Originally published by L.S. Media. February 7th 2012.
L.S. Media Rating ****
Looking back at an album’s life can be unnerving. It reminds you of where you and what you were doing when you became conscious of the first notes of a debut record by a new and extraordinary fresh band. The time on the albums credits are indication to the passing of your own life, the mortality that’s attached to your love of the record. You treasured the time together, you poured out your own soul and fears whilst listening to the poetry and distinctive music of someone else.
In the sleeve notes to the 30th Anniversary edition of Big Country’s seminal record The Crossing, (which oddly isn’t 30 years till July 2013 but hey what’s 17 months between friends and a timely reminder?) The words of the much loved and dearly missed vocalist Stuart Adamson seem haunting with their beauty and sincere openness.
Adamson begins the sleeve notes with “It all begins with a sound in your head, a disarray of words and music, an awareness of something coming to the surface…Take the mood, the emotion, the passion for it and make it live. Focus it all, crystalize the essence of it, let it become a living thing, share it.” To read those words, is to understand a man’s passion.
The Crossing was an album about change even before most of us who listened to it knew what the concept of change was. Its insightful, almost Keats-like lyrics fill the page and the incredible guitar and bass sounds by the mighty Bruce Watson and Tony Butler stir the heart into open rebellion. If this wasn’t enough to make you want to become a musician then the added joy of one of the best drummers in the world in the shape of imposing Mark Brzezicki surely would want you to pen songs and create scintillating music as those strewn throughout the album.
The pure adrenaline feel of a compelling Celtic mood is captured from the start. Those listening to the album only have to read the lyrics a little closer to understand the emotion in songs such as the record’s opening track, In a Big Country. The final lyrics of this wonderfully energetic song read as written by an 18th Century romantic poet, the composure and depth of feeling which is wrapped up in musical heart. “I’m not expecting to grow flowers in the desert but I can live and breathe and see the sun in wintertime.” Stuart Adamson sings these lines as if desperate to convey the truth and honesty of the music and rail against the insidious nature of the times.
Don’t take my word for it, what do I know, I just love music and enjoy reviewing it. However let the incredible music of songs as rich and altogether refreshing as the hauntingly melancholic Chance, the intense brutality of Fields of Fire and the honest approach of Heart and Soul take you on a journey that is sometimes in today’s mass market appeal deprived world, sadly missing.
The Crossing was more than an album; this was a statement of intent, a declaration of musical war that would achieve its aims of solid rock music but would lead tragically to a singular casualty. If this re-release and very special edition of the band’s history means anything to those that buy it, it should be the memory of Big Country as one of the most talented and lyrically impressive bands of their generation. Up there with early U2, Marillion and the Alarm and with an album that stood alongside Michael Jackson and David Bowie’s tour de forces.
Ian D. Hall