I know we're not in Kansas - the sky's all coloured wrong

One I have no clue about at all...

No Place Like Home (1991)

I believe this features yet another stylistic swerve, but have absolutely no idea which direction it takes.

1. We're Not In Kansas
Hmmm. There's a germ of a song (or several) in there but it's not really full formed - it features weird lyrics and tempo changes for no obvious reason. It's also not very well produced with the guitars distractingly high in the mix. Overall - would not recommend.

2. Republican Party Reptile
Whereas this has a weird ZZ Top feel to it - were they actively trying to drive their fans away?

3. Dynamite Lady
At least this has hints of Big Country to it, but it's definitely lacking the passion of their earlier work - it's very much done by the numbers.

4. Keep On Dreaming
Well, at least we continue to head in the right direction - but we ain't there yet!

5. Beautiful People
This is weirdly stompy almost country with some dreadful lyrics. Under any other circumstances, I would have given up on this by now.

6. The Hostage Speaks
Well, this isn't quite as bad as some, but it's really not great with some very unsubtle lyrics - "remember kids, war is bad".

7. Beat The Devil
This is probably the closest we've come to a "proper" BC song, but the levels are still very poor and Stuart's affecting a weird Scottish/American accent. However, in the light of what's come before I'm prepared to admit it's not dreadful (everything's relative, eh?)

8. Leap Of Faith
Wow - two not dreadful songs in a row. Well done lads! Nobody needed 5:45 of it though.

9. You, Me And The Truth
Meh - not dreadful, but certainly not required.

10. Comes A Time
We're back into ZZ Top territory - I'm really at a loss as to what they were thinking.

11. Ships
A Deacon Blue style slowie - quite possibly (OK - hands down, definitely) the best track we've heard, but not really what I was expecting.

12. Into The Fire
This is another one with a germ of a decent track there but with some weird tempo changes to confuse matters - which seems as appropriate a way as any to end this hellish trip.

In case you hadn't guessed by now, I really didn't like this album because it was just rubbish - the songs are mediocre at best (with the notable exception of "Ships") and the production is very lifeless with the levels all over the place. So none of the tracks are going on any playlist anywhere, I'm afraid. I also have to stress that I only listened to the tracks on the original album and not the 33 tracks (covering over 2.5 hours) on the "re-presents" version that Amazon Prime tried to serve me up. 

Wikipedia has remarkably little on the album other than telling us the title references The Wonderful World Of Oz by Frank L Baum. Which I suspect most people worked out, but probably less people know that "there's no place like home" comes from a song adapted from American actor and dramatist John Howard Payne's 1823 opera Clari, or the Maid of Milan - I certainly had no idea. The only other items of interest come from the personnel section where we note that Mark Brzezicki was not officially part of the band for this album (although he still played drums on it) and Carol Kenyon (best known for her warbling on Heaven 17's "Temptation") provided some backing vocals.

Critically, to my surprise, NME actually quite liked it appreciating "the more traditional R&B feel" but I'm going to side with Melody Maker who said there was "no place like the bin" for this "series of insufferable bar-room boogies". And commercially, it only charted in the main UK chart, peaking at #28 in a miserable two week run - it didn't even chart in the Scottish chart, which tells you a lot about the reception it got. It is also often ranked at the bottom of the various "Big Country Albums Ranked" lists across the internet and it's quite hard to find anyone who says anything nice about.

discogs.com surprises me by saying you're going to have to spend £6 to get a decent copy of this (with a surprising number of cassette versions available) and surprises me even more by offering me a copy for £200 - but it is at least signed by the band, I guess. I appreciate they wanted to try something different after the relatively lacklustre performance of the previous album - but, rather than this monstrosity, maybe they should have just considered trying something better?

Peace In Our Time - less of the same

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

And all at once I owned the earth and sky

Image
A new year to start the New Year - starting my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 30/12/01 : Swing When You're Winning -   Robbie Williams There's a reasonable argument I should reject this album, but it was such a surprising cultural moment that even I don't feel I can, so it means we're starting the year with one that "we" own. This is our fifth visit with Mr Williams - I'm determined not to enjoy it, but I also have to admit I'm not going to hate it nearly as much as I would like to.  You know what? This is perfectly fine. Completely inessential, but he's not doing anyone any harm. For the most part, it's classic Sinatra-or-thereabouts tracks which Robbie does a decent job with on the vocals (along with some slightly peculiar guests) and they've obviously got some decent musicians in to lay down the backing tracks. He rarely does anything wildly original with them but, most importantly, he doesn't ruin them either - I don't...
Read more

I wanna keep the door from closing, yeah

Image
Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 26/12/25 : I Barely Know Her - Sombr Christmas week gives us some odd albums - last year we had Lana del Rey's album from '12, which hasn't left the chart all year. I'm pleased to say we're somewhat more up to date this year with an album that came out in August - I met it as a new entry  and was somewhat nonplussed by it, but I have mentioned it a couple of times since because it's just not gone away, which is somewhat unusual. So let's see what I make of it on a second listen (this trick totally failed to convince me of the virtues of Addison Rae earlier today). Well, well, well - Sombr at least intrigues on second listen. I'd struggle to describe it - it's kinda poppy indie with a woozy vibe to it, but it feels like it has depths to it and I reckon the more you listen to it, the more you pick up on. Intriguing indeed - I'd love to tell you more but that's all I got for the time ...
Read more

In your grace, I looked for some meaning - but I found none

Image
Continuing my trip up The Guardian's  50 best albums of 2025 . #3 :  Essex Honey - Blood Orange Dev Hynes’ fifth album as Blood Orange felt uniquely keyed into the fragmented, distracted headspace that comes after someone passes, in his case, his mother. Essex Honey’s restive nature was summed up in its painful opening lines, which you could read as the dying’s acceptance of death starkly contrasting the living’s ability to meet them on those terms: “In your grace, I looked for some meaning,” Hynes sings on Look at You. “But I found none, and I still search for a truth.” That search is wide-reaching: The Field refashions the Durutti Column’s Sing to Me as a racing hymnal made for the stereo of a Ford Escort. There are tough little Robert Rental-style post-punk gems in The Train (Kings Cross) and Countryside that bristle with frustration. Vivid Light is a plainly soulful duet with Zadie Smith; Life, featuring Tirzah’s unmistakable vocals, basks in languid, flute-dappled funk. T...
Read more