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I'm seeing the Skids next week, they're supporting From the Jam on their "All Mod Cons" 45th Anniversary Tour [FTJ being a rare case of a tribute band that's better than the real thing but with one third of Jam in the band are they really a tribute band - debate]. It's been a long time since 1979, the first and only time I've seen the Skids, and while I've got a couple of their recent albums I have none of their earlier material so in desperate need of a reminder I've bought one of their compilation albums, "Into The Valley The Best of The Skids" [which also appears to have been released as "Sweet Suburbia The Best of The Skids"].
I don't normally buy best of/GH compilations preferring to hear the hits in the original setting of a studio album, but the price of the early Skids albums remains high, and while the 6 CD Virgin Years box set looks attractive it’s the best part of twenty quid for their four original albums and a load of stuff off the cutting room floor. I toyed with the idea of buying a live album and came close to buying the "Live in London" recording of a gig at the Roundhouse in June 2017, a gig which funnily enough I very nearly went to, not out of any huge desire to see the Skids but because they were supported that evening by the Vapors [my all-time favourite power-pop band who are so very much more than just "Turning Japanese"] but on listening to samples on Amazon music it seemed as full of Richard Jobson's jaw-jaw as music so I gave it a miss. Hence in desperation and a hurry [too much time wasted on research] I turned to a second hand copy of " … The Best of The Skids", four quid including postage, job done [although a new one would only have cost me a fiver but buying second-hand helps my not very green conscience].
The eighteen track " … The Best of The Skids" covers the first incarnation of the Skids from 1978 to 1981 with all eleven A-sides and half a dozen or so album tracks. A quarter of the tracks are from their debut album "Scared to Dance", with three from sophomore "Days in Europa", five from "The Absolute Game" and two from their modern folk music album "Joy", as well as the non-album singles "Sweet Suburbia" and "Masquerade", and "Night And Day" from the "Wide Open" EP. What it doesn't include, and I think I'm thankful it doesn't, is the best forgotten novelty B-side of "Into The Valley", "TV Stars" which still remains a part of the live show [akin to David Bowie performing the "Laughing Gnome" on every tour]. Sadly though I have to admit that of the eleven A-sides I recognised few, obviously the excellent "Into The Valley", a song which I never tire of hearing, "Masquerade", and of the course "Working For The Yankee Dollar" which remains a staple of '80s radio stations; but I can't honestly say that any of the others rang any bells with me, but then none of them troubled the top 30, although "Charade" and "Circus Games" came close, while the brace from the "Joy" album, a radio-friendly edit of "Iona" and "Fields", completely failed to chart, which might explain why so much of this set passed me by.
Unusually I'm not going to give a track-by-track review, but listening to the set which is presented largely in chronological order you can hear the evolution of the Dunfermline rockers from unintelligible Scottish punksters through their time as post-punk-power-popsters, then as new-wave art-rockers and finally their ultimate devolution as Celtic latter-day-folkies. The album opens with the aforementioned excellent and never-bettered "Into The Valley", and from there [IMO] it could only go downhill, albeit largely neither very far nor very fast, with in particular the five tracks from "The Absolute Game": the arty "Circus Games", the rocker "Out Of Town", the electro power-pop "Goodbye Civilian", the near six minutes of new-wave splendour that is "A Woman In Winter" and "Hurry On Boys" that blends Australian and Celtic sounds in a marching song, showing why this and not "Scared to Dance" was the Skids best performing album while hinting at the direction in which Stuart Adamson would take Big Country with Bruce Watson.
And that's it. As a set it's consistently good, as a refresher for the gig it's an excellent choice, although given how few of these best of tracks I actually recognised perhaps that should really be a lesson in the Skids canon and not a refresher; and at less than a fiver you can't knock it, every home should have one. It's also got me thinking about that Virgin box-set.
他の国からのトップレビュー
Mandrek Larl
All eleven A-sides and half a dozen or so album tracks from the Skids first incarnation ...
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A_Welshman_in_Oz
Superb quality, 5* and A++++ for the seller's customer service.
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Theo.S04
Klasse Musik-Spass aus den 80ern
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Keith Plant
A group that deserved more success!
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eddiejoyce
At their best
2023年2月24日に英国でレビュー済みAmazonで購入
