The Big Wheel, Runrig's biggest-selling album, launched in front of a crowd of 50,000 at Balloch Country Park in Loch Lomond, Scotland, on midsummer night in 1991, reached No. 4 in the United Kingdom charts and spawned their first Top 40 single, "Hearthammer." It's all pretty impressive, especially when you consider that a good portion of their repertoire consists of original Gaelic songs.

So, does the album stand up to all the hoopla after more than a decade?

Yes.

The Big Wheel was the original source for such continuing favourites as "Flower of the West," "Hearthammer" and "Edge of the World." It also contains many other fantastic songs that never gained the spotlight.

The songs range in style from a strong rock influence on "Hearthammer" and "Edge of the World" to ballads like "Keep Coming Home" and "This Beautiful Pain." The title track is actually called "An Cuibhle Mor" and is in Gaelic. Arranged with a fantastic beat, harsh guitars, excellent vocals and with radio and television clips in the background, it is politics and music mixed as only Runrig knows how. The other Gaelic track is "Abhainn An t-Sluaigh (The Crowded River)." A poetic lament to the loneliness of big cities, it decries the crowds and unfriendliness.

The amazing musicianship, remarkable songwriting and passionate singing all make this a classic. Though it gained more media success than previous albums, that doesn't mean it ventures too far afield from their roots as a folk-rock group singing in the language they love. This album does have more universal themes to the songwriting and fewer that are obviously about Scotland and its way of life. It was probably this universality, coupled with a stronger rock influence and fewer Gaelic numbers, that brought this album to the spotlight.

The Big Wheel captures Runrig at a definite hight point in their career. A decade-plus later, it still possesses the spirit and energy of when it was first recorded. Spanning years, media and styles, this album stands up. Each song is wonderful and the entire recording is great to listen to.

- Rambles
written by Jean Emma Price
published 31 July 2004