At a time when digital-synthesized music and the collective "New Wave" was beginning to be all the rage, Big Country debuted with The Crossing, a loud, beautiful, blistering, guitar-driven album that was, and still is, as melodic and scintillating as anything that's been released in the past twenty years.

The uniqueness of this album can not be overstated, and is even hard to describe. I have not heard this band's soaring twin-guitar sound replicated by a band since - testament, I think, to their incredible originality. Armed with U2-producer Steve Lillywhite, the band recorded songs full of searing, bagpipe-sounding guitar riffs that are so breathtaking in scope, that they literally give me goose-bumps to this day. Not kidding. And I only truly can say this for a handful of albums ever released.

The Crossing was released in 1983 to almost universal acclaim. Kurt Loder, in an unbelievably upbeat Rolling Stone review, called the album "unlike anything else around, anywhere", calling their unique guitar sound "really something to hear". Aided greatly by MTV, which itself was emerging at the time as a force, "Fields of Fire" and "In a Big Country" became the albums' (and the band's) two biggest hits. Nearly 20 years later, they are still in rotation on many alternative and mainstream rock radio stations.

The lyrics in The Crossing are every bit as chilling as the music. The writing evokes a blue-collar world for sure - the album is loaded with references of the everyday struggles of labor and love of the commonfolk. Combined with the unique music, the band managed to hone and perfect a Celtic sound and style that was at least ten years ahead of its time - it took that long before Celtic rock began to take flight. Led by lead-singer and guitarist Stuart Adamson, who possesses a hauntingly deep-throated voice, and guitarist Bruce Watson, the Scottish quartet play passionately and fiercely throughout all of the tracks. If a few of the songs' lyrics and references emerge as too Scottish, it is the music that easily overshadows these flaws. Other standout songs include Chance, a song about an unhappy marriage that happened too early, and Porrohman, which opens up with four minutes of some of the most spine-tingling guitar work ever recorded.

The big breakthrough for Big Country band here in America (other than MTV) was a mesmerizing performance on Saturday Night Live, after which sales of the album soared here in the U.S. They, along with U2, became the new hope of music, especially for those of us who were bored with the faux-angst of unmelodic punk rock, and the manufactured, new-tech sounds of the Euro-synth variety. On the strength of The Crossing, Big Country went on to garner a grammy nomination for Best New Artist, only to lose to Culture Club in just one of a long line of Grammy flubs since.

Unfortunately, unlike U2, the band never went on to much prominence, despite The Crossing reaching platinum status, and Steeltown, their second release, debuting at number one on the U.K. charts. Later efforts, including a greatest-hits compilation, were not well-received here in the U.S., although the band maintained (and still does) a devout, nearly cult-like following in the U.K.

Though technically now considered a "one-hit-wonder", Big Country seemingly put everything they had into the breathtaking and surreal The Crossing - an album and sound that will endure endlessly.