I never heard Aztec Camera until I got to college and found out the bass player, Campbell Owens, was my lecturer. It was him that actually interviewed me to get into college in the first place. A really great person and a great musician.
Thanks for listening! My favourite band from the early 80s. The album is a series of great pop songs, and 18 year old Roddy Frame’s songwriting is dazzling. Although he has kept going with a long career, he never became the superstar we thought he would when we first heard this album.
Amazing band. One of my favourites from the 80s too. To think that Roddy Frame wrote the album ‘High Land, Hard Rain’ at 18, as well as being the singer and guitarist in this band has always filled me with awe. Exquisite guitarist. Was lucky enough to see them live numerous times, and I plan to see Roddy Frame next time he tours. He’s still fantastic.
Roddy Frame is an excellent songwriter, a fine singer and an equally good guitar player. He went solo and continued doing what he does, seemingly totally (and criminally) overlooked by everyone. He had a minor hit with the track "A Reason For Living" in the late 90s and that is pretty much all as far as I know. He wrote one of my favourite tracks by anyone in the beautiful "Hymn to Grace".
I was so thrilled to see you reacting to Aztec Camera, JP. Roddy Frame was the driving force of the band and he's still making gorgeous music today. I'm the same age as Roddy (we're also both Scots) and like him I was 18 when this came out and I fell in love. They were the first band I felt was truly mine as opposed to bands that I listened to because my older brother did - in fact I got him listening to Aztec Camera :) Even all these years later it blows my mind that this was Roddy at 18 writing complicated, interesting songs and playing astonishing guitar. Thanks for playing this and for making my Saturday! And if you feel inclined, the whole album is worth a listen and there is a whole catalogue to explore both of the band and Roddy's solo work. Having said that, my favourite Aztec Camera song is 'Killermont Street - it's a perfect song IMHO and definitely worth a listen/reaction if you feel inclined.
Roddy Frame was a teenager when he made this! He's an amazing talent, songwriter, singer and virtuoso pop/rock/jazz guitarist. 'Art pop' is right. His lyrics are generally pretty obscure but always very singable and his tunes very groovy.
Haircut100 and Altered Images were both great bands, but where are they now? Where is Roddy Frame now? Try SURF, or WESTERN SKIES, or look at the love he gets from the audience at Cadogan Hall concerts
I haven't followed this band but I liked this when it came out as a single, it is a fine tune indeed with a very tasty lead break. I love good harmonies too and that leads nicely into my suggestion for the British band 10cc as a reaction. There's so much to choose from but I picked one at random and it's a 1976 song called, "I'm Mandy Fly Me". Check it out and maybe you'll want to dive deeper as the band has such a lot of styles and moods to offer and I'm understating here!.
I saw them open for Edie Brickell and New Bohemians in 1989 at a club in Norfolk Virginia. They had the crowd in the palms of their hands, and Edie Brickell really had trouble following them. Except for "What I Am," which was her current hit on the Indie stations, she lost the audience. 35 years later, I don't think even her husband Paul Simon remembers her.
One of my all time favorite alternative 80s bands! The entire High Land Hard Rain album is one of the best debuts in the entire decade. Roddy Frame wrote all those songs as a teenager on this album.
Orange Juice and Aztec Camera were stablemates on Glasgow's Postcard record label 'The sound of young Scotland' ....and Roddy Frame and Edwyn Collins were, and still are best friends...👍
@@arthurkettle3010 Yep. In fact, when Edwyn had what he calls his "cerebral accident", Roddy rang him up every day to make sure his friend was ok. Roddy also tried to help Frankie Miller (an earlier Scottish singer) in a similar way.
I’m so glad you like this one! One of my absolute favs from the 80s!! Such a brilliant band. How Men Are - is just fantastic & has a lot of memories attached to it for me. I haven’t heard it in forever. Time to find and listen to it.❤❤❤
I had completely forgotten about Aztec Camera, thank you! I love Somewhere In My Heart and Good Morning Britain by them too, and will be giving them a listen shortly :)
They were a Scottish band, and this is the first song on their first album, which I'd finally bought in the mid 90's, after having read rave reviews and very interesting interviews with their main dude Roddy Frame already 10 years earlier! I'd actually first bought the follow-up, 'Knife', because I'd been unable to find 'High Land, Hard Rain'; Which wasn't bad either but definitely had more emphasis on electronic elements, which in the mid 90's sounded rather dated to me. Really cool to see this popping up on here, in another very enjoyable reaction/analysis video; Yes, I too can definitely hear an XTC resemblance! 😊👍
Fabulous song, especially one written by an 18-year-old. Roddy Frame's a fantastic songwriter and High Land, Hard Rain was an excellent debut. I love the lilting acoustic guitar on this, especially that solo. Nice jazzy groove to the whole track. On this album, 'We Could Send Letters', 'Walk Out to Winter' and 'The Bugle Sounds Again' are also worth checking out, among others. Roddy continues to write consistently strong solo material to this day.
Great channel Justin! Just subscribed. I like the fact that you listen to the songs in their entirety and then discuss. Too many channels stopping and starting the songs several times times and discussing in between. As a Brit I also love how impressed you are with 2 of my favourite bands. Ian Dury & The Blockheads and The Stranglers 😊✌🏾 Plus the fact that you noticed the brilliance of Norman Watt-Roy on bass for The Blockheads and the late great Dave Greenfield on keyboards for The Stranglers. Keep up the good work! Looking forward to finding some new bands to discover from your channel ✌🏾
I remember this song. It was nice. Im sure many of these less known 80s New Wave bands had more hits in Europe. Here in the States we normally just got to know the songs that made it to MTV like this one.
LOVE this band and this album, the main guy (Roddy Frame) is such and under-rated songwriter and guitarist - and one of my favorite vocalists of all time - i would love it if you did more from AC (We Could Send Letters, All I Need is Everything, Somewhere in My Heart, and PLEASE listen to the song Stray from the album of the same name... it is transcendent...
One of Scotland's best bands - indie with some flamenco guitar thrown in, a winning combination... although my favourite of their songs doesn't have that guitar sound: a great protest song they did with Mick Jones of the Clash called "Good Morning Britain". Some of the references would likely go over a 2020s American's head, but it's a banger! Of their more typical tracks, I'd recommend "Walk Out to Winter" and "We Can Send Letters".
Thanks for this blast from the past. I loved this song, even although I never had an Aztec Camera album. But I definitely had this song on some mixed tape somewhere! 😎😎
Great choice JP.... Aztec Camera were essentially Roddy Frame (aka The Boy Wonder) ...a tremendous songwriter/guitarist who's still writing and performing to this day. High Land Hard Rain was a key album in post-punk indie scene in the UK..full of melodic, exuberant lovelorn indie-pop..and wonderful lyrics .. check out the other single from the album - the wonderful 'Walk Out To Winter'......in fact, check out the entire album...it's a thing of beauty ❤️
Alway loved AC, they were interesting, diiferent and truly melodic... Roddy frame is pretty remarkable in the sense that he remains relatively obscure but consistently releases very good melodious and well written songs, needless to say he is one of my favourite singer/songwriter's as is Andy Partridge of XTC, thanks for taking the time to react to such an underrated talent...
"It's Going On Saturday" An American tourist in Mexico City, doing the Aztec Two Step! While being filmed by an Aztec Camera 📸! And Rodney Frames the shot, let's hope it doesn't go to pot🚽!✌️&♥️
"A deep art quality" - ah but life was Art in London in the early eighties if you arrived in your teens, lived as you could back then - so cheaply, wore second hand men's coats to keep warm. Oh, it was Dickensian and it was deep Art.
I loved this album so much when it came out! Very disappointed when I just couldn't get into the second (Mark Knopfler produced) album but it wasn't that Roddy "lost it" just that his music and maybe my tastes had moved on a bit in the (was it a gap of two years?) meantime.
Great reaction Justin. In a similar wheelhouse is the band Haircut 100 with their debut album "Pelican West." Recommended tracks are "Love's Got Me in Triangles," "Favourite Shirts," and "Calling Captain Autumn."
@@tdstone - I'd read about it already at the time of its release in '84, but it was actually only in 2001 that I finally also heard it, when it was one of the first songs I downloaded from Napster 😀
Apparently Roddy Frame wrote this in a deliberate attempt to craft a hit single, and the result was both a hit and the best song on the album. Which raises the question, why not build the whole plane out of this stuff?
Thank you for reacting to ,"Oblivious". The song is one of my favourite singles from the early 80s. Roddy Frame is a fantastic songwriter! I particularly love some of the later albums, including, "Stray" (1990) which includes the single, "Good Morning Britain" (with Mick Jones) and "Dreamland" (1993) which is produced by the late, Ryuichi Sakamoto. There is also an acoustic solo album by Roddy Frame, called, "Surf", which is full of stunningly beautiful and melodic songs.
I Like his two fIrst albums. XTC? The XTC song "Yatch Dance", is the more close than I can thinK. By the way, when a reaction to his album Mummer ( 1983) ? Please...
And as someone else had also already suggested: You *MUST* check out their version of 'Jump', Justin! And make sure to listen to the 'Loaded Version', too! Otherwise it'll be missing the best part! 😉 Have a fabulous weekend, mate! 😀👍 ...and yay, you're almost done with your 'April Music Marathon'! 👏😁
Oh, this might be a great double-feature reaction! I just realized we can't be sure you've heard the original "Jump" by Van Halen. I think Aztec Camera's version is sooooo much better; but then I hated Van Halen growing up! XD
@@CAdams6398 i'm with you re TLE, TFPOY (and not just cos they're a local band, ha), but i always found these rather blah. Re a golden age of chart music however, I never really paid them much attention. Though it was impossible to avoid 'pop' with largely chart centric juke boxes, then MTV on in all the pubs, clubs, and bars etc. But i'd never recollect the year of any given song, not for a million quid.
@@CAdams6398 Yes, I bundle of lot of songs into that time, not that i can remember them now necessarily. I was 18, peak record buying and starting in a band myself, Teardrops had Imploded and Cope hadn't yet released WSYM. Roddy Frame and The Lotus Eaters filled a void. Soon it would be Cope overload, Prefab Sprout's Steve McQueen and Dream Academy's Life in a Northern Town.
@@andrewgarrett7100 I was hurtling towards mid 20's at this point, and can't remember exactly what i was particularly into. But chances are i'm still listening to it now. And also that i was probably taking music far too seriously back them. Happily i've mellowed a bit since then 🙂
It's impossible not to love this song. One of the best of the 80s.
I never heard Aztec Camera until I got to college and found out the bass player, Campbell Owens, was my lecturer. It was him that actually interviewed me to get into college in the first place. A really great person and a great musician.
Thanks for listening! My favourite band from the early 80s. The album is a series of great pop songs, and 18 year old Roddy Frame’s songwriting is dazzling. Although he has kept going with a long career, he never became the superstar we thought he would when we first heard this album.
Great album indeed! 😀👍 What did you think of their second one, 'Knife'?
Happily Tim!
Amazing band. One of my favourites from the 80s too. To think that Roddy Frame wrote the album ‘High Land, Hard Rain’ at 18, as well as being the singer and guitarist in this band has always filled me with awe. Exquisite guitarist.
Was lucky enough to see them live numerous times, and I plan to see Roddy Frame next time he tours. He’s still fantastic.
@@mightyV444 good, but not as good as HLHR
It was the late 90s before I found out how young Roddy had been when he unleashed this masterpiece of pure coolness.
One of my favourite guitar solos. Roddy Frame was only 18 when he recorded this song.
Try "Walk out to winter" and "somewhere in my heart" both really interesting songs...
Roddy Frame is an excellent songwriter, a fine singer and an equally good guitar player. He went solo and continued doing what he does, seemingly totally (and criminally) overlooked by everyone. He had a minor hit with the track "A Reason For Living" in the late 90s and that is pretty much all as far as I know. He wrote one of my favourite tracks by anyone in the beautiful "Hymn to Grace".
I was so thrilled to see you reacting to Aztec Camera, JP. Roddy Frame was the driving force of the band and he's still making gorgeous music today. I'm the same age as Roddy (we're also both Scots) and like him I was 18 when this came out and I fell in love. They were the first band I felt was truly mine as opposed to bands that I listened to because my older brother did - in fact I got him listening to Aztec Camera :) Even all these years later it blows my mind that this was Roddy at 18 writing complicated, interesting songs and playing astonishing guitar. Thanks for playing this and for making my Saturday! And if you feel inclined, the whole album is worth a listen and there is a whole catalogue to explore both of the band and Roddy's solo work. Having said that, my favourite Aztec Camera song is 'Killermont Street - it's a perfect song IMHO and definitely worth a listen/reaction if you feel inclined.
Appreciated LCG! Ty
Such a nice vibe in this song, brings me joy everytime, always nice to see someone get into them
Roddy Frame was a teenager when he made this! He's an amazing talent, songwriter, singer and virtuoso pop/rock/jazz guitarist. 'Art pop' is right. His lyrics are generally pretty obscure but always very singable and his tunes very groovy.
I saw him open for Hall & Oates supporting this album. Love it.
The drummer Dave Ruffy had previously played with The Ruts.
Nice! I used to play this one on my radio show back in college. Their layer song "Hope Men Are" is beautiful.
Such a great little track. The baby steps of indie, with more than a nudge to Haircut 100 and Altered Images.
Haircut100 and Altered Images were both great bands, but where are they now? Where is Roddy Frame now? Try SURF, or WESTERN SKIES, or look at the love he gets from the audience at Cadogan Hall concerts
OMG- Your streak continues! Another AMAZING album. Back in the 80s- HLHR was always in my tape deck. Roddy was a wunderkind.
Ty CC!
Thanks for the reaction. Part of my youth this song. The whole album 'high land hard rain' is well worth a listen.
What a great tune bro ... I was just listening to this a few weeks back, and watching the video ...
I haven't followed this band but I liked this when it came out as a single, it is a fine tune indeed with a very tasty lead break. I love good harmonies too and that leads nicely into my suggestion for the British band 10cc as a reaction. There's so much to choose from but I picked one at random and it's a 1976 song called, "I'm Mandy Fly Me". Check it out and maybe you'll want to dive deeper as the band has such a lot of styles and moods to offer and I'm understating here!.
What a talent, he was only 18 when he wrote this song. It still sounds great today 🎸
One of my favorite songs of all of the 80's.
All I need is everything is another cracking single from the Aztecs
I saw them open for Edie Brickell and New Bohemians in 1989 at a club in Norfolk Virginia. They had the crowd in the palms of their hands, and Edie Brickell really had trouble following them. Except for "What I Am," which was her current hit on the Indie stations, she lost the audience. 35 years later, I don't think even her husband Paul Simon remembers her.
One of my all time favorite alternative 80s bands! The entire High Land Hard Rain album is one of the best debuts in the entire decade. Roddy Frame wrote all those songs as a teenager on this album.
Very much an Orange Juice vibe about this one.
Orange Juice and Aztec Camera were stablemates on Glasgow's Postcard record label 'The sound of young Scotland' ....and Roddy Frame and Edwyn Collins were, and still are best friends...👍
@@arthurkettle3010 Yep. In fact, when Edwyn had what he calls his "cerebral accident", Roddy rang him up every day to make sure his friend was ok. Roddy also tried to help Frankie Miller (an earlier Scottish singer) in a similar way.
I’m so glad you like this one! One of my absolute favs from the 80s!! Such a brilliant band. How Men Are - is just fantastic & has a lot of memories attached to it for me. I haven’t heard it in forever. Time to find and listen to it.❤❤❤
I had completely forgotten about Aztec Camera, thank you! I love Somewhere In My Heart and Good Morning Britain by them too, and will be giving them a listen shortly :)
Aztec Camera WAS/IS Roddy Frame. He writes all the music and lyrics. That whole record is brilliant. And Roddy Frame is criminally underrated.
They were a Scottish band, and this is the first song on their first album, which I'd finally bought in the mid 90's, after having read rave reviews and very interesting interviews with their main dude Roddy Frame already 10 years earlier! I'd actually first bought the follow-up, 'Knife', because I'd been unable to find 'High Land, Hard Rain'; Which wasn't bad either but definitely had more emphasis on electronic elements, which in the mid 90's sounded rather dated to me. Really cool to see this popping up on here, in another very enjoyable reaction/analysis video; Yes, I too can definitely hear an XTC resemblance! 😊👍
Hey JP...
Try Stray, Knife and Kilkermont Street. Great tracks. Roddy Frame is great.
His second album KNIVE was produced by Mark Knopfler
This used to play on the speakers where I worked and it worked its way in my brain so much that I did a cover lol
Fabulous song, especially one written by an 18-year-old. Roddy Frame's a fantastic songwriter and High Land, Hard Rain was an excellent debut. I love the lilting acoustic guitar on this, especially that solo. Nice jazzy groove to the whole track. On this album, 'We Could Send Letters', 'Walk Out to Winter' and 'The Bugle Sounds Again' are also worth checking out, among others. Roddy continues to write consistently strong solo material to this day.
Great channel Justin! Just subscribed. I like the fact that you listen to the songs in their entirety and then discuss. Too many channels stopping and starting the songs several times times and discussing in between.
As a Brit I also love how impressed you are with 2 of my favourite bands. Ian Dury & The Blockheads and The Stranglers 😊✌🏾
Plus the fact that you noticed the brilliance of Norman Watt-Roy on bass for The Blockheads and the late great Dave Greenfield on keyboards for The Stranglers.
Keep up the good work! Looking forward to finding some new bands to discover from your channel ✌🏾
This and "Spanish Horses" are my favorite AC songs.
I love listening to reactors with a musical knowledge / background.
I dont have much, but ty Spring
Another great song by them is The Crying Scene
Check out good morning Britain featuring mick Jones from the clash
Roddy Frame really had a knack for a good pop song. Great album!
High Land, Hard Rain is a great album!
Wonderful. Always an uplifting listen ❤ I was 14 when this came out
Just a gloriously well crafted pop song, always will be.
Fantastic song and one of my favourite albums of the 80s.
I remember this song. It was nice. Im sure many of these less known 80s New Wave bands had more hits in Europe. Here in the States we normally just got to know the songs that made it to MTV like this one.
LOVE this band and this album, the main guy (Roddy Frame) is such and under-rated songwriter and guitarist - and one of my favorite vocalists of all time -
i would love it if you did more from AC (We Could Send Letters, All I Need is Everything, Somewhere in My Heart, and PLEASE listen to the song Stray from the album of the same name... it is transcendent...
One of Scotland's best bands - indie with some flamenco guitar thrown in, a winning combination... although my favourite of their songs doesn't have that guitar sound: a great protest song they did with Mick Jones of the Clash called "Good Morning Britain". Some of the references would likely go over a 2020s American's head, but it's a banger! Of their more typical tracks, I'd recommend "Walk Out to Winter" and "We Can Send Letters".
Thanks for this blast from the past. I loved this song, even although I never had an Aztec Camera album. But I definitely had this song on some mixed tape somewhere! 😎😎
This song reminds me of a few other early 1980’s gems, which is fine. I love it.
Great choice JP....
Aztec Camera were essentially Roddy Frame (aka The Boy Wonder) ...a tremendous songwriter/guitarist who's still writing and performing to this day. High Land Hard Rain was a key album in post-punk indie scene in the UK..full of melodic, exuberant lovelorn indie-pop..and wonderful lyrics .. check out the other single from the album - the wonderful 'Walk Out To Winter'......in fact, check out the entire album...it's a thing of beauty ❤️
My favorite music
Alway loved AC, they were interesting, diiferent and truly melodic... Roddy frame is pretty remarkable in the sense that he remains relatively obscure but consistently releases very good melodious and well written songs, needless to say he is one of my favourite singer/songwriter's as is Andy Partridge of XTC, thanks for taking the time to react to such an underrated talent...
Check out The Boy Wonders from the same album
I love this song!
"It's Going On Saturday" An American tourist in Mexico City, doing the Aztec Two Step! While being filmed by an Aztec Camera 📸! And Rodney Frames the shot, let's hope it doesn't go to pot🚽!✌️&♥️
"A deep art quality" - ah but life was Art in London in the early eighties if you arrived in your teens, lived as you could back then - so cheaply, wore second hand men's coats to keep warm. Oh, it was Dickensian and it was deep Art.
I loved this album so much when it came out! Very disappointed when I just couldn't get into the second (Mark Knopfler produced) album but it wasn't that Roddy "lost it" just that his music and maybe my tastes had moved on a bit in the (was it a gap of two years?) meantime.
Sounds like a happy The Smiths
😅Youre not wrong
@@JustJP bro pls react to Killing Joke - Night Time
Great reaction Justin. In a similar wheelhouse is the band Haircut 100 with their debut album "Pelican West." Recommended tracks are "Love's Got Me in Triangles," "Favourite Shirts," and "Calling Captain Autumn."
Another great Scottish band
Great album. Scottish band.
Pop charts fodder
You definitely have to react to the Aztec Camera version of "Jump ." It brings a completely different feel compared to the VH original!
YES! There's no way around it for Justin! 😀 It has to be the 'loaded version', though! 😉👍
I love pointing people to the version of “Jump” for anyone looking for a quirky cover.
@@tdstone - I'd read about it already at the time of its release in '84, but it was actually only in 2001 that I finally also heard it, when it was one of the first songs I downloaded from Napster 😀
roddy frame wrote this when he was 17 years old
Apparently Roddy Frame wrote this in a deliberate attempt to craft a hit single, and the result was both a hit and the best song on the album. Which raises the question, why not build the whole plane out of this stuff?
I was in my discovery of punk and heavy metal when this song came out and prevented me from becoming a narrow minded elitist.
Early Sophisti-Pop, this. If you like Prefab Sprout, you’ll like these guys.
Great album. Definitely an influence on Brit-pop in the 90's.
Thank you for reacting to ,"Oblivious". The song is one of my favourite singles from the early 80s. Roddy Frame is a fantastic songwriter! I particularly love some of the later albums, including, "Stray" (1990) which includes the single, "Good Morning Britain" (with Mick Jones) and "Dreamland" (1993) which is produced by the late, Ryuichi Sakamoto. There is also an acoustic solo album by Roddy Frame, called, "Surf", which is full of stunningly beautiful and melodic songs.
I Like his two fIrst albums. XTC? The XTC song "Yatch Dance", is the more close than I can thinK.
By the way, when a reaction to his album Mummer ( 1983) ? Please...
Like!
And as someone else had also already suggested: You *MUST* check out their version of 'Jump', Justin! And make sure to listen to the 'Loaded Version', too! Otherwise it'll be missing the best part! 😉 Have a fabulous weekend, mate! 😀👍 ...and yay, you're almost done with your 'April Music Marathon'! 👏😁
Thanks V! :)
@@JustJP - All good 😀 Thank you for your good vibes to start my day! 😊👍
Rather hear XTC.
This World Over… 1984, close enough to compare.
Can you react to Crush by Dave Matthews Band
Oh, this might be a great double-feature reaction! I just realized we can't be sure you've heard the original "Jump" by Van Halen. I think Aztec Camera's version is sooooo much better; but then I hated Van Halen growing up! XD
Housemartins - Anxious
Generic, chirpy, poppy, insubstantial chart fodder... Had a mate who was a fan, but i just couldn't see it myself. Another pass I'm afraid.
Get back to your thrash metal bud,this may too sophisticated for your tastes,regards🙄
@@CAdams6398 i'm with you re TLE, TFPOY (and not just cos they're a local band, ha), but i always found these rather blah. Re a golden age of chart music however, I never really paid them much attention. Though it was impossible to avoid 'pop' with largely chart centric juke boxes, then MTV on in all the pubs, clubs, and bars etc.
But i'd never recollect the year of any given song, not for a million quid.
@@CAdams6398 Yes, I bundle of lot of songs into that time, not that i can remember them now necessarily. I was 18, peak record buying and starting in a band myself, Teardrops had Imploded and Cope hadn't yet released WSYM. Roddy Frame and The Lotus Eaters filled a void. Soon it would be Cope overload, Prefab Sprout's Steve McQueen and Dream Academy's Life in a Northern Town.
@@andrewgarrett7100 I was hurtling towards mid 20's at this point, and can't remember exactly what i was particularly into. But chances are i'm still listening to it now. And also that i was probably taking music far too seriously back them. Happily i've mellowed a bit since then 🙂