watch canute and his bride: BIG COUNTRY 'THE CROSSING' poll

just got this on cd for the first time. remastered, but sounds kinda punched and cramped compared to the warm haze of the vinyl. still love the tunes though. i don't know if this album is loved by guitar geeks, but it should be.

was partly inspired to this by some of the metal i've been listening to lately, where it seems to me i hear a lot of big country touches. not that i think they were an influence on anyone, exactly, but the hugeness of their guitars and maybe some of their melodic structures, i hear some similar stuff in some torche and even wolves in the throne room. (could be also that a lot of black metal and metal in general has incorporated celtic-ish chord patterns. i really don't know. i just hear these phrases that make me think "big country.")

I predict the first song wins in a staggering, bagpipe-accompanied landslide.

Was "Look Away" not on this record?

http://www.hauntingmids.com/forum/Smileys/default/love.gif

big country love is a pretty small corner of the guitar geek world but it does exist and dudes are true blue about it. imho an original and tasty player i should study more.

ps this is a tough one... looking forward to Steeltown and the Seer... those will be easier

"look away" is on the third album. (which is good, but i don't love like i love the first two.)

and "in a big country" will win, sure, and i love it plenty. but it's about my 5th or 6th favorite song here.

this one might be my favorite. recently found this clip, which i'd never seen. epic.

Alex, "Look Away" is on The Seer and will be getting my vote.

I think. Kate Bush and a killer riff make the title track a dark horse.

"Inwards" is such a fucking gorgeous, intense song that beats Tears for Fears at their own game but without being 'wussy.' I mean just the intro rains down four ripping, emotional hooks. The drums in the verses are such a good balance to his rich, slightly melancholy voice. It's one of those songs where the lyrics seem brilliant even though you don't know them because everything carrying them is just so damn good.

Srsly that is like one of my top 20 faves songs.

"in a big country" will win, sure, and i love it plenty. but it's about my 5th or 6th favorite song here.

OTM. This is a band I like in spite of their biggest song.

They seem so proud and cool and 'real' in a way most bands don't. And maybe they seem more like a secret treat in America where they're just known for the title track, but I adore them so much. One of the main bands I wish I could've seen live.

me too. and otm about "inwards." "i pull everything inward but everything's loose." i think stuart adamson got cornier as he went along, but his best lyrics are good, like intimate anthems. i thought this album was sort of mysterious when i was a kid, with all those little black and white ink drawings on the sleeve and you can never tell quite what a lot of the songs are about.

and the drums, yeah. i call them a guitar band, but they had one of the best rock rhythm sections of the '80s.

Mark Brzezizowie! amirite?

(Speaking of bands I like in spite of their biggest song, it appears that the only Furs rekd that's been polled is Mirror Moves... /derail)

Was 'Chance' the one with the 'Oh Lord, where did the feeling go?' chorus? That one always used to be a bit of a crowd anthem at their concerts.

Used to be a huge fan of Big Country when I was around 15 too and was lucky enough to see them live. Might have to dig out the vinyl copy of this and give it a listen for the first time in probably 20 years before voting. Looking at the track titles and going from memory I'd say 'Fields of Fire' would be getting my vote at the moment.

Yes that song is 'Chance.'

It was "Chance" when I was a teenager but tbh I can't remember most of these songs now.

"chance" is good. probably my favorite big country ballad (tho "girl with grey eyes" is pretty nice too.)

and good for a chuckle: kurt loder's rolling stone review. rockism ahoy:

Here's a big-noise guitar band from Britain that blows the knobs off all the synth-pop diddlers and fake-funk frauds who are cluttering up the charts these days.

I think. Kate Bush and a killer riff make the title track a dark horse.

Okay wait, what in the living fuck are you talking about? You mean she...*looks at google*...holy hell. How did I not fucking know this before???

I love this band, damnit. So glad people are talking about them.

HOW THE FUCK DID I NOT KNOW THIS BEFORE THAT KATE BUSH DOES THE BACKING VOCALS ON THAT??? NO ONE TOLD ME THIS. As a Kate Bush fan, I hang my head in shame. Holy shit, I'll never live it down.

What the hell happened to them in Amerikay? Gold debut album, Top 20 single, constant rotation on MTV and rock radio. Then pffft.

The break in "In a Big Country" is one of my favorite bits of guitar ever -- sounds more like a car screech.

yeah, it's like America just didn't care outside of "In A Big Country". I remember hearing that on the radio for the first time. The DJ said "here's this new band called Big Country..." I don't really remember what I thought of it on first listen, though.

can't decide whether the "harvest home" or "fields of fire" riff is the iconic big country highland-reel riff. i think maybe "harvest home."

When I was a kid I just assumed the video for "In a Big Country" was what adults got to do, if they were lucky. But I voted for "The Storm" for the thrilling drama of it.

What the hell happened to them in Amerikay?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b8/Big_Country_-_Steeltown.jpg

yeah, why the fuck didn't anyone care about that album? We've been through this before, and I did a whole review on my blog of it ages ago, but really, Steeltown is my go-to record of them to this day.

Drummer is awesome. He also plays on the Cult's "Love." My fave song is "Wonderland," from the EP of the same name, but there's really no beating the hit from this album, as beautiful/rousing as much of the other material is.

But from Christgau: "Regaled with martial rhythms, I always feel safer knowing exactly what the war's about."

where's glenn mcdonald when you need him? Big Country is like his favourite band...

speaking of drums, one of my favorite moments on the album is the little two-beat stutter just as "harvest home" is fading out. it always used to make me think the record was skipping, but it's just brzezicki fucking around.

Inwards.

And I know what you're saying about hearing echoes of them in a few metal things, tipsy. There's some sort of e-bow-ish thing that a few black metal bands do I think.

picked up this album again four years ago as i used to remember listening to my older brothers LP. holds up really well. its fucking great! the version ive got has more songs. 'angle park' and a ripping 12" version of 'fields of fire'.

I'm voting for "Chance", but it's pointless taking either this (or Steeltown) apart. "Wonderland" has been my favorite individual Big Country song for the longest aggregate span of time, but "Angle Park" has had its turns, too. Agree on the metal thing; heard it last in some Blut Aus Nord stuff.

I still regularly get email from people who just discovered that Stuart killed himself and found their way in lonely grief to the oblique eulogy I wrote in my column at the time. This record is one of the important things humans have done.

Yeah I wanted to make clear before, that Wonderland is the best song this band ever did, bar none.

Also omg but where were you guys when I was having a total Big Country attack about 8 months ago? I couldn't even get any response, then.

tend to agree on "wonderland." and was tempted to poll the cd version of this that adds the wonderland ep at the end, but that would have seemed weird. the crossing is a coherent album, it doesn't need to compete with "wonderland." but since it's been mentioned, let's see the video one more time...

xp haha bimble i think when you did that thread revive was the last time i posted the "wonderland" video.

xxpost

Also thanks Tipsy for that Porrohman You Tube clip upthread. That is from another universe than the milky way, man. My god.

Goddamnit, I'm going to lose my mind over this band again. And it's all ILM's fault.

Okay. I am calm. I'm going to try to stay calm. People seem to be more comfortable Bimble if he remains calm.

But that Porrohman video is the mother fucker of all mother fuckers. Music does not ever, EVER get any better than that, and I might have to kick my beloved Simple Minds off the stage for that one. I really don't know what else to say right now.

to give a little love to songs that probably won't get any votes:

"1000 stars" has an awesome little riff, and the album's most ominous lyrics. this is the one that maybe most cries out for a full-on black-metal treatment. "lost patrol" has my favorite intro (i think -- the album's so full of great intros it's hard to say), and the most ominous lyrics that aren't "1000 stars." the e-bow really pushed to its keening-est. and "close action" is gorgeous, the sweetest song on the record and a 3/4 meter that doesn't exactly swing but has a nice lope to it.

"lost patrol" vs "close action" but forcing me to choose is cruel

Hm, just now discovering that the cassette I owned had a different track sequence than the vinyl. I remember reading the credits and wondering what the hell an "e-bow" was.

I choose "The Storm".

looking forward to Steeltown and the Seer... those will be easier...

Alex, "Look Away" is on The Seer and will be getting my vote.

upon further review, i'm insane. those will both be just as brutal and i have no idea what i'll be voting for.

"Chance" for me.
Yelled along to that one with much of the rest of the festival grouds on a dark rainy summer night in '88.

i love the way the guitars take off at the end of "chance." i tend to think of it as this pensive, mournful song, but it really turns sort of loud and angry.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"Chance"

The real shame about Big Country is how often they get overshadowed by U2, both as college rock anthemists and as inventive/unconventional guitar hero vehicle. But of course there'd likely be no U2, let alone U2-sound, if there was no Skids, so ...

there was a brief period after the crossing where they were talked about in tandem. but then u2 got huge and big country didn't. but i like the first couple big country albums better than any u2 albums.

I saw them on this tour in Tampa/St. Pete (forget which)

This thread made me d/l the album and listen for the first time in 20+ years. And it also made me wish i could change my vote to "Chance"

Those "bagpipe guitars" are cool indeed - but I wanna know how they created those brittle, percussive gamelan-like timbres.

sounds like chorus + delay

Hm, just like The Edge! (I think)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Those Darn Lurkers!

I don't think there's any reason to feel bad about this. "In a Big Country" is a fine, fine song.

that's about the breakdown i would've expected. and i agree with the consensus that "1000 stars" is the weakest track, taken individually -- but i like it plenty in the context of the album.

memory plays tricks... after listening a few times I ended up as the sole "close action" vote for the reason tipsy mothra cites above (plus the riff is easy'n'fun to play), but "lost patrol" faded to mid-pack for me. in the end it was awfully close between "the storm" and "chance"... but I figured I'd be the only vote for "close action"

two people claimed to vote for the storm but it only got one vote! you will be hearing from my lawyers, signed norm coleman.

I would have voted for 'Inwards' if I'd participated in this poll, definitely. Bit gutted to see that and 'The Storm' underperformed in the poll, actually.

I know that all Big Country albums (especially Steeltown) have their fans, but for me this album is the best thing this band ever did!