Aztec Camera - High Land, Hard Rain

Orange Juice's early recordings and this, Aztec Camera's first album - they alone give Scotland the right to exist. Sure you heard it then. You might even have ignored it cause it was dainty and wee and fey. Well, if you blew it off you fucked up (ok, "fucked up" is a little strong, but if life has taught me anything it's that blowing off that which initially appears shallow and pointless only proves me to be so).

Christgau upon its release:

At first I did the obvious thing and pigeonholed this as high-grade pop--richer and truer than Haircut 100 or even the dB's or the Bongos and ultimately feckless anyhow. Now I think it's more like U2 with songs (which is all U2 needs). For sheer composition--not just good tunes, but good tunes that swoop and chime and give you goosebumps--Roddy Frame's only current competition is Marshall Crenshaw, and unlike Crenshaw he never makes you smell retro. His wordcraft is worthy of someone who admires Keats, his wordplay worthy of someone admired by Elvis C.; he sings and arranges with a rousing lyricism that melds militance and the love of life. These are songs in which sweet retreat can't be permanent, in which idealism is buffeted but unbowed--songs of that rare kind of innocence that has survived hard experience. So far, anyway--Frame is still very young. How unusual it is these days for youth to add resonance to what used to be teen music.

Roddy Frame never nailed it again, but this single record is a masterpiece. Hell, it would be the real deal in a world where everything that came out sounded like this. But it came out in a swirl of British New Romantic Synth slush and the record said, "Hey, I know I'm dainty and wee and fey, but eat shite! The rest of this crap can crawl under my kilt and take a sacking."

Oh and if you're still slagging it, take a listen and see if you remember getting so much right when you were 18 years old, cause that's how old Frame was when he wrote and recorded Oblivious.

A fuckin choice listen.

allmusic:

Aztec Camera led off the album with "Oblivious," a minimasterpiece of acoustic guitar hooks, lightly funky rhythms, and swooning backing vocals. If nothing tops that on High Land, Hard Rain, most of the remaining songs come very close, while they also carefully avoid coming across like a series of general soundalikes. Frame's wry way around words of love (as well as his slightly nasal singing) drew comparisons to Elvis Costello, but Frame sounds far less burdened by expectations and more freely fun. References from Keats to Joe Strummer crop up (not to mention an inspired steal from Iggy's "Lust for Life" on "Queen's Tattoos"), but never overwhelm Frame's ruminations on romance, which are both sweet and sour. Musically, his capable band backs him with gusto, from the solo-into-full-band showstopper "The Bugle Sounds Again" to the heartstopping guitar work on "Lost Outside the Tunnel." Whether listeners want to investigate further from here is up to them, but High Land, Hard Rain itself is a flat-out must-have.

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