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Big Country - The Buffalo Skinners Audio CD

A fair review of the Big Country "The Buffalo Skinners" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Big Country reviews here, or go back to the Big Country tabs.

Big Country Band: Big Country
Title: The Buffalo Skinners
Rating:
Release Date: 2005-07-12
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Alone 2: Seven Waves 3: What Are You Working For 4: One I Love 5: Long Way Home 6: Selling of America 7: We're Not in Kansas 8: Ships 9: All Go Together 10: Winding Wind 11: Pink Marshmallow Moon 12: Chester's Farm 13: One I Love [Remix][*] 14: Never Take Your Place [*] 15: Eastworld [*] 16: Buffalo Skinners [*][Demo Version]

Big Country's 'Rock' album
With Simon Phillips on drums #if you need proof of his talent, listen to his work on Judas Priest's 1977 'Sin After Sin' album as a teenager#, the album is an intense, relentless, harsh yet melodic offering, with a touch of the blues. Temporarily living in Scotland, 'The Buffalo Skinners' had just been released, amidst much determination from band members that they intended this album to be their best since 'The Crossing', after a few of their more lack-lustre efforts in previous releases. Within a week of the album's UK release I saw the band at their legendary live venue, Glasgow's Barrowlands and they were good, really good. My recommendation: BUY.


Off the charts but in our hearts......
I believe a few of the songs actually came out on their previous outing, "No place like home". Once again, Big Country made BEAUTIFUL music on this CD that came out in 1993. (Ships, etc).

Ships has to be one of the best songs BC ever did; and one of my fav songs from ANY group.

I also love Seven Waves. . .
every tune on here is great.

Stuart Adamson had a gift for songwriting, folks.
this band NEVER sold out. they augmented their sound as they went into the 90s but any band has to do that stay alive. they couldnt keep redoing The Crossing for 20 years!!!

I believe up til the very end, Adamson just couldnt handle not getting the recognition they deserved and succumbed to a losing battle with alcohol. its a shame.


though BC has since gotten back together and toured sans Adam, its just not the same. .


Best album I ever got by accident
I knew nothing about the band and wasn't even sure which was the name of the band and which was the album title. I got this album in a box of free giveaway CD's as a college student in Athens, GA in the 90's. However, it quickly became my favorite album as I could play it over and over without tiring of it. I lost my original CD a few years ago and my husband was kind enough to replace it with this remastered version. I'm thrilled to have my CD back and with extra tracks! I forgot how much I love it.

Rarely is a CD good enough to listen to all the way through. There are no dogs on this, and you'll find more than one favorite if you're a fan of bands like Kansas and Boston, and I think Green Day fans will appreciate the lyrics and maybe even the music as well.


Bigger than the Hit Parade


The Buffalo Skinners was released in 1993, two years after Big Country had been callously and stupidly dropped by Phonogram. Listening to an album like this makes you despise the record industry and the way that fashions and slavish conformity dictate success. They then produced this astounding masterpiece, in which every track is solid and some "Pink Marshmallow Moon," "Alone," etc. - are sheer classics. Of course, gurning teenagers with grungey guitars were all the rage at the time, so the craftsmanship and quality of this earnest and soulfull collection of songs went largely unrecognised.

Big Country created a sound that could fill not only stadiums and arenas but also the vast landscapes of their native and their adopted land. .


Smart, Straight-Forward Stadium Rock
"Ships" is a classic lament that gives power ballads a good name, "All Go Together" is a blistering wake-up call about the continued destruction of this planet we all share, and "Seven Waves" is as poignant a piece of Power Pop as you'll ever hear. With judicious use of the "program" button on your CD player, this is actually ax excellent, straight-ahead rock album. "It doesn't hurt any more/ It doesn't get me down/ But I might just swim out on the waves tonight/ And lay right down and drown. " Those were chilling, powerful lyrics long before Stuart Adamson took his own life.

On the other hand, "We're Not In Kansas", "The Selling Of America", and "What Are You Working For" are a bit preachy with a sound overly reminiscent of 80's L. A. metal. On these tracks, the band was trying a little too hard to capture the magic of Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World", a track Big Country once recorded as a B-Side.

"Alone" works well as a guitar heavy, angst-ridden album opener, "The One I Love" is almost too catchy, and "Pink Marshmallow Moon" is much darker and more interesting than the title implies. "Long Way Home" is pretty solid, but lacks the spontaneity and passion of the version featured on the "Safety Net" live album/DVD, which I recommend whole-heartedly.

Overall, the album has barely a hint of the Celtic influence and bold experimentation that made early albums like The Crossing, Steeltown, and The Seer must-have classics, but it's still one I listen to when I just want to bang my head and play air guitar while bouncing around my apartment like a bloody fool.

A typically frustrating Big Country move was to toss out some of their best songs as B-sides, and this album is no exception. The title track, "The Buffalo Skinners", is a gorgeous epic that should have closed off this album, and "Never Take Your Place" and "Eastworld" have that signature Big Country mix of folk and rock that made their early albums so distinctive. The latter two were thankfully included on this remaster, but the title track only appears as a vastly inferior demo. Unfortunately, tracking down Big Country's best material continues to be far more difficult than it needs to be.
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You can see a complete list of all Big Country discography, or go back to the Big Country tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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