CD: WE835
RELEASED: 1984
LABEL: Warner

01. Still On Fire
02. Just Like The USA
03. Head Is Happy (Heart's Insane)
04. Back Door To Heaven
05. All I Need Is Everything
06. Backwards And Forwards
07. Birth Of The True
08. Knife

Roddy Frame and his ever-changing band of musicians known as Aztec Camera made their first record in 1981, when Frame was a mere 17 years old. After two releases on the Scottish indie label Postcard, the band signed to Rough Trade, where they released their debut album High Land, Hard Rain and two minor hit singles, Oblivious and Walk Out to Winter. The success of their full-length debut brought the band to the attention of major label WEA, who re-issued Oblivious in late 1983. The single cracked the UK top twenty second time around, but was followed by almost a year's silence, while Frame recruited a new band and recorded a second album, Knife. The band's ultra-cool indie following was largely unimpressed by the choice of producer, namely Mark Knopfler of the steadfastly unhip Dire Straits, and the album was not a huge success. In retrospect, though, Knife is, while deeply flawed, a thoughtful and largely likable set of tunes. There are three killer songs, "Still on Fire, " "Just Like the USA" and the sublime "All I Need Is Everything, " a lovely, yearning tune based on a hypnotic guitar riff and featuring possibly the best chorus of Frame's career. Slightly below that fine triumvirate are "The Birth of the True" and the stirring "Backwards and Forwards, " which both recall the pretty but slightly strident ballads of Frame's early career, and the peppier "Head Is Happy (Heart's Insane), " all of which are perfectly respectable tunes.

Influences / Similar Artists:
Wild Swans, Orange Juice, Pale Fountains , Ocean Blue