Aztec Camera – The Best Of Aztec Camera (1999)

I'm not a fan of 'Best Of' compilations, as a rule, but Roddy Frame has churned out some decent tunes in his time, and I'm pretty sure this only cost me a quid in a charity shop somewhere.

I do remember Aztec Camera being music press darlings in the early 1980s as everything that Postcard Records released seemed to be beloved of the hacks, and first heard them on the NME C81 compilation.

So, how good is their 'Best Of'? Well, at points very good indeed. It starts with their biggest hits, the three Top 20 chartbusters, which illustrate the band at their very best. The cheery, jangly Somewhere In My Heart and Oblivious kick off, both fantastic songs, followed by the collaboration with Mick Jones of the Clash and BAD, Good Morning Britain, sounding like there's far more Jones than Frame in there.

But I'm not finding the slower stuff as satisfying (neither did the record buying public) and Working In a Goldmine and How Men Are are both very well produced songs of their type, but not really for me.

Birth Of The True fares better, a gentle song, just Frame and a guitar, to my mine, a much better listen than the previous two, which were much more produced, and Pillar To Post lifts the spirits with its jolly feel, as does the bouncy Walk On To Winter.

All I Need Is Everything is similarly bright, but doesn't quite click, neither does the very ordinary Deep & Wide & Tall, and a bizarre slowed down version of Van Halen's Jump leaves me scratching my head. Killermont Street is another dull ballad, and I'm left struggling with the rest, until the final track, the first Aztec Camera song I heard, We Could Send Letters, and while it's still a really good song, this version from the album High Land, Hard Rain, is just a little too slowed down and over-produced compared to the version I remember from the C81 compilation.

So, a real mixed bag here. Some absolute classics, but quite a bit that's not to my taste. Definitely worth a listen, and there's a few tracks which would sit up there with any 'best of the 1980s' list.

Link to album tracks

3* - A few greats, a lot that's fine and a couple of ordinary songs. But certainly worth a listen.