Track Listing

1. Alba
2. Cutter
3. Hearts Of Olden Glory
4. Pride Of The Summer
5. Worker For The Wind
6. Rocket To The Moon
7. Only Rose
8. Protect And Survive
9. Our Earth Was Once Green
10. An Ubhal As Airde

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31946 in Music
• Released on: 1990-07-01
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
If you are Scottish and don't already own this album, shame on you. Buy it immediately. Other nationalities: you may need some further persuasion. But that's easy enough. The Cutter And The Clan is chock full of big-hearted tunes, beefy arrangements and potent singalong choruses. The lyrics burst with such Scottish pride that the rest of us begin to feel a little jealous, and every track has a great hook, guaranteed. Non-Scots: play "Pride of the Summer" and try to avoid bellowing along to "Beat the drum / Beat the drum / Like a heartbeat / Lonely and strong"; or listen in silence to the chorus of "Hearts of Olden Glory." It can't be done. Even the two gaelic songs--including the classic anthem "Alba"--are irresistibly catchy. Call it folk rock if you like--Runrig count accordion, mandolin and bagpipes among their arsenal of instrumentation--but there are no traditional tunes on this album and Runrig's way with their music is the stuff of 20,000-seater stadiums not quiet country pubs. --Mark Walker

Customer Reviews

last great runrig cd
this is the last great runrig cd,this came before they peaked mainstream,i:e during the acension to peaking.it catapulted them forward very quickley,to quickley because they became bloody pop stars,in saying that every runrig cd up to and including the cutter and the clan is a must buy.fiercly patriotic superb.without donnie munro runrig are very very averidge.and without runrig donnie munro is very very averidge.there in lies a problem eh.

4 1/2 stars - the best place to start
Okay, so the production is a bit too 80s, but "The Cutter and the Clan" is still the strongest album Runrig has ever made. Four of the band's best and best-known songs are here; "Rocket to the Moon", "Protect and Survive", the melodic but powerful "Pride of the Summer", and the soaring "Hearts of Olden Glory".
And the rest is NOT filler; rather it's excellent songs like "Alba", "Worker for the Wind", and "The Cutter". And as 80s as the production may seem (a little too clean, a sometimes-fake drum sound, you know the signs), it doesn't rob the MacDonald-brothers' songs of the grandour that their best material possesses.

At this point in their career Runrig had evolved into a rock band rather than a folk group, but the Scottish folk is still present in almost every song (not just the two that Donnie Munro sings in gaelic). There aren't too many wailing guitars here, even though this is a traditional drums-bass-guitars-keyboards-setup, and the drums do bite, but the melodies are beautiful and by far the most memorable of any Runrig album.
Runrig anno 1987 was melodic rock n' roll which had incorporated the best of folk. Highly recommended!

Great songs, shame about the production
This is one of the earliest Runrig albums I bought, and in fairness it contains some of their strongest songs. Unfortunately the production is about the weakest of all of the albums I own. In the more upbeat numbers it has plenty of energy, bordering on being raucous, but the quieter ones are drowned in unnecessary wispy atmospheric effects and reverb. The songs are strong enough to be listened to without all the additional distractions added to them. It's a great shame, but the album is stil worth buying anyway. I prefer "Heartland" and "The Big Wheel". Their best album still has to be the live "Once in a lifetime".