Today’s Vinyl: Aztec Camera

Backwards and Forwards is one of those weird 10-inch EPs that my Denon turntable doesn’t understand and tries to drop the needle in the middle of the second track. Aztec Camera were a Scottish, proto/thinking man’s Crowded House fronted by the dashing Roddy Frame, who went so far on this record to list height, eye color and other salient details for all the band members. This is well-crafted, slightly stuffy, almost ornamental pop that holds equal appeal for awkward, late-teen girls and pretentious, obscurity-seeking college lads, as I was when I picked this up back in 1985 on the recommendation of a friend who undoubtedly mentioned it over cigarettes and coffee at Les Amis, because that’s where pretentious, obscurity-seeking college students in Austin discussed pretentious, obscure things. Then we went back to the dorm room or apartment that our parents were paying for and put on our jammies.

Fans of that maniacally bright, chewing-on-foil 80s production style will love this one, as Frame’s guitar sounds so crisp and shimmering that you want to cover the platter in hot maple syrup just to warm up the tone a bit. The songwriting is fantastic, and the solo acoustic Mattress of Wire shows off Frame as one of the more charismatic frontmen of UK 80s thinkpop. Most folks, however, probably bought this EP for the acoustic cover of Van Halen’s Jump, because all pretentious, obscurity-seeking record geeks know there’s no better way to impress your stoned friends at 3am than an unironic, acoustic cover of cheesy arena rock.