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Rating:
Snapshot 1983. A shy and unknown Scottish boy, Roddy Frame, travels from Glasgow down to London in search of fortune with the group that, in the early '80s, had released a series of well-received singles through a small label. The group is called Aztec Camera, but they are essentially his creation, fundamentally sessionmen devoted to the harmonic visions of this barely adult singer-songwriter who has set his mind on sending shivers down the spine of Elvis Costello, who was finally receiving the accolades in England that he had been denied, especially by critics.
The opportunity is golden: recording an album for Sire records, having singles launched properly on the radio, and everything that comes with it. Roddy doesn't need to be told twice, and the result of this work is still being discussed over 20 years later.
A little personal aside: I discovered Aztec Camera shamefully late, around the late '90s with a solo album by Frame titled "North Star" which I didn't like at all. "Soft Pop for old fogies," I thought.
Nonsense. Thanks to the spread of songs by bands like Travis or Belle & Sebastian, I traced back to the roots of that Scottish pop tradition which seems to never end.
But, still, I wasn't satisfied. Their best-known album, "Love" from 1988, matched my taste to a certain extent: somewhat predictable songwriting, overly polished sound... better Deacon Blue at these levels, or the Waterboys.
However, I knew there was a gem, a pearl that ABSOLUTELY needs to be rediscovered and given the rightful ovation, and it's this "High Land, Hard Rain" which I can fearlessly claim as one of the best albums I have ever listened to, a collection of breath-catching tracks for their freshness, immediacy, and irresistible melancholy "made in Scotland".
There are at least two hits that I believe anyone aged between 25 and 40 has heard at least once in their life, "Oblivious" and "Walk Out To Winter," which are authentic classics of the '80s despite those who consider the pop music of those years as junk... these two fabulous songs greatly inspired the catchiest and lightest moments of a seminal band like The Smiths (listen to "Cemetery Gates" and "William, It Was Really Nothing" from the Manchester ensemble to understand how), but the whole album is delightful from start to finish, from festive moments like "Pillar To Post" or "The Boy Wonders" to elegant ballads like "Back On Board" and "Release".
Latin sounds (whether cheerful or sad) magically blend with a typically British taste for melody and a detached yet involved singing style... beautiful, unbeatable tracks that even diminish in my eyes contemporary acts like Prefab Sprout's "Steve McQueen," adorned with surprisingly impeccable arrangements (considering that at the time Roddy Frame was barely 18 years old and that these songs transitioned within a few months from simple home demos to illuminating gems of rare and carefree beauty).
Ultimately, an authentic masterpiece that stands out on its own, beyond the subsequent production of the "group": if we consider the competitive environment "High Land, Hard Rain" faced upon its release (the fabulous debuts of Style Council, Everything But The Girl, and Talk Talk, not to mention The Smiths), one can understand how the musical genius of this former enfant prodige cannot continue to be "underestimated" for anything in the world, in the name of the cliché mockery related to '80s pop music: If I could give advice to a teenager who thinks perfect pop is that of Coldplay or James Blunt, I would tell them to toss those records in the trash and give a listen to songs that envelop the hearing in a timeless and sense-challenging vortex like "We Could Send Letters" or "The Bugle Sounds Again," besides those already mentioned.
Sometimes, "maturity" risks making you worse. Luckily, memories and records like this still exist.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 Oblivious (03:11)
From the mountain tops
Down to the sunny street
A different drum is playing a different kind of beat
It's like a mystery
That never ends
I see you crying and I want to kill your friends
I hear your footsteps in the street
It won't be long before we meet
It's obvious
Just count me in and count me out
And I'll be waiting for the shout
Oblivious
Met Mo and she's okay
Said no one really changed
Got different badges but they wear them just the same
Down by the ballroom
I recognized
That flaming fountain in those kindred caring eyes
I hear your footsteps in the street
It won't be long before we meet
It's obvious
Just count me in and count me out
And I'll be waiting for the shout
Oblivious
I hope it haunts me 'til I'm hopeless
I hope it hits you when you go
And sometimes on the edge of sleeping
It rises up to let me know
It's not so deep, I'm not so slow
They're calling all the shots
They'll call and say they phoned
They'll call us lonely when we're really just alone
And like a funny film
It's kinda cute
They've bought the bullets and there's no one left to shoot
I hear your footsteps in the street
It won't be long before we meet
It's obvious
Just count me in and count me out
And I'll be waiting for the shout
Oblivious
I hear your footsteps in the street
It won't be long before we meet
It's obvious
Just count me in and count me out
And I'll be waiting for the shout
Oblivious
02 The Boy Wonders (03:14)
I brought you some francs
From my travelling chest
You'll spare me the thanks
'Til you know I'm the best
So, come Hogmonay
When love comes in slurs
Resolutions I'll make
And you can label them hers
We threw our hands up high
We nearly touched the sky
We clicked our heels and spat and swore we'd never let it die
All those boy wonders
Sold their medals when they saw this train
Now this boy wonders
When he'll feel the fall of honest rain
I came from high land where the hopefuls have to hesitate
Now this boy wonders
Why the words were never worth the wait
I'm waiting, waiting
In pastel paper, pink over grey
We wrap, wrap, wrap and chuck, chuck away
The poor excuse they peddle as their prose
Dry your tears, tie your tongue
And you're never sixteen
And I'll give you a glimpse
Of the hard and the clean
And my travelling chest
Will be open to you
And boy will you learn
That you haven't a clue
I even asked my best friend
But he could not explain
It hit me when I left him
I felt the rain and called it genius
Called it genius
All those boy wonders
Sold their medals when they saw this train
Now this boy wonders
When he'll feel the fall of honest rain
I came from high land where the hopefuls have to hesitate
Now this boy wonders
Why the words were never worth the wait
03 Walk Out to Winter (03:23)
Walk out to winter, swear I'll be there.
Chill will wake you, high and dry
You'll wonder why.
We met in the summer and walked 'til the fall
And breathless we talked, it was tongues.
Despite what they'll say, it wasn't youth, we'd hit the truth
Faces of Strummer that fell from your wall
And nothing was left where they hung
So sweet and bitter, they're what we found
So drink them down and
Walk out to winter, swear I'll be there.
Chill will wake you, high and dry
You'll wonder why.
Walk out to winter, swear I'll be there.
Chance is buried just below the blinding snow.
You burn in the breadline and ribbons and all
So walk to winter
You won't be late, you'll always wait
This generation, the walk to the wall
But I'm not angry, get your gear
Get out of here and
Walk out to winter, swear I'll be there.
Chill will wake you, high and dry
You'll wonder why.
Walk out to winter, swear I'll be there.
Chance is buried just below the blinding snow.
Walk out to winter, swear I'll be there.
Chill will wake you, high and dry
Walk out to winter, swear I'll be there.
You'll find,
Snowblind
This is life
This is life
05 We Could Send Letters (05:47)
You said you're free, for me that says it all
You're free to push me and I'm free to fall
So if we weaken we can call it stress
You've got my trust, I've got your home address
And now the only chance that we could take
Is the chance that someone else won't make it all come true
We're making tracks that show our touch and go
And now it's touch and come, and you should know
But then four years won't mean that much to me
When I've been smothered in the sympathy you bleed
Just close your eyes again
Until these things get better
You're never far away
But we could send letters
While you were gone I reached another town
They couldn't help me, but they showed me round
And now I've seen what you can't understand
I'd try to lead you but I'd crush your hand
Because the people in the village know
It doesn't matter where you choose to go
The end's the same
I found some blood I wasn't meant to find
I found some feelings that we'd left behind
But then some blood won't mean that much to me
When I've been smothered in the sympathy you bleed
Just close your eyes again
Until these things get better
You're never far away
But we could send letters
I found some blood I wasn't meant to find
I found some feelings that we'd left behind
But then some blood won't mean that much to me
When I've been smothered in the sympathy you bleed
Just close your eyes again
Until these things get better
You're never far away
But we could send letters
06 Pillar to Post (04:01)
Words and music by Roddy Frame
Once I was happy in happy extremes
Packing my bags for the path of the free
From pillar to post I am driven it seems
These bitter tokens are worthless to me
So you appear and say how I've grown
and fill me up with faces I've known.
In this light they're far from divine
I'll save them up and spend them when I have time.
The salted taste of all your tears and woes
Sent me in haste my melancholy rose
Those tasteless lips were closed
You watched me come, you'll see me go.
Once I was happy in happy extremes
Packing my bags for the path of the free
From pillar to post I am driven it seems
These bitter tokens are worthless to me
Just like June the curtains are closed
The ghost of shame he sits here and sighs
I'll love the flames like I've loved the cold
I'll learn to love the life of the "could I, could I, could I"
So I don't cross my fingers any more
You looked for rags and found them at your door
How could you ask for more
Than everything you've heard before?
Once I was happy in happy extremes
Packing my bags for the path of the free
From pillar to post I am driven it seems
These bitter tokens are worthless to me
10 Down the Dip (02:19)
Words and music by roddy frame
Chorus:
I put all the love and beauty
In the spirit of the night
And I'm holding my ticket tight.
Stupidity and suffering
Are on that ticket, too
And I'm going down the dip with you.
I swear I'm touched but then I'm tired
Everyone who tries to tie me.
'cause I seem to realize
That my cup overflows.
And then I tumble down and take your hand
And no one even knows.
With the broken backs
And the pack of macks
Sayin' that's the way it goes.
Chorus
'cause I been facin' all the red
Me, I'm chasin' all the orange.
And while the bourgeois breed
All you need is greed
And that quiet remembrance day.
I'm gonna pull that chain
'til the heavens rain
And I see them wash away.
'cause I've bound myself to virtue
But I'm bound to be amused.
If it's less than this
You know I can't approve.
I've been hangin' with the hollow men
Who never got the groove
And I'm going down the dip with you.
Chorus
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