Big Country - Steeltown POLL

If it says "embedding disabled by request" then just double click on it. Thanks to Reverend for this tip.

I feel sorry for the kids now, who don't remember all the great music I remember. Curtis bridges the gap for me, though. This young guy, early 20's something Curtis can turn me on to some amazing music. He gets it. He knows what has come before, and he knows what is good that comes out today. I trust him.

"Where the Rose is Sewn"

I listen to this one as much as "The Crossing." I vote "Tall Ships Go," for the drums. (I'm not including all those bonus tracks stuck on the poll.)

I'm disregarding the bonus tracks for the purposes of the album-poll, too, but this may be the greatest set of bonus tracks ever. "Wonderland" has spent time as my single favorite song, "Prairie Rose" is one of my favorite covers ever, "Winter Sky" alternates with "Angle Park" as my favorite BC b-side and probably the current leader is also my vote for the best b-side by anybody. "Belief in the Small Man" is also fierce and fantastic.

Hah, I just noticed I'm one of the two citations in the Wikipedia article on Big Country for "['Wonderland'], considered by some critics to be one of their finest".

"Wonderland". But this is the weakest out of their first three albums.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

tough one... leaning thisaway

Damnit I just realized I don't know what I'm voting for yet!

i think i have to go for "just a shadow" in deference to the 17-yr-old me who namechecked it in my senior-year yearbook. i guess lots of his lyrics look ominous in light of his suicide, but "you have no thought of answers/only questions to be filled/and it feels like hell" is up there in the ominous omnibus.

(totally love this album, btw. probably as much as the crossing. i'd hate to choose.)

"flame of the west" is another one crying out for full black-metal treatment.

not quite black metal there's a dude on youtube who covers it with the 80s metal gainz0rz...

tall ships go is my dark horse btw... for the drums per josh in chicago, but also for the fookin' riff amirite?

"tall ships go" would probably be my vote if i weren't swayed by sentiment.

(i like the youtube metal-dude. he's got the right idea.)

OH shit, Alex in NYC in OTM shocker..."Where The Rose Is Sown" is just about gonna seal this mother fucker up. But give me a little while longer to make a decision. I must give careful consideration to this. LOL as if anyone cares about my opinion!

"If I die in a combat zone/
box me up and ship me home/
If I die and still come home/
lay me where the rose is sown

sons of men who stand like gods/
we give life to feed the cause/
and run to ground, our heathen foe/
our name will never die, this time will be forever"

They covered Roxy Music's Prairie Rose!!! What about the Great Divide? Just A Shadow? I don't care what wins. I still don't know what to vote for.

They're the third point of the triangle that is early U2/Simple Minds mania. Wanna argue with me?

WINTER SKY!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

ilm's big country contingent: small, but proud.

I know, that's pretty pathetic isn't it? Hard to believe this band even had a hit!

The bonus tracks alienated the other 9,405 people. Shoulda gone with the original track list.

Loved that youtube cover until he starts singing, and then I really wished it'd been black metal after all.

Marcello has at it: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/big-country-steeltown.html

Now that was an essay.

I love Big Country and especially this album, but I can all but guarantee this is the most anyone has ever thought about it, at least in the last 30 or so years but maybe ever. Answers one of my fave Xgau rhetorical zingers:

Regaled with martial rhythms, I always feel safer knowing exactly what the war's about.

"Wonderland" in its 12" form is gorgeous, ain't it?

I love Big Country and especially this album, but I can all but guarantee this is the most anyone has ever thought about it, at least in the last 30 or so years but maybe ever.

Critic Glenn McDonald says its his favourite album ever. I've been reading Then Play Long over the last 3 weeks. Its fantastic stuff.