I know where all that time has gone

The first one I've never listened to...

Peace In Our Time (1988)

I've no idea why I never bought this. I remember a couple of the singles and quite liked them, but for some reason I just never got round to it - so I'm intrigued to see what I think of it.

1. King Of Emotion
I remembered liking this - it wasn't as enjoyable as I was expecting, but it's not dreadful. It doesn't sound very Scottish compared their previous stuff though and the drums are ridiculously high in the mix.

2. Broken Heart (Thirteen Valleys)
This was another one I remembered I liked - and this one has stood the test of time better (and it sounds more Scottish). It's still pretty understated on the guitar front - maybe they were given them a rest on this album. I wasn't expecting the pan pipes at the end though

3. Thousand Yard Stare
Fine, but a bit repetitive - and that's all I can remember about it.

4. From Here To Eternity
This starts with some ambient pan pipe-y things as well - what were they thing? It does at least feature some obvious guitars though, so that's an improvement. 

5. Everything I Need
This has guitars as well - acoustic guitars! Are they even allowed? It's a slower tempo number which provides a bit of variety, if maybe being a little too nondescript. 

6. Peace In Our Time
This is one I knew but had forgotten about. I quite liked it, but it feels to me like it's more restrained than it needed to be, which is a bit of a theme for the album - they're not letting rip here (but I bet they did when they played them live). 

7. Time For Leaving
They do at least feel like they're trying on this one - it's not one of their finest tracks though. 

8. River Of Hope
I didn't mind this one, but it doesn't really have a Big Country sound to it - it's more like a ZZ Top number. All in all, this has been a curious album so far. 

9. In This Place
This sounds a bit more Big Country-esque, but, once again, they're just not really going for it. 

10. I Could Be Happy Here
Finally, a bit of life! About time, but I suspect quite a few had given up by this point.

Hmmm - none of it's dreadful, but if you're looking for a Big Country album (and I have to assume that's what most people were expecting) then it really doesn't deliver on that front. Interestingly, the '96 remastered version included four additional tracks which wouldn't normally get a listen but I wanted to see if they'd realised the error of their ways, so checked them out. And two of them, "When A Drum Beats" and "The Longest Day" are much more the sort of thing that I was expecting - so much so that "The Longest Day" is going on the playlist, along with "Broken Heart (Thirteen Valleys)" and "Peace In Our Time".

Wikipedia has remarkably little on the album with one sentence telling us it's their fourth album and a couple of sentences on the critical response, with Trouser Press ("deliriously overproduced...sanitized, synthesized musical settings") being harsher than The Chicago Tribune ("a more gentle and subtle style"). Commercially, it didn't do much away from these shores except for #6 in Finland - it only got #160 in the US, but was their last album to do anuything over there. Looking further afield on the internet at various "Big Country albums ranked" pages, this album is rarely placed last but is always in the bottom three.

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a decent version for three quid but if you want an unopened, remastered double CD (complete with hype sticker, whatever that means) from '14 then it's going to set you back £120 - which feels somewhat excessive to me (to say the least). It's not that I hated this but it wasn't at all what I expected. I can't decide whether they just weren't in the mood for it all or whether it was a stylistic choice. I've nothing against a change of direction and there's an argument that "more of the same" wouldn't have cut it, but this just feels like "less of the same", so it just doesn't work for me.

The Seer - An enjoyable revisit