Roddy Frame’s songwriting feels like an effortless extension of his restless internal monologue. From the career-defining arc of his band Aztec Camera through the many studio albums he’s released under his given name, the starry-eyed songwriter has assembled a vast catalog of honest, open-hearted love songs. Just 17 years old when he released Aztec’s debut single “Just Like Gold,” Frame emerged fully-formed, an indie poet laureate and brilliant instrumentalist, somehow Morrissey and Johnny Marr as one. The 1981 single was a natural fit for Postcard Records, where acts like Josef K and Orange Juice helped recast post-industrial Glasgow as a bookish, art school outpost ready-made for youthful dreaming. With its jangly, jazz-inflected chords and soaring, larger-than-life chorus, the single’s B-side, “We Could Send Letters,” felt like a naked defense of everything fun and pure about pop music, couched in a delightful complexity. The track later appeared on C81, the compilation series from NME and Rough Trade Records, and the infamous London label went on to release Aztec Camera’s full-length debut, High Land, Hard Rain, in 1983. Such was the start of one of the more promising careers in U.K. indie history, which included gushing profiles in NME and Melody Maker, multiple appearances on the beloved performance series Top of the Pops, and a multi-album deal with Warner-Elektra-Atlantic.
While Aztec’s beginnings on Postcard and Rough Trade have been fairly well-documented, with elaborate reissues and reunion tours to mark the 30th anniversary of the band’s debut album, Frame’s move to WEA feels like an important second chapter, one that’s remained largely underexplored in coverage of the band. Backwards and Forwards (The WEA Recordings 1984-1995) amends this historical oversight, shedding light on Frame’s wildly inventive mid-to-late career. The 9-disc, 112-song collection—which follows the songwriter from his sophomore album, Knife, through his decision to retire the Aztec Camera moniker in 1995—offers a portrait of the artist as a committed experimentalist. From his dizzying forays into lounge, sophistipop, and electronica to collaborations with Mick Jones, Edwyn Collins, and Ryuichi Sakamoto, Backward and Forwards complicates assumptions about Frame’s breakthrough success, revealing the songwriter as a force in constant motion.
His major label debut, 1984’s Knife, follows Frame in unexpected directions that break with the indie ethos of High Land, Hard Rain. Produced by Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler, the release feels like a send-up to anyone who expected Aztec to become jangle-pop superstars. Instead, Frame explores pop songwriting by way of its roots in American soul and R&B, with detours through the kind of sappy, DX7-drenched pop ballads so inescapable in the early ‘80s. A New Wave throwback by way of Elvis Costello, “Just Like the USA,” trades the colder elements of British post-punk for an earnest attempt at feel-good Americana—one that, in true Costello fashion, pokes fun at American exceptionalism in the chorus. Others like “All I Need Is Everything” and “Backwards And Forwards” expand on Aztec’s palette with the kind of synth flourishes and drum machine clatter that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Peter Gabriel record. It’s a broad attempt to emphasize the pining, lovesick aspects of Frame’s songwriting, now wrapped in sleeker packaging.