I can't believe this is the first outing for this disc in my Blog, it's one of my most favourite Folk Rock discs, easily getting in my top 50, Runrig were a band i saw in Our Price Records [remember them?], and they had a deal called 'no risk disc', you bought the disc, and if you didn't like it you could bring it back within a week, i bought this disc on that understanding, and of course i never took it back [the whole point really, to sell something they otherwise wouldn't], but Runrig were a band that i had my eye on anyway, they sing a few songs in Gaelic, and they have that slight Scottish brogue, their real skill is creating excellent melodies that are far from mere Pop music, think of a Scottish version of Crowded House, i never seemed to be able to get into any of their other albums, quite a one off disc.
Runrig are a Scottish Folk Rock band, formed in 1973, they are still going strong today, though they now have a new Lead Singer than the one here, they made this album in 1993, the front cover shows a sculpture by Jake Harvey, only the top right quarter is shown, on the back it shows the whole sculpture, i like it a lot, showing many elements of things, i think it's made out of wood, though it could be brass, the band name and the album title are written around the black edging, a really nice effect.
On this listen i found tracks 1, 3-4 & 6-8 to be fantastic, Runrig have made an album that is certainly not a few killer tracks, and all the rest is filler, there's a high level of invention here, ultimately the best track for me was the title track 'Amazing Things', the song starts off with the accordion making sour notes, and at points it sounds like the beginning of 'In The Light' by Led Zeppelin, but with a beat, i love that accordion sound [0:05-0:25+], right at the end of the first verse, there's some nice imagery in the lyrics,
after the chorus, comes in the electronic midi-bagpipes [1:06+], and the second verse is decidedly a notch louder and upbeat, the tribal drumming really gets going here [1:15+], and that Scottish Military Tattoo feel really gets going [2:21-2:38], with the mock sound of bagpipes, the next chorus is sung with only the tribal drumming [3:11+], right at the end the singing and music fades out, leaving us with only the hard military drumming [4:00-4:17], i really like this ending, plus it just abruptly ends, very nice and final.
Here's Runrig singing 'Amazing Things' on YouTube.
Through stench and starvation, night never falls
There's flies on the skeletons, shapes on the wall
