Scottish, new wave romantic Roddy Frame had our hearts aflutter on his pop outfit's debut album, High Land, Hard Rain in 1983. Formed in Glasgow in 1980, Frame was the creative voice and poetic genius behind Aztec Camera with help from hired musicians, Campbell Owen and Dave Mullholland and later backed by Malcom Ross of Orange Juice and Josef K. Frame let his unguarded heart guide him through a parade of lovely jingle-jangle pop numbers full of powerful melody. Sounding somewhere between the soft edge of Elvis Costello and bitter element of Belle & Sebastian, Frame's first was an instant indie classic for Rough Trade Records. Aztec Camera never quite duplicated its success on its first album with its poignant pop sensibility or precious poetic tenderness often overcome by bad blue-eyed soul on its last three albums; bringing back to mind Blow Monkees B-Sides or sappy Simply Red outakes. High Land, Hard Rain featured classics like the upbeat 'shout from the rooftops' "Oblivious," which may have Howard Jones swimming in his premature grave. Good luck finding this one on CD, as this one is for the vinyl age with contemporary tunes like "Pillar to Post" and "Walk Out to Winter." Wash this one down with a tasty ESB, called Logan's Pride from Revolution Brewing and all is good.
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