The Greatest Hits Of Big Country And The Skids
The Greatest Hits Of Big Country And The Skids
Customer Review: Pure, visceral music from an under-rated master songwriter
The fact that the late Stuart Adamson could make his guitar sound like bagpipes means it’s easy to dismiss the man as one among many tub-thumping Celtic rockers. In fact, he was one of the most prolific and creative songwriters of his generation, beginning his career barely out of school with punk outfit The Skids and finishing it with the unexpected alt-country collaboration that was The Raphaels, crossing continents and all shades of moods in between. For those who happen to like the tub-thumping Celtic rock of “Fields of Fire”, this double CD is an excellent introduction to the full range of Stuart Adamson’s songwriting craft; for those not so familiar with the repertoire of Big Country, this is as near as anything to a perfect distillation of more than 20 years of one of Britain’s finest musicians.
The double CD package divides up approximately into “Hits” and “Misses”. CD1 contains most of the familiar material from the Skids and early Big Country; there are a few omissions, as is inevitable in such a large compilation, and no doubt most diehard fans will be miffed that SOMETHING they love hasn’t been included (my personal most missed track being the hugely under-rated “Hold the Heart”), but this CD stands up well alongside earlier Greatest Hits compilations and even surpasses them by including a few of the lesser-known, minor hits from the later albums, including “Fragile Thing” (with Eddi Reader) which in my opinion was Big Country’s finest song. CD2 is the real gem. The early Skids material on side 1 quite frankly isn’t their most interesting material, but the lesser-known tracks on CD2 (particularly “Circus Games”) more than make up for this and show the creative promise of things to come. CD2 also benefits from Big Country’s best attempt at a folk-song, “Thirteen Valleys” (why this was never a hit is beyond me), and a selection of stand-out tracks from later albums “No Place Like Home”, “Why the Long Face” and (especially) “Driving to Damascus”. In the latter album especially, Adamson reached a creative pinnacle, but the relative failure of these later works in terms of album sales and publicity have meant that even a lot of die-hard Big Country fans haven’t had the chance of a proper exposure to this material. I can speak from personal experience that after a few listens, tracks like “You Dreamer” and “Heart of the World” are every bit as likely to get you singing along as the likes of “King of Emotion” or “Look Away”.
The hidden gem of this compilation, for me, is the closing set of three songs from Adamson’s alt-country-fusion collaboration, The Raphaels. The pairing of musicians and songwriters here is an unlikely one at first, but the complementarity in the writing and the musical styles are quite remarkable: this is like a lo-fi, more mature, intimate Big Country with acoustic instrumentation in place of the bagpipey guitars. The arrangement of “Too Many Ghosts” here is simply exquisite, suggesting that this song could become a classic on the quiet.
There are a few flaws with this compilation: the occasional missed track, and the fact that the record company’s attempts to produce a vaguely chronological arrangement on each disc deprives us of one of Stuart Adamson’s trademarks, the ability to write the ultimate album-openers (having both “Look Away” and “Save Me” in the middle of their respective discs doesn’t sound quite right somehow). The lack of sleeve-notes, as another reviewer highlighted, is also a missed opportunity. Apart from that though, it’s hard to fault it. Stuart Adamson wears his heart on his sleeve whether writing anthems of Celtic pride, or mournful ballads possibly based on his own ultimately tragic life; for instantly singable rock music that grabs you right in the guts and never lets go, he is simply unsurpassed. Honour his legacy and buy this album!
Customer Review: Missing Star
There’s no denying that this is an excellent compilation of The Skids and B.C. — it’s very good and commendably broad in its inclusions. My problem with it is that there’s no sleevenotes. It’s like the record company wanted to put the music out there, but kinda couldn’t get it together to make this a cd for fans and first timers alike. Even just a few words.
Music 5 stars.
cheers
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