Track Listing

1. Somewhere In My Heart
2. Oblivious
3. Good Morning Britain
4. Working In A Goldmine
5. How Men Are
6. Birth Of The True
7. Pillar To Post
8. Walk Out To Winter
9. All I Need Is Everything
10. Deep And Wide And Tall
11. Jump
12. Killermont Street
13. Crying Scene
14. Spanish Horses
15. Reason For Living

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7838 in Music
• Released on: 1999-07-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Customer Reviews

Great band, but they deserve a far better 'best of'.
Don't get me wrong, I think Aztec Camera (and also Roddy Frame's solo work) are wonderful. After hearing John Peel playing 'Pillar to Post' back in 1982 (I think) I bought anything of theirs I could find. High Land Hard Rain definitely ranks among the very greatest debut albums and few would deny that Roddy Frame never bettered it (personally, I blame Mark Knoppfler for his smothering production on the second album, 'Knife') - indeed, I would argue that High Land Hard Rain is much more deserving of the title "The Best of Aztec Camera" than this assortment is. This collection has one or two too many tracks from 'Love' , only a couple from 'Stray', just one from 'Dreamland' and nothing at all (!) from the underrated 'Frestonia'. Ideally, a new 'best of' would now include many tracks from Roddy Frame's excellent 'Surf' album.
However, track selection is not my real gripe here. What really chokes me is the version of Van Halen's 'Jump': I saw Aztec Camera live in London in 83/84 and Roddy finished with his totally over-the-top guitar-god version of Jump which ripped the proverbial out of the original. They had the good sense to record a similar version for the b-side of the 'All I need is everything' 12" single. Although I already owned all their other CDs I rushed to buy this album purely because I saw that it contained 'Jump'. I cannot exaggerate my disgust at finding that they have faded out the last half of the track... THE BEST BIT!!! Fortunately, I have since been able to source the glorious full version, but I still cannot bear to play this CD.
My advice: Buy Hard Land Hard Rain (and Surf). Borrow Frestonia, Dreamland, Stray, Love, North Star and (if you must) Knife to see which suits you. Then steal (or obtain by any method possible) the FULL version of Jump.

Deep & Wide & Tall - Not Big, but very Clever
It's getting on for 20 years now since Roddy Frame burst onto the scene with High Land, Hard Rain, a refreshing blend of poetry set to a jazzy latino-folksy soundtrack, full of angry young man nous and laden with punk attitude. The album (which includes Oblivious, Pillar to Post, Walk Out to Winter and We Could Send Letters) thrust Frame into that unenviable group of artists who would be destined to never repeat the brilliance of their explosive debut. But that does not detract from the fact that Frame went on to deliver a catalogue of subtle, consumately brilliant music.

This 'best of' collection reflects a changing style and gradual maturing: from the early angst, through the most perfectly constructed song-writing and production of 1987's 'Love', and into the 90s with 'Spanish Horses' (an homage to Barcelona and 'Guadi's soft confusion'). My only criticism would be that to fully reflect the progression of Roddy's musical style, the playlist should include at least another dozen songs, and a whole lot more from the excellent jazz-cool and Sakamoto-inspired Frestonia.

A solid career overview with only minor glitches
Overall, I was pleased with this disc; all the hits are here, and all the classic tracks. However, I was highly disappointed that they opted to use the album version of "All I Need Is Everything," as opposed to the single mix. The album version goes on forever and doesn't know how to end. Dig up a copy of the 45 (if you can) to hear a great example of classic 80's pop.