Big Country - No Place Like Home (1991)

The overly slick fourth Big Country album, Peace in Our Time, not only effectively killed off the band's commercial hopes in the US, it nearly broke up the band. On No Place Like Home, drummer Mark Brzezicki returned to the studio as a session drummer after leaving the band. The album finds the band trying to reinvent themselves and shift away from their '80s image. It does succeed in capturing a more organic sound than their previous release, whatever the style. "We're Not In Kansas" could almost pass for a late '80s AOR track. "Republican Party Reptile" sounds like the band had picked up a few tricks from one-time support act the Cult, and the mid-tempo "Dynamite Lady" is akin to one of Duran Duran's best ballads. It's all fairly well done, but the attempts at altering their sound just don't suit Big Country and several songs sound generic. No Place Like Home never saw the light of day in America, although several tracks would show up on 1993's The Buffalo Skinners.