Here I stand with my own kin at the end of everything

Next!

Steeltown (1984)

Side One

1. Flame Of The West
A nice swirling anthemic start with quite a dark theme of false promises and betrayal - it sounds great loud.

2. East Of Eden
Not a million miles away from the previous track, but we got some hints of hope here - it's not going to be all gloom and doom (but quite a lot of it is though).

3. Steeltown
Yup - we're back in the land of false promises and betrayal again. The lyrics are particularly good here though - arguably some of his finest work, methinks. And yes, it's swirling and anthemic again, although a bit slower than the previous tracks. 

4. Where The Rose Is Sown
We've got a bit of hope here - the subject may have gone off to war but he believes he's on the side of the angels and he hasn't been killed yet.

5. Come Back To Me
Oh dear (spoiler alert) - he's dead now and we're hearing from the woman who was waiting for him. We've got a bit of musical variety here with a slower, almost military beat to it - it works well as a contrast and I like it (but I like all this album). 

Side Two

1. Tall Ships Go
We're quite military again here - although, for once, we don't seem to have too much despair here. 

2. Girl With Grey Eyes
We're slow again with some lovely harmonies -  I think it's about a lost/unrequited love and it's really got that sense of yearning to it. I really like this one.

3. Rain Dance
Quite a military feel again - but this one's actually quite positive. It's fine but not one of my favourites. 

4. The Great Divide
This is the only track I didn't remember from reading the lyrics - and I'm not sure why because it's perfectly decent.

5. Just A Shadow
Awww - given Stuart's untimely end, this is very poignant. "Did we ever have it good? While we lived in Eldorado did we find the gold we should?" - some top lyrics again on another one I like.

A general comment which applies across all tracks is that the guitar and drum work on all tracks is great - the drums provide a strong propulsive base, obviously present but not overwhelming and the guitars work really well around them. This is one of the first albums I remember heading out to buy when it came out and I listened to it loads (and loud) - I rarely listen to it these days but I still love it and it was a pleasure to revisit it. I was also lucky enough to see them play it all on its 30th anniversary tour at The Fleece & Firkin in Bristol (over ten years ago now!) - Mike Peters (also sadly no longer with us) did a reasonable job with the vocals, but he was no Stuart Adamson. 

Picking some tracks for the playlist is tricky because I really like most of them - I'm going for two from each side, so let's have "Flame Of The West", "Steeltown", "Girl With Grey Eyes" and "Just A Shadow" but there are quite a few tracks that can feel hard done by. If I was to have a complaint about this album, it's that they decided against putting "Wonderland" on it - I think it's a great track (probably my favourite of all their stuff) and the general optimistic tone of it certainly wouldn't have hurt the album (although maybe the argument was that it would have been a bit jarring?)

Wikipedia tells us this was recorded at ABBA's studio in Stockholm (which doesn't seem like an obvious choice) and it was produced by Steve Lillywhite (who also did The Crossing). I actually learned something specific about the album - the "steel town" in question is Corby in Northants. I just assumed it was in Scotland, but it's all to do with the decision by Stewart & Lloyds, the Glasgow steelmaker, to set up a steelworks in Corby (because it was closer to the ore) which resulted in a load of Scottish people moving down for the jobs, but they were ultimately let down when the mill shut down (although I feel I should point out this was nearly 50 years later).

Critically, Rolling Stone gave it a cracking review but "some critics reacted negatively towards the album, calling it muddled and overly dense" - I can give them dense, but muddled feels harsh, although I can see that the general Britishness of it all didn't help matters. "However, many fans today consider Steeltown to be the band's finest work" and I think I agree, although I need to remind myself of what comes next before I definitely state that.  Commercially it did best here, getting to #1 (their only album to do so) but only had a 21 week run - away from here it got to #12 in Norway and #15 in New Zealand and top 40 in most of the other normal contenders, but only #70 in the US. 

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a decent copy for a couple of quid (so my vinyl copy isn't going to enable me to retire just yet) but if you want the deluxe, gatefold, double reissue from '14 it's going to set you back £150! I never listen to my copy these days, but I wouldn't part with it - there are too many fond memories associated with it and it was lovely to be reminded of the tracks, which are really very decent.

The Crossing - Where it all began