Ah, I'm torn. This is album is quintessential eighties pop music; all the gimmicks from this era are bursting to your ears. A good reason to hate it, as this sound, the production, everything looking pristine, is really something I'm glad we're over. But (yes, there is a but), it's well executed, sometimes almost epic, very cinematrographic, a good share of tracks make you wanting to dance. And it's not too long, so we don't get too bored/fed up with all the 80s nonesense. Overall, I like this much more than what I anticipated when I recognized an album from this period of time.
I have a soft spot for this album, on the logical and sensible grounds that everything from Sheffield is super. The hits from this were ubiquitous at the time, but it’s only listening back now that I can appreciate just how much work went into them - it’s a truly lush affair, with sweeping arrangements from Anne Dudley, cutting edge electronica using a Fairlight CMI from JJ Jeczalik, overseen by producer Trevor Horn. It’s no coincidence that these people would form the nucleus of the Art of Noise just one year after this.
The songs all hold up I think, even the spoken passages that make it feel a lost soundtrack to a fifties movie in places. Martin Fry is a classic crooner who knows how to tug at your heart strings, with love and heartbreak being the theme that holds this album together. Classic 80s!