High Land, Hard Rain is the debut album by the jangle pop band Aztec Camera.

[12] Following the demise of the Forensics, vocalist and guitarist Roddy Frame formed Aztec Camera in 1980 with bassist Alan Welsh and drummer Dave Mulholland.

The band supported the Rezillos at the Bungalow Bar in Paisley, Renfrewshire in December 1980; they were witnessed by Alan Horne of Postcard Records, who signed them days afterwards.

A planned album for Postcard, titled Green Jacket Grey, was scrapped, and around this time, Mulholland left the band.

The band relocated to London and temporarily drafted in Blair Cunningham of Haircut One Hundred, before the role was permanently taken by Dave Ruffy of the Ruts.

[25] Writing for The New York Times in 1983, music critic Jon Pareles wrote that Aztec Camera "traffic in the sounds of folk-rock" and that "If not for the firmness of the rhythm section and the clever use of echoes, Aztec Camera's High Land, Hard Rain (Sire) might almost have been made 15 years ago.

"[8] Author Dave Thompson wrote in his book Alternative Rock (2000) that the album was "haunting, hopeful, and howling.