Customer Reviews

Cutter & The Clan

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"The Cutter And The Clan" was the first Runrig album I bought and I was immediately blown away by the contents! It does indeed feature extremely strong material, ranging from rockalongers "Alba", "The Pride Of Summer", and "Rocket To The Moon" to poignant melodious treatments like "The Only Rose" and "An Ubhal As Airde".

The success of this album led to them being signed by Chrysalis Records, which eventually re-released "The Cutter And The Clan", introducing the music of Runrig to a whole new world. The genius of songwriting brothers Rory and Calum MacDonald can definitely not be underestimated, as they are basically the core of Runrig's substance that has helped them gain recognition both within and without their native Scotland.

I highly recommend this album; for me it represents an entirely different epoch compared to the first four albums, which were more locally known than their subsequent post-Cutter material. The band, led by Donnie Munro's soothing vocals, has since then continued to make albums of outstanding quality and has still maintained the love of their native language, which prior to "The Cutter And The Clan" was more prominent on their first couple of albums. Yet "Alba" ranks among one of their best Gaelic tracks, and the same can be said about "An Ubhal As Airde", which was later used in a Carlsberg TV advert and subsequently released as a single, being also the first Scottish Gaelic single to enter the Top 20. 'Tis a ballad with an utmost sense of melancholia, and which is definitely one of their more underrated Gaelic language ballads. Yet the English material on the album is also excellent, particularly the energetic "Pride Of The Summer" and the equally high-soaring "Rocket To The Moon" and "Protect And Survive".

This, you can say, is their ultimate milestone - a musical work which gained them instant recognition beyond the Scottish borders and which solidified their position as the best Scottish band of our time.

I first heard Runrig in a German CD store in the fall of 1991 and have been a fan ever since. Unfortunately, this Scottish group is virtually unknown in the U.S. They combine traditional Scottish musical sensibilities with rock. It is an excellent combination. "Hearts of Olden Glory" and "Alba" are standout tracks, but my all-time favorite song by them is "Rocket to the Moon." It is available here on this album. Another great Runrig album (probably their best) is "Runrig - Live," the album that I first heard by them. Hopefully Amazon.com will also carry that one soon. At any rate, "The Cutter and the Clan" is a fine album.

If you are a fan of Big Country but would like something a little more relaxing, then find this work. I learned of this release through the local college radio station WVVS back in 1987 and felt a kindred spirit awaken from within. This is my kind of Celtic rock! Alba, sung in the local tongue, kicks off The Cutter & The Clan with a beat that will remind you of Tears for Fears, but the chorus soars away from that comparison immediately showing that these Scotts have thier own identity. The Cutter brings me a sense of a song written for a soundtrack for a man far away from his home. Bag Pipes? They have 'em. Very tastefully done in Pride Of The Summer. For this American, the whole package is full of emotion and just perfect for an evening sitting on the porch with pipe in hand dreaming of far away lands.

Okay, so the production is a bit too 80s, but "The Cutter and the Clan" is still the strongest album Runrig has ever made. Four of the band's best and best-known songs are here; "Rocket to the Moon", "Protect and Survive", the melodic but powerful "Pride of the Summer", and the soaring "Hearts of Olden Glory".
And the rest is NOT filler; rather it's excellent songs like "Alba", "Worker for the Wind", and "The Cutter". And as 80s as the production may seem (a little too clean, a sometimes-fake drum sound, you know the signs), it doesn't rob the MacDonald-brothers' songs of the grandour that their best material possesses.

At this point in their career Runrig had evolved into a rock band rather than a folk group, but the Scottish folk is still present in almost every song (not just the two that Donnie Munro sings in gaelic). There aren't too many wailing guitars here, even though this is a traditional drums-bass-guitars-keyboards-setup, and the drums do bite, but the melodies are beautiful and by far the most memorable of any Runrig album.
Runrig anno 1987 was melodic rock n' roll which had incorporated the best of folk. Highly recommended!

As my first introduction to the music of RunRig, this was a kick in the seat of the pants. Right off the bat, the high energy of the gaelic-language song "Alba" gets you moving. I have a large collection of rock'n'roll in languages other than English -- I love to hear the emotion in a singer's voice without being distracted by the meaning of the words. This album is one of my favorites in that collection. For anyone wanting to learn more about Scotland than kilts, bagpipes, and haggis, you can't go wrong with The Cutter and the Clan.

Great studio album of some of their most biggest hits though I personally prefer their live versions such as "Once In a Lifetime". This band unlike many other celtic music has no fiddle section but have a drummer and a percussionist - a very unique sound. The lyrics are intelligent and wonderful poetry. You will want to travel to the Scottish Highlands after listening to this - I did.