release date: Sep. 1985
format: vinyl / cd (2001)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,62]
producer: Nick Launay
label: EMI America / Track Record - nationality: Scotland, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Castles in Spain" - 2. "Kyrie" (4 / 5) - 4. "We Can Be Brave Again" (4,5 / 5) - 5. "Higher Than the World" - 7. "Glory of Love" - 9. "Sleep City Sleep"
Studio album debut and only album by Scottish band The Armoury Show founded in '83 as an all-stars Scottish band by members from various successful UK acts, comprising lead vocalist Richard Jobson and bassist Russell Webb, both from legendary Scottish punk rock band Skids, together with two ex-members of Magazine: acclaimed guitarist John McGeoch - also from Magazine, Visage, and Siouxsie and the Banshees - and drummer John Doyle.
Musically, it's closer to the style of Skids with the addition of more complex arrangements, and the style is not easy to categorise. It's mostly new wave with bonds to a post-punk heritage that also connects this with Magazine and Siouxsie and the Banshees, but it's also a style with bonds to their contemporaries of Big Country and Simple Minds (listen to "Higher Than the World") as well as older acts like Thin Lizzy and Horslips.
The album was preceded by the two single releases of tracks #1 and #4 (both released in '84) and followed by the release of track #7. For reasons unknown, the first DC issue of the album (2001) was released with one track missing (track #A4. "Jungle of Cities") from the original vinyl and cassette issues.
Following the album release, both McGeoch and Doyle left the project with McGeoch joining Public Image Ltd. and the latter beginning a collaboration project with Pete Shelley of The Buzzcocks, while Webb and Jobson continued The Armoury Show with new replacements until '88 when the group finally disbanded before finishing a follow-up album. Instead, Jobson released these songs on his solo debut album Badman (1988).
