Customer Reviews

Waiting for the Floods

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

 

 

U2 went on to sell tens of millions and this great Celtic band tanked after one great studio l.p. At least Ian Grant's label, Track Records, has revived it. The Armoury Show (TAS) were a 'new wave' supergroup that actually clicked; you can tell it wasn't just the label throwing them together and paying them money. Richard Jobson was frontman, lyricist and singer for the hit punk band from Scotland, the Skids. Russell Webb was the bassist. They both composed music for the Skids, though clearly the dominant sonic force was Stuart Adamson, the guy who went on to make an impact with Big Country. Jobson and Webb, after a mostly acoustic last Skids lp called Joy, went on to form this very surprising electric, high volume group.

Anyway, it was the early 80s and the name of the game was finding the BIG SOUND with guitars (which is what the 80s should be remembered for as much as the synths). A few bands did, but it seems too many of the best ones got ignored (except Big Country, though its later efforts should have reaped more sales than U2 or New Order but didn't sadly ).

Really, all the songs on this lp are great or at least very good, and it is some of the best rock singing Richard Jobson ever did. And his always interesting lyrics are perhaps the most direct in his career,too. Play this alongside the remastered Big Country debut, The Crossing, and it stands up well. Inspired, poetic, anthemic, wistful, varied. Perhaps a bit better modulated and subtle than BC's first l.p. (though BC's debut perhaps surpasses it in all out unabashed inspiration).

Waiting for the Floods was Jobson and Webb rising to meet the challenge that Adamson issued with his own supergroup, and TAS answers back gamely. Stand out cuts against an always majestic background include: 'Castles in Spain', 'Kyrie', 'We Are Brave Again', and 'Sleep City Sleep'. Play this CD once and at least one song is sure to take hold and keep playing in your head for days. If you like bands such as Simple Minds, U2, Echo & the Bunnymen, Big Country, the Alarm, you already like TAS, you just didn't know it til now. Buy the Track CD reissue and find out at least 10 reasons for absolutely loving them. The BIG MUSIC of TAS hasn't dated at all, and it's serving well. BTW, another related title to check out is the Track re-release of the Skids' Absolute Game, which shows that some of the greatness that was TAS and Big Country was already there in that earlier band.

Very few groups generate the raw power that Armoury Show does. The only comparison that springs to mind is Boom Crash Opera. Armoury Show should not have been overlooked (or under promoted) during the eighties.

A great album by a great band and packed full of great songs. Webb is the finest bassist I've ever heard, McGeoch was a true genius on guitar and Jobson was perhaps the least understood and most under-rated songwriter of his time.
The original album had a track on it called 'Jungle Of Cities', but it's exclusion is no great loss as it was the only weak(ish) track. (They had a couple of tracks which appeared as B-sides which were much better and would have fitted nicely onto this album instead. Check out 'The Innocents Abroad' & 'Is It A Wonder'if you can.) The album version of 'Castles In Spain' is good, but unfortunately not quite in the same class as the original single version. Other than that, it's fantastic. Songs like 'Higher Than The World', 'Avalanche' and particularly 'Waiting For The Floods' are absolute classics. This is an album that everyone should own.

By the way... The track "we are brave again" is actually called 'We Can Be Brave Again'. Cheers.

I like it, but am aware of how dated it might seem to some. Still, I am puzzled at the previous reviewers and their mention of "big guitar" and no mention of the guy who played them.

The late John McGeoch was an amazing player, able to conjure up sounds and textures for whatever group he was in (Magazine, Siouxsie, this group, Public Image), and shines here as expected. Ably assisted by his former Magazine bandmate John Doyle, who seems somewhat constrained by the material here, it's highly listenable, anthemic stuff.

It's funny, back in the day I would hear WHFS play "Castles in Spain" often and I just assumed it was an Echo song. A very GOOD Echo song.
Fast cut 25 years later and it plays on 80s Flashback internet radio and I see it's actually from The Armoury Show - a band whose name I barely recalled. I sampled the album online, then found it, and was amazed how good the whole thing is. "Castles...," while catchy, is eclipsed by many other cuts - the title tune, "We Can Be Brave Again" and "The Glory of Love" being just a few notable ones.
These guys were better than most of the other Big Sound/Big Hair/Big Overcoat UK/MTV bands. And we are only left with one studio album while the lesser bands cranked out releases until they well overstayed their welcome. Call the "Bullocks Syndrome."