The Very Best of the Skids
The Skids
The Very Best of...
2003 EMI Records
Released shortly after the rather tragic passing of Stuart Adamson, this collection marks a fitting catalog of best bits from one of the most underappreciated rock bands Dunfermline, Scotland produced. Co-led by Adamson and Richard Jobson, the Skids have often been seen by outsiders as the band Adamson was in before founding Big Country (a band Adamson would lead for decades, up to its dissolution at his death), but the Skids stood well on their own. Many of the trademarks of the anthemic Big Country sound were there in a more punked out form: punchy and infectious melodies, often using big, epic guitar riffs with a more than passing sense of being inherently Scottish by design. Those riffs are really apparent in cuts like the opener, Charles and in Goodbye Civilian and Working for The Yankee Dollar (from the Bill Nelson produced Days in Europa). Most of the first half of this collection strikes a good note.
Not all of their material flies as well as those, such as their rather pedestrian...well, no...more like lazy or sloppy rendition of the Lou Reed standard Walk on the Wild Side. It comes off like a b-side for an early Joan Jett album. Much of the second half of their existence gets inconsistent, particularly the post-Adamson material, which lacks the bright dynamics of the early days, and lyrics that seem that more pretentious than anything else. In some cases, songs like Fields, resembe second hand prototypes of Big Country's Fields of Fire. But even in cases like that, songs like the arty Masquerade and the melancholic and experimental Snakes and Ladders (a real departure) show you what was coming in New Wave/Post-punk, and how a band could expand their palette without totally losing sense of purpose.
They weren't the Pistols, or The Clash, but they were a decent band that probably deserved better recognition than they got at the time, and certainly should be enjoyed on their own merits and not just as a macabre footnote for Stuart Adamson.
The Very Best of...
2003 EMI Records
Released shortly after the rather tragic passing of Stuart Adamson, this collection marks a fitting catalog of best bits from one of the most underappreciated rock bands Dunfermline, Scotland produced. Co-led by Adamson and Richard Jobson, the Skids have often been seen by outsiders as the band Adamson was in before founding Big Country (a band Adamson would lead for decades, up to its dissolution at his death), but the Skids stood well on their own. Many of the trademarks of the anthemic Big Country sound were there in a more punked out form: punchy and infectious melodies, often using big, epic guitar riffs with a more than passing sense of being inherently Scottish by design. Those riffs are really apparent in cuts like the opener, Charles and in Goodbye Civilian and Working for The Yankee Dollar (from the Bill Nelson produced Days in Europa). Most of the first half of this collection strikes a good note.
Not all of their material flies as well as those, such as their rather pedestrian...well, no...more like lazy or sloppy rendition of the Lou Reed standard Walk on the Wild Side. It comes off like a b-side for an early Joan Jett album. Much of the second half of their existence gets inconsistent, particularly the post-Adamson material, which lacks the bright dynamics of the early days, and lyrics that seem that more pretentious than anything else. In some cases, songs like Fields, resembe second hand prototypes of Big Country's Fields of Fire. But even in cases like that, songs like the arty Masquerade and the melancholic and experimental Snakes and Ladders (a real departure) show you what was coming in New Wave/Post-punk, and how a band could expand their palette without totally losing sense of purpose.
They weren't the Pistols, or The Clash, but they were a decent band that probably deserved better recognition than they got at the time, and certainly should be enjoyed on their own merits and not just as a macabre footnote for Stuart Adamson.
posted by theloniusfunk at 6:30 AM
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