Roddy Frame
Surf

Distributed by
Redemption

• Year: 2002
• Rating: 8/10
• Cat. No: RRUK2

Track listing:

1. Over You
2. Surf
3. Small World
4. I Can't Start Now
5. Abloom
6. Tough
7. Big Ben
8. High Class Music
9. Turning The World Around
10. Mixed Up Love
11. For What It Was

Four years after officially going *solo* with The North Star album, Roddy Frame, ex-Aztec Camera mainman - although they were only ever really a band in name - returns on another new label (was Independiente in 1998, now Redemption) with a sound that harks back to the acoustic guitar/untouched vocal format that occasionally graced the closing track on each Aztec Camera album.

Killermont Street, the finale to 1987's otherwise glossy and commercially successful Love, is a helpful touchstone for either the faithful or the plain curious to know where Frame is at on this classy, concise set of compositions.

Several tracks on 1990's uneven and underachieving Stray attempted a similar, old-fashioned and direct, approach but here the production is virtually non-existent, allowing the purity of Frame's craftsmanship (and his songs are crafted like the best, most timeless music invariably is) and the appealing timbre of his distinctly Scottish voice to take centre stage.

Roddy Frame was never a major star - even in the 1980s - despite a couple of welcome flirtations with the UK Top 20, but his back-catalogue has stood the test of time better than many of his peers. Indeed, Aztec Camera were never the most prolific recording act... just half-a-dozen albums in 15 years. Frame has always been about quality over quantity, and the 35-minute running time of Surf flies in the face of modern fashion, the fill-at-all-costs mentality that has ultimately devalued the album as an artistic entity.

If exotic chanteuse Norah Jones can storm the album listings in 2002, then there is no reason why this often stunning set of classically constructed love songs and confessional odes to heartbreak, passion and the City (London is namechecked frequently, and a metropolis features on the album sleeve) shouldn't find a huge audience.

The problem is, this is not a perfect world, and Surf is destined to remain a little-known, but deeply cherished, episode in the ongoing journey that constitutes Roddy Frame's career.

Review copyright © Liam Carey, 2002.