release date: Nov. 1987
format: vinyl (WX128) / cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,02]
producer: various
label: WEA - nationality: Scotland, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Deep & Wide & Tall" (4 / 5) - 2. "How Men Are" (4 / 5) - 3. "Everybody Is a Number One" - 5. "Somewhere in My Heart" (4 / 5) (acoustic live) - 6. "Working in a Goldmine" (4,5 / 5) - 7. "One and One" - 9. "Killermont Street"
3rd studio album by Aztec Camera with several producers: Tommy LiPuma, Russ Titelman, Roddy Frame, David Frank, Michael Jonzun, and Rob Mounsey - with the latter producing a majority of the tracks together with Frame. The album is released three years after Knife (Sep. 1984) and it really is something else. Not only is the band reduced to Frame working with session musicians, which again points to the fact that Aztec Camera is a project name for Roddy Frame. Gone is the natural link to the post-punk period and the characteristic jazz feel. It's still jangle pop but here the pop element is underlined. Having said that, it's a brilliant transformation, and without doubt the band's cleanest mainstream album.
Critics were divided on this, as some saw it as a failure with its obvious commercial production and an attempt to satisfy a broader audience of the American market - and something it failed to reach.
At first, I thought of it as compilation album as I found it packed with great songs and nicely arranged compositions. The production sound is broad and glossy introducing sophisti-pop to the band's repertoire.
I really enjoy this, and think of it as the band's best commercial contribution, although, I'm reluctant to call it Aztec Camera's best, just slightly inferior to the successor, Stray from 1990. The album tops as the band's highest ranked studio release making it to number #10 on the UK albums chart list. I just think it's a wonderful and highly recommendable album.
[ allmusic.com 2,5 / 5 stars ]
