A 25th Anniversary Edition Of Magic Dirt's 'Young And Full Of The Devil' Is Coming

18 March 2023 | 9:11 am | Mary Varvaris

"Where else are you gonna hear lyrics like that?"

(Pic by Andy Mac)

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Magic Dirt have announced the 25th-anniversary reissue of their iconic 1998 album, Young And Full Of The Devil, due for a physical release on Friday, 7 April, via Emergency Music / Remote Control Records. The remastered album is currently streaming.

The band’s debut album, Friends In Danger, hit the top ten on the ARIA Albums Chart upon its vinyl reissue in 2021 - will Young And Full Of The Devil accomplish the same feat?

Young And Full Of The Devil was created in a period when the band was bursting with creativity in 1997 - the album was recorded and mixed in just 12 days at Prahran’s Birdland Studios.

It was the first Magic Dirt album to feature guitar player Raul Sanchez - the band’s original guitarist, Dave Thomas, departed the band earlier that year due to creative differences.

Magic Dirt’s most memorable songs, like She-Riff and Rabbit With Fangs, are on Young And Full Of The Devil, with the band’s late bassist Dean Turner recalling the band's (stoned) work ethic, “We went in there and just had a good time you know. Just worked like 15, 17 hours a day… Just smoked lots of pot, lots of hash, took some acid, just hung out there the whole time,” in a 1997 interview with InPress magazine.

Co-producer Lindsay Gravina said about Magic Dirt singer Adalita in a statement, “This is the album where there could no longer be any question that Adalita had surpassed every female icon in Australian Rock history, and most of the male ones too... When she sings, it's always the truth; it’s raw, sometimes it’s scary, sometimes sublime. And where else are you gonna hear lyrics like that?”

The record now has an excellent reputation as an Aussie rock classic. Gravina concurs, “This record stands apart because, in the purest sense, it’s essentially an Art record... this album captured the whole zeitgeist of those times, a fucking apocalyptic catharsis, for us personally, but also for the times in general - a last Hurrah for a scene that had signalled its peak, and who better to call it?”

Pre-order the 25th-anniversary edition of Young And Full Of The Devil here. You can purchase a CD or purple vinyl via Artist First.