This album is like one of those Westerns where the homestead has been burned down, the womenfolk raped and murdered, and the cattle driven off by a gang of rogue Commancherros. The men, having returned too late to save anybody, now grimly set off to right all wrongs.
To go with the grim sentiments we have chugging guitars and stomping Celtic rhythms, best exemplified on tracks like Pink Marshmallow Moon, as reflective as a riff poured from a whisky bottle; What Are We Working For? and Alone, which is given an interesting twist by its tugging bass. The One I Love and Long Way From Home fall into the category of "Great Songs With Disappointing Choruses."
The lyrics, often dour, claymore-rattling slogans, dealing with a wide range of contemporary evils from AIDS to The Selling of America for the mighty Yen, provide depth to Stuart Adamson's emotion, and its his much richer vocal that is one of the main reasons why this is a much improved album. Big Country, just like Big John Wayne - a band with 'true grit' out to get their man!
GRADE A
The lyrics, often dour, claymore-rattling slogans, dealing with a wide range of contemporary evils from AIDS to The Selling of America for the mighty Yen, provide depth to Stuart Adamson's emotion, and its his much richer vocal that is one of the main reasons why this is a much improved album. Big Country, just like Big John Wayne - a band with 'true grit' out to get their man!
GRADE A
Colin Liddell
Riff Raff
June, 1993
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