Customer Reviews

Stray

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I don't think I would have been able to find this anywhere else. I looked for it for quite a while. I think Aztec Camera was underrated. Roddy Frame has a great voice. Mick Jones sings on one of the tracks. Maybe it was more popular in the UK, but I don't know anyone else that knows about this. Super happy with it!

Oh My GOD, the best purchase I have ever made, If you ever get the chance to purchace this CD, Stray get it and you will fall in love with these guys, no matter, male or female,, I ordered it and had it within 24 hours. Now thats good service.....
Angel

I actually bought this album on the strength of a song I heard only twice in 1990. The song was "The Crying Scene", and though it may not be their best ever, it is really good. In fact, this whole album reminds me of other brit-pop bands from that time, like everything from "The Lightning Seeds" to "Simply Red". This has slow tracks like "Over My Head", to upbeat sing-a-longs like "Good Morning Britain". Newcomers might just want the Best Of album, but this is one "Stray" worth picking up if you find it.

The Title Track "Stray" is the most perfect song I have ever heard, ever; bar none.

The rest of the album is so stupid good it's AMAZING that this music is NOT up there on the radio with the Rolling Stones or The Clash or ANY hot band from the 80s on.

Aztec Camera is the only group that I'd keep if I had to choose. This includes The Beatles, Led Zep, Rush, Duran or OMD, The Killers and The Who. - - -

God's on Roddy's side -- listen to the music.

Own This Album ... make it happen asap

EDIT 12/19/08: I take back the utterance that The Killers are not on par with AztecCamera/Roddy Frame . . . total mistake on my part --- The Kilers and Roddy Frame have absoulutely no peer.

Roddy Frame- one of Scotland's graetest contributions to music. After several hits in the 80's pop scene, Aztec Camera started the 90's with an overlooked gem. That gem was simply called "Stray".

"Stray" has all the witty, sweet lyrics and charm from the earlier albums but it seems to me that this is a bit more mature.

Not mature just because of the jazz influences fluttering about and the cabaret piano but also from the endearing and poetic lyrics and vocals.

Like stated in the title of this review there are three different styles of music represented here. Some seperately "Stray", "over My Head" and "Song For A Friend" are sultry jazz piano pieces. "The Crying Scene" and "Notting Hill Blues" are pure pop and "The Crying Scene", "Get Outta London" and "How It Is" are rockin' fun.

There something for the music-lover here and it's done with a lot of heart and soul like only Roddy Frame can.

two arms to hold you and a voice that says, that's all right, spend the night, come around, cuz I've been there and these are the notes from the overground . . .
how does this record get no reviews, no nothing. "stray," the song, is one of the most monumentally pensive, reflective, lush, romantic, uplifting, saddening time-taking pop masterpieces ever commited to tape. It is beautifully produced, with lustrous deep tones in the bass . . . the rockers, with help from the clash's mick jones ("London" is a burner), plus edwyn collins and paul carrack, well, people, this thing seems like it's out there for a measly 95 cents. It furthers my conviction that music history -- in pop and jazz -- can never be definitevely written, only argued, because great songs like "Stray" will never receive their recognition in any anthology, but will be carried along by the knowing throughout their lives, because it has touched them and stayed with them in a place and a time with meaning -- this --- roddy's music has always been the melancholy behind and below the surface of punk rock. I remember spending time with him and the young gang on their first trip to america, and roddy was tripping all the time, it seemed, and they went west and we stayed east, of course, and watched them go, and when they returned, at, where was it in new york? the ritz? for the final show, and he is clearly tripping on stage and the crowd is a little restless because punks wanted hard and fast, of course, but roddy was born from the trappings of the sounds of young scotland not safety pins and bad teeth and this meant more purity in fun and beauty and taste for pop and melody, but also a strong connection, as it turned out, to soul, and suddenly, then, the crowd and band were hushed and roddy gave us elvis costello's shipbuilding alone, from something else to that because that's where he was in his head at the time, and we were quiet and watched him go to that space and feel that pain inside the lyric and melody, and we knew he was a wonder and some of us, all these years later, as we wind into our 40s and, God willing, beyond, still find him, usually alone, and curl up and share. this album, then, is very very good, but not all that, but I would say the song "stray" itself will hold anyone -- as lou reed said -- whoever had a heart.