Magazine is the lp left half-finished when Heart hit it big two years ago and split with Mushroom, an independent label. Having battled royally for the rights to the only four songs recorded at Mushroom Studios, the small Canadian company has now released the completed Heart tracks with enough shameless, inferior but authorized padding to look like an album-length effort: a smidgen of an old Wilson sisters tune ("Here Song," cut in 1974), a dreadful live "Mother Earth Blues," pointless cover versions of "I've Got the Music in Me" and Nilsson's "Without You." The stench of deception reeks.

Nonetheless, hard-core Heart fans shouldn't be deterred. Though the title track's portrait of a would-be groupie stiffs, "Heartless" and "Devil Delight" are prime cuts–the former a guitar-heavy rock & roller in the "Magic Man"/"Crazy on You" vein, the latter a slow, steamy rumble sung in Ann Wilson's very best Robert-Plant-meets-Abba, long-live-acid-rock slice and shriek. And the all-acoustic "Just the Wine" pleasantly recalls the gentler side of Joan Armatrading. In other words, Magazine would have made a nice EP. Stretched out over forty minutes, it doesn't enhance anyone's reputation. (RS 273)

DON SHEWEY