Aztec Camera / Roddy Frame: Classic or Dud?

https://soundcloud.com/elframo/green-jacket-grey

Yeah been hoping for that Postcard era stuff to turn up in an equivalent of Orange Juice's The Glasgow School or something. Has Roddy Frame publicly disowned it or anything?
Certainly High Land hrd rain sounds better without th etinny production taht was one arlier versions of the cd.

Oh, it's just one track, I thought it was the whole thing. Sorry.

I have a dusty old cassette featuring a tinny fuzzy bootleg of Green Jacket Grey in our loft which I haven't listened to (or even thought about) for about 20 years. I must go and try and find it.

Seriously considering getting my passport to attend one of the High Land shows.

I hope he 'll put out some new material soon — it's been 7 years since his last album. White Pony (a newish song he's been performing live for a few years) is great.

I'm hoping these are just warm up shows in the long run.

A new record would be fantastic.

I saw him doing an acoustic show last year, and if this tour is even half as good as that, I'll be a very happy lass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhFeRZv0mVc

Yes, issue "Green Jacket Grey" already! Unfortunately it will probably never officially happen since Roddy seems to hate it.

I heard that he played Green Jacket Grey and When The Spirit Shows in London on Sunday night. Maybe, just maybe, he doesn't hate it after all.

I was at the London show on sunday night. I've seen Roddy play acoustically many times, and (though I loved those acoustic gigs) this was on completely another level. A wonderful and utterly unforgettable evening. And, yep, he played Green Jacket Grey, The Spirit Shows and Just Like Gold. And this one of course:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8hN927iSrM

Not the song, the album "Green Jacket Grey"

but.

Aye, but playing songs from that era perhaps suggests he doesn't hate it as much as was previously thought. Maybe.

New old treats, something of a treasure trove: https://soundcloud.com/postcard-of-scotland/

gripped High Land, Hard Rain earlier this week based on the band name alone, friend of mine said they were buds with Orange Juice? really great record, sorta reminds me of Prefab Sprout and XTC

Good man, the follow up "Knife" is excellent as well. After that it gets patchy but there's moments of brilliance along the way. The best Roddy is voice+guitar.

Yes, early Aztec Camera was on the Postcard label. Malcolm Young was in Aztec Camera for a while, but he also spent time in the other Postcard bands, Orange Juice and Josef K.

I will swear until the day I retire that Knife is Roddy's greatest work. I understand this is far from the consensus, but I stand by it.

I would recommend parts of Stray and Dreamland.

It's kind of strange that he didn't get truly consistent until he started releasing albums under his own name. All of his solo records range from decent (North Star) to great (Western Skies + Seven Dials) to flat out brilliant (Surf).

Some things bear repeating: how does a 17yr old write a song like 'We Could Send Letters'?

Why did I think he was dead? Odd, that.

I saw him on a solo tour way back in . . . 86-87? Whenever he released the live album with the plaid pants. He was surprisingly good. I say "surprising" only because . . . well, a solo show.

Was it a live album? I think so. A live EP, more like. The one on the right in this picture:

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/0RcAAOxyeR9TGA16/s-l600.jpg

Coincidentally, the ScottishTeeVee YT channel just posted this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NxkgHYuoh0

Pretty wild that Aztec Camera were using a Fairlight for live shows in 1983. Rough Trade must have had great expectations for Roddy.

gosh, was he sexy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w1Q8ZkXZ1Q

Used to listen to High Land, Hard Rain regularly -- how's the rest of their discography?

Marvelous moments all over the place.

Got a Best Of list at HTV?

Sure: https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2017/06/13/happy-in-happy-extremes-the-best-of-aztec-camera/

I don't know much beyond High Land... but I'm dazzled at the notion that there are 15 better songs *in the world* than 'We Could Send Letters', let alone 15 by the same man.

Thanks, Alfred!

alfred otm of course, tho i am making my token appearance in this revival to rep for knife. it's my favorite thing he's ever done.

(also fist bumps to alfred for repping "black lucia" — very solid jam!)

Thanks to Indexed, I'm listening to Dreamland's "Safe in Sorrow" as I type.

I think Scritti and Anita Baker were Roddy's inspiration to go soul pop rather than SOS.

we should poll dreamland. if high land didn't exist, it'd be his second best album.

I think Scritti and Anita Baker were Roddy's inspiration to go soul pop rather than SOS.

― Piedie Gimbel,

He went on and on about Rapture in these 1987 reviews. He got it better than American critics.

*interviews

Rapture had been number 2 in the NME's 1986 end of year list, so it was a UK critical commonplace at the time.

I think Western Skies, under his own name rather than AC, is up there too.

My god:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKNUKidVML0

xpost

I think Western Skies, under his own name rather than AC, is up there too.

― Piedie Gimbel, Friday, December 16, 2022 8:05 AM

roddy's records under his own name are excellent across the board.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYCs2sY2ahE

"postcard" (2014)

I love when this board gets me down a good old fashioned discography wormhole

xpost to It's Friday, Post Vids of Chill Tunes Why Not?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzkp48musvE

"knife" (1984)

alltime vibe.

"The Crying Scene" is a jam

shame the deluxe edition stuff isn't on us spotify. couple of his solo albums aren't there either. he seems really ripe for a revival. at least they have the version of the first album with "orchid girl" and "queen's tattoos."

he is a very charming man, isn't he?😻

sorry to spam this thread but he is someone i am admittedly too big a fan of to be objective whatsoever. thanks for the revival.

i even have a very fond recommendation for his 2002 all acoustic album surf.

"high class music" (2002):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9drqJU3bRg

these acoustic-only tunes are some of his best and always have been.

"mattress of wire" (live, easily better than studio version, 1984):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i66Mbln4xU0

"dry land" (2006):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u26z5XK0x38

"if life could taste that good again, i swear i'd never complain."

🙂oh, gosh. please tell me more.🙂

Life should taste like Roddy Frame imo

Listening to Knife from start to finish for the first time in decades, it's really fucking great.

I was just thinking the same of Dreamland

Dreamland is my fav Aztec Camera album by a long shot.

was frestonia his faux-weller attempt? i always get about two minutes into the songs and then go, "oh yeah. it all kind of goes this direction, doesn't it?"

giving it another attempt atm and the big boomidy-b'dapdap-b'boom-CRASSSHHH reprise on "rainy season" made me irl lol. oh boy.

i mean it's alright. he still sounds in good spirits, but those silly guitar solos. he was still doing that for a couple songs on his last album, too! just funny. i mean he's got the chops, why the hell not. on that note, his amazing cover of "jump" is not on us spotify and that's just, like, fucking stupid man. (grr face)

don't care if it's already been posted. here 'tis. definition of a classic-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDhQ8ed7WLg

"jump" (1984)

sheesh, his digital catalogue is telling a story. i wanted to post a youtube of the song "imperfectly" from frestonia and make a snarky comment about how he invented imagine dragons, but i found this bemusing stat:
https://i.imgur.com/OF7q1HT.png

ahh well, here it is; wdyt?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CukQYM5CqxU

"imperfectly" (1995)

okay, "beautiful girl" is preposterous. they had to have known that it sounds simultaneously like "summer breeze" and that phantom of the opera riff in "echoes." that is a fucking bland song jesus crimini.

i just don't buy his attempts to be a rocker dude. some of it's alright, but nah man. this ain't you.

yeah, probably not his best album. in fact, upon revisting, i am currently thinking of everything else he's ever done with a much better opinion than frestonia. it's very mor. no thank you.

but i recommend everything else he's ever done in varying degrees of essential-ness.