Aztec Camera POX

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One act who is never done before, it seems.

I might as well have tracklisted "High Land Hard Rain", but here is my call anyway:

1. The Bugle Calls Again
2. The Boy Wonders
3. Oblivious
4. Walk Out To Winter
5. We Could Send Letters
6. Red Flag
7. Birds
8. Down The Dip
9. Pillar To Post
10.Haywire

8 out of 10 from "High Land Hard Rain" (9 out of 10 if you count "Haywire", a CD bonus track from the same period)
Speaks for itself, I guess.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 27 May 2006 00:09 (twenty years ago)

These threads are always so exciting. What will the next list of 10 be?? Different, I bet.

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 27 May 2006 00:21 (twenty years ago)

AC's version of "Red Flag" ain't that great, especially it had been covered to much greater effect by one-time labelmate Robert Wyatt. Even then, despite the beautiful fragility of Wyatt's voice, don't we all really think "Tannenbaum" and Charlie Brown when we hear it?

"Orchid Girl" is the great missing song from the list. The AC version of "Jump" should be included too. And I nearly forgot "Set The Killing Free" and the non-LP version of "Walk Out To Winter." Not to mention "Birth Of The True." There were some good ones ont he third album too.

Geir - neither "Birds" nor "Red Flag" is from "High Land." So including "Haywire" would make
8 out of 10, not 9.

― Dee Xtrovert (dee dee), Saturday, 27 May 2006 00:48 (twenty years ago)

I will never ever accept a version of "Jump" that doesn't include the best element of Van Halen's original.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 27 May 2006 00:55 (twenty years ago)

1. Oblivious
2. Killermont Street
3. Walk Out To Winter
4. Rainy Season
5. How Men Are
6. Still On Fire
7. Somewhere In My Heart
8. The Crying Scene
9. Working In A Goldmine
10. Deep and Wide and Tall

― brittle-lemon (brittle-lemon), Saturday, 27 May 2006 01:17 (twenty years ago)

There were some good ones ont he third album too.

If I was to create a next 10 list, my list would be dominated by that album and "Dreamland". The two albums where they came closest to the brilliance of the debut.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 27 May 2006 01:20 (twenty years ago)

I will never ever accept a version of "Jump" that doesn't include the best element of Van Halen's original.

Ah, yes. David Lee Roth doing the splits in mid-air. Awesome!

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Saturday, 27 May 2006 01:21 (twenty years ago)

Well, Lee Roth is missed too, as is Van Halen himself and his great guitar solo. But most of all, "Jump" (the original) has the best synth riff ever. :)

Roddy Frame at the time was at his best when he did what he was so good at, writing his own songs and performing them.

I really liked his cover of "Do I Love You" on the "Red Hot & Blue" album though, so it isn't like he cannot do covers. "Jump" is kind of interesting in its own way too, most of all because it is so different from the original.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 27 May 2006 01:23 (twenty years ago)

What about his cover of "True Colours" on The Crying Scene single?

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Saturday, 27 May 2006 02:05 (twenty years ago)

I didn't think it was that great. His cover of "Bad Education" was pretty weak too.

― Dee Xtrovert (dee dee), Saturday, 27 May 2006 03:47 (twenty years ago)

That *was* rotten, wasn't it? As was his version of "I Threw It All Away". He did a lovely version of "If Paradise Is Half as Nice" on the NME Ruby Trax compilation.

Anyway, POX:

Walk Out to Winter
Killermont Street
How Men Are
Oblivious
Reason for Living
Just Like Gold
We Could Send Letters
All I Need Is Everything
Orchid Girl
Set the Killing Free

― ailsa (ailsa), Saturday, 27 May 2006 07:39 (twenty years ago)

None of the lists so far include "Mattress Of Wire"? Baffling, really.

― doug watson (solid air), Saturday, 27 May 2006 17:13 (twenty years ago)

Sure would be nice to see the AC Postcard singles (and any related tracks/demos etc) get the CD reissue treatment a la Orange Juice's 'Glasgow School'. Dontcha think?

― rrmmhh, Monday, 29 May 2006 03:23 (twenty years ago)

I'm surprised to see my favorite Aztec Camera song, Release, get shut out of this.

― Cunga (Cunga), Monday, 29 May 2006 03:27 (twenty years ago)

Sure would be nice to see the AC Postcard singles (and any related tracks/demos etc) get the CD reissue treatment a la Orange Juice's 'Glasgow School'. Dontcha think?

Some kind of Deluxe Edition of "High Land Hard Rain" would do (pity, then, that EMI don't do Deluxe Editions though)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 29 May 2006 07:45 (twenty years ago)

POXtime:

1 - Walk Out To Winter (LP version)
2 - Mattress Of Wire
3 - We Could Send Letters
4 - Orchid Girl
5 - Still On Fire
6 - How Men Are
7 - Release
8 - Walk Out To Winter (12 inch)
9 - Pillar To Post
10 - The Boy Wonders

shucks, it may just as well have been a list of the tracks on HLHR.

― darren (darren), Monday, 29 May 2006 08:41 (twenty years ago)

I forgot to mention 'Spanish Horses' of course, with its 'dream team' of Roddy's geetar and the wizard Ryuiichi Sakamoto production.

― darren (darren), Monday, 29 May 2006 08:44 (twenty years ago)

eleven years pass...

Here's fifteen!

I love the title track to "Stray."

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 14 June 2017 01:33 (nine years ago)

Although I applaud you on including both 'Stray' and 'Black Lucia', I must protest the absence of 'Mattress of Wire.'

― Austin, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 03:48 (nine years ago)

And no mention of Just Like Gold anywhere? Excusable perhaps in the dark days of the 80s/90s when Postcard singles went for 50 quid a pop in the NME classifieds, but now...? Any AC top ten must surely include both Postcard singles + b-sides, Orchid Girl, Queen's Tattoo...The guy was in his late teens when this stuff was written and recorded, and who else in the post-punk diaspora sounded like it at the time?

― mahb, Thursday, 15 June 2017 07:09 (nine years ago)

'Orchid Girl' indeed.

― Austin, Thursday, 15 June 2017 16:03 (nine years ago)

great list, and yes to Jump! (Edwyn Collins was also a sexy m-f, imho)

― by the light of the burning Citroën, Thursday, 15 June 2017 16:56 (nine years ago)

he's finally on US spotify, i just noticed the other day

― ciderpress, Thursday, 15 June 2017 16:57 (nine years ago)

seven years pass...

I'm really feeling this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_QSMTtUQYY

― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 15 February 2025 23:31 (one year ago)

one year passes...

Just now came across this, in renowned Chicago taper Aadam Jacobs' online stash, haven't listened yet, but https://archive.org/details/ajc02125_azteccamera1987-11-28

― dow, Saturday, 21 February 2026 01:51 (four months ago)

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