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Aztec Camera – Knife
Album | 21/09/1984 | Sire Records/Warner Music Group Corp.
39:31 | 8 tracks | Vinyl/CD/Digital
Jangle Pop / Indie Pop
East Kilbride, Scotland
After the Hard Rain
Their debut album High Land, Hard Rain had not been nine months old, when Scottish band Aztec Camera underwent a major change of their line-up. The transformation from a quartet to an octet came with a new musical orientation. Leaving Punk and Post Punk behind, Aztec Camera now wanted to reach for the stars. With Mark Knopfler as the album’s producer, their sounded shifted to a very poppy and radio-ready version of New Wave.
In the Shadows of The Smiths
Knife is a vibrant, dreamy, and danceable record. The sounds of the eight albums tracks are still omnipresent on today’s radio stations since the Jangle Pop and New Wave of the 1980s still dominates vast spheres of contemporary popular music. But there was a problem that even Mark Knopfler could not overcome: The Smiths‚ popularity in these days was much bigger, and allegedly the band around Morrissey had copied Aztec Camera’s style. If Knife could have skyrocketted to immortal glory otherwise, we may never find out.
Pop for the Passionate
Knife is a versatile and intelligent album full of passion and emotional themes. Instead of Post Punk gloom or Shoegaze noises, Aztec Camera present sophisticated songs wrapped in an accessible coat. Serving the two purposes of artistic demand on the one hand and an easy acces on the other, Knife may lose hearing on boths sides. In some aspects, the music appears to be too washed out, in other songs the complexity decreases the listening pleasure. This may have been otherwise in the 80s, but today Knife appears very casual or even expendable.
4/10 Mangoes
Next week in this series:
Destiny’s Child – Destiny Fulfilled (08/11/2004 | Columbia Records/Sony Urban Music)
We will dance again
Mia Schem
