I got High Land, Hard Rain on cassette for Christmas 1983, and then I saw Aztec Camera in early 1985, as a HS senior, at the Ontario in D.C. with openers Tommy Keene (R.I.P.) and Guadalcanal Diary. So, yeah, there's something special about the music of Roddy Frame. His music from that era is music that I've never ever gotten tired of. I've gone so many phases where I've fallen out of love with bands, but I've never not held those early Aztec Camera recordings "somewhere in my heart", to paraphrase a Frame lyric.
So, when I heard about Backwards And Forwards – The WEA Recordings 1984-1995 I was thrilled. And I'm here to tell you that this is a set you must own. Containing virtually everything by Aztec Camera except High Land, Hard Rain and the early singles, this box offers definitive proof of the skills of Roddy Frame, and reminds again just what an amazing songwriter he was in his prime.
It's worth rememebering the drubbing Knife took in some quarters in 1984. And, yeah, sure, listening to it now I'm less forgiving of the Mark Knopfler production, but still a fan of the tunes. From "All I Need is Everything", an epic of prowess and melody, and to "The Backdoor to Heaven", and the even more haunting title cut, the record still woos immediately. While some of the bonus cuts from the era collected here charm, none more so than the live "Mattress of Wire", an early composition stretched out, the numbers from Knife still seem damn strong to this long-time fan. That one, "Mattres of Wire", is here, along with two versions of Roddy's cover of Van Halen's "Jump", an odd alternative radio hit here in 1985. Of course, WHFS in D.C. didn't ever play the version with Frame's epic guitar-run near the song's coda, so I always wondered if new fans knew just what a great guitarist Roddy was.
If you go right from Knife to Love (1987) now when playing Backwards And Forwards – The WEA Recordings 1984-1995, you're less likely to be startled by the stylistic shifts. In 1987, I hated Love, frankly, barely tolerating the songs I'd hear here and there. When I worked in a record store late in the year and into 1988, I came to love Love, realizing then that songs like "Somewhere in My Heart" and "Working in a Goldmine" were absolutely beautiful, and that Roddy Frame had hit another peak only three years after his previous one. While there aren't a lot of bonus cuts here from the era, "The Red Flag" and "Bad Education" are just as good as anything on the album proper, if with simpler production. The alternate mixes collected on the fourth disc of this set, along with live runs at gems like "Killermont Street", offer glimpses of a different version of Love, while further confirming the strength of the compositions themselves.
In 1990, I was working at another record store and even then, despite many plays, I couldn't embrace Stray the way I finally embraced the prior record. This one, despite a strong lead single in the brash "The Crying Scene", and the decent follow-up with Mick Jones, "Good Morning Britain", didn't work for me and it still largely doesn't. Full of stylistic and tonal shifts, the album seems all over the place, as if Frame, by virtue of being away for another three years, had totally forgot what he was best at. For those who are very curious, this set offers up a full disc of remixes from the era, but none are enough to make me love the album now.
Taking another three years away, Frame emerged in 1993 with the superb Dreamland. Produced by Roddy with Ryuichi Sakamoto, the album finally revealed just how to pair the lushness heard on numbers on early albums with Frame's knack for a killer melody. Tracks like "Birds" and "Valium Summer" nearly get lost in their production, despite being decent compositions, while other cuts, notably "Black Lucia" and "Spanish Horses" shine, offering beautiful hooks and expert playing. The latter figures prominently on disc 7 of this 9-disc Backwards And Forwards – The WEA Recordings 1984-1995 in a live set from Ronnie Scott's in 1991. The concert finds Roddy Frame blending old and new compositions with ease and it's one of the very few live recordings I'd probably listen to multiple times. There are parts of Dreamland that sound a bit dated, though not as dated as nearly anything else from 1993, and while I can understand criticisms of the record, and imagine the angles attackers would take in coming at this one, I really stand by the compositions here, and feel like this one really needs to get more respect.
Frestonia, the last album released under the Aztec Camera name, feels even now like a Roddy Frame solo record. It sounds, even with the Langer-Winstanley production, like a Frame record. There's little here that sounds like the product of a band. And while "Method of Love", "Beautiful Girl", and "Rainy Season", have a certain charm, the other numbers meander a bit. And one can be forgiven for thinking at times that Frame had lost the plot, or at least his enthusiasm. However, as grim as things seem, "Sun" remains epic, a joyous, life-affirming single, and one at odds a bit with the Clapton-isms of the rest of 1995's Frestonia. In the midst of Britpop, the world had moved on beyond what Roddy Frame could offer, which is orinic given how quite a few second-tier indie acts in the U.K. then seemed to be taking cues from the whole Postcard Records-era Aztec Camera singles. Unfortunately, Frame in 1995 wasn't quite as jazzed about that approach in his own current work, despite a few flashes of fire.
Still, the story has a happy ending as Roddy Frame has had a decent solo career, one he is clearly comfortable with, and the legacy of Aztec Camera is safe. Whatever missteps crop up here in Backwards And Forwards – The WEA Recordings 1984-1995, they're overshadowed by the tremendous genius of everything else. This set contains some of the best music of two different decades, by one of the greatest songwriters I'm ever going to be able to follow in my lifetime. I say that without any sense that I'm overstating things, and I think anyone who's even a casual fan of this man and his band will understand exactly what I mean. Even now I get a little sentimental when I remember the crowd at the Ontario in 1985 shouting "High land, hard rain" along with Roddy during the band's run at "The Boy Wonders", and I like to imagine that each one of those folks kept up a little bit with every Aztec Camera offering for the next decade, the same way I did.
Backwards And Forwards – The WEA Recordings 1984-1995 is out now from Cherry Red Records.
More details on Roddy Frame via the official website.