Big Country - Steel Town
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Big CountryEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Extra tracks, Import, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 1996-04-01
Music Label: Universal I.S.
Soundtracks:
- Flame of the West
- East of Eden
- Steeltown
- Where the Rose Is Sown
- Come Back to Me
- Tall Ships Go
- Girl With the Grey Eyes
- Rain Dance
- Great Divide
- Just a Shadow
- Bass Dance
- Belief in the Small Man
- Prairie Rose
- Wonderland [12"]
- Winter Sky
Free Music Notes for Steel Town
Free Music Review: Untouchable Classic
Hit: 5 Stars
Big Country are one of the great bands of the early 80's and one of the most misunderstood. As bands crashed onto America's shores from Great Britain by the boatload, critics and audiences were prone to pigeon-holing them based on their biggest hits or most memorable video. Big Country, a deadly serious band by any measure, was tagged as a novelty act on account of the bagpipe sound of their screaming guitars. But their first hit, In a Big Country, was a vitally important song because it alone carried the flag for pure Rock and Roll at a time when cheesy LA metal and British synth pop was dominating the charts.
Big Country were inevitably compared to U2. The comparison is apt and inevitable. Both bands fused Led Zeppelin styled guitar Rock with early Clash-styled social protest and added in copious amounts of rain-swept Celtic mysticism. Both bands utilized the seminal British producer Steve Lillywhite, who had previously helmed landmark albums by XTC, Peter Gabriel, the Psychedelic Furs and Siouxsie and the Banshees.
Big Country's first two albums employed all the tricks from Lillywhite's kitbag- pounding drums and bass, huge doses of reverberating guitar and the feverish intensity of playing that he coaxed from his charges. But where U2 were stylish and instinctive amateurs, Big Country were virtuosos. Where U2 never seemed to press the panic button of full tilt Rock, Big Conutry were relentless in their fury. In comparison to Steeltown, U2's record are MOR mush.
Steeltown is one of the most intense records you'll ever hear. Unlike today's Hard Rock bands, who offer up a cliched catalog of gimmicks to make their music sound ferocious, Big Country relied on old-fashioned thrashing of their instruments. A review of Steeltown at the time remarked that even with the volume down, the album sounds loud. From the first thundering crescendo of Flame of the West, the album stomps, pounds, roils and flays. The band's amazing rhythm section seem locked into a death duel, playing as wildly as they can manage. It sounds as if the bassist and drummer are trying to trip each other up, but remain locked in exhilirating lockstep nonetheless. The two guitars do likewise, and the frenzy of the playing only heightens the dark tales of tragedy that Stuart Adamson showcases in his lyrics. The fury lets up only for two numbers- Come Back to Me, a haunting dirge about a newly widowed wife and the touching love song, Girl with the Grey Eyes. The latter also boasts some jazz-derived embellishments, strongly reminsicent of 80's era King Crimson.
But buckle your seatbelts for the rest of the album. East of Eden is a pounding dirge that is capped with flame-thrower guitar trills in the fade-out. Steeltown adapts a traditional Scottish reel to scorching hard rock, and features lyrics that would coax tears from a skeleton. Tall Ships Go is a galloping Hard Rock with frenetic drum syncopations and staccato phased guitar. The Rain Dance is another jig, but drenched in soaring slide guitar. The last cut on the official track-listing is the heart-rending Just a Shadow, a song sung to a unemployed worker and his battered wife . The lyrics rip out your soul "It all seemed fine for you/'Til the struggle of ambition turned in violence upon you/ Sometimes a landslide come/If you're hiding in that avalanche you need a place to run". Hardly the work of a MTV haircut jockey.
Steeltown was a monster hit in Thatcher's Britain, but went unnoticed in America. The Music Industrial Complex was force-feeding happy Pop down everyone's throat, and Big Country's thrashing pessimism was wildly out of step. Bonus track Wonderland was a hit though, off the early '84 EP of the same name. The track is a flat-out classic, a soaring dose of optimism and exhiliration that is more in step with the Crossing than Steeltown. But it's presence is welcome on any CD. If you can bear the overwhelming power of its music, Steeltown will reward for many, many years to come.
Steel Town Poster
Digitally remastered 1996 reissue on Mercury of their secondalbum (1984) with five unmarked bonus tracks: 'Bass Dance', 'Belief In The Small Man', 'Prairie Rose', 'Winter Sky' and 'Wonderland' (12in Mix - 7:08 long). 15 tracks in all, also featuring 'Flame Of The West', 'East Of Eden', 'Where The Rose Is Sown' and 'Just A Shadow'.Alternative Rock Music CDs
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