with additional liner notes or something? Well, the answer's commerce. A new title means new sales, and even completists will apprehensively shell out again for the same batch of songs. Literally -- there's only a handful of songs here that aren't on Rays and Hail. Though some of the versions may differ (album version versus single version), only compulsive completists give a toss about such things. Confusingly, Rays and Hail did remain in print when this was issued, even getting a repressing! Did someone in Virgin's catalog department fall asleep? Fine as an isolated release for the newbie, Where the Power Is just makes things quite confusing for the rest, basically a baffler amongst the rest of Magazine's discography. Not a great deal can be debated as far as it being representative is concerned, so in that manner it succeeds. ~ Andy Kellman, All Music Guide