It's unfortunate that this band was branded a one-hit wonder due to its famous rebel-love single "I Melt with You," contained on this album, because the remaining tracks are quite good as well: gripping and intelligent, a ... more »nostalgic pogo through scrawny, early '80s synth-punk. --Beth Bessmer« less
It's unfortunate that this band was branded a one-hit wonder due to its famous rebel-love single "I Melt with You," contained on this album, because the remaining tracks are quite good as well: gripping and intelligent, a nostalgic pogo through scrawny, early '80s synth-punk. --Beth Bessmer
Michael W. from ELMHURST, IL Reviewed on 12/11/2006...
Excellent 80s pop.
CD Reviews
More than "Melt With You"
WalterDigsTunes | 11/14/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
""Melt With You" is synonymous with an era, no doubt about it. But should the album whence it sprang be relegated to oblivion?
I think not. While "Melt With You" might be early-80s pop of the moodiest and most perversely populist sort, the rest of the album is imbued with a personality of its own. "Life in the Gladhouse" is a stomping beast that gallops along to its own beat. "Dawn Chorus" and "Face of Wood" all have elements that linger in the recesses of memory. "Carry Me Down" is almost wistfully medieval in its execution, yet not in a pretentious proggy way. For the most part, the album's production aptly presents the music in a competent manner.
The bonus tracks that are tacked on the back of this re-issue are rather cumbersome, since most are demos and alternate takes. "The Choiciest View" is an interesting addition, since it somehow degenerates into self-indulgent feedback shenanigans of the most V.U.-esque quality.
Overall, this is worth checking out if you're a fan of post-punk bands. Synth-pop this isn't, mind you, and neither is it sparse Gang of Four/Public Image Ltd.-circa 1979 stuff. It's more along the lines of a less austere Joy Division having a crack at fun.
Final verdict: Recommended."
One hit album maybe one hit wonder no way
Mark F. Fey Head | Virgnia Beach VA | 04/08/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"It is April 2007 and for the 100th plus time I just finished listening to "After the Snow". I first heard this album, yes those large vinyl disks, when my frat brother brought it home in the hay day of MTV, It blew me away then and 22+ years later Modern English still does. If you love 80's alternative rock "After the Snow" is a must have. Put it in you CD player, turn off the lights, draw the curtains so you neighbors won't see you dance and get lost in the melodies and complex rhythms of Modern English!"
Contains one of the greatest songs ever
Mike Smith | Albuquerque, NM | 07/30/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"There is definitely more than one great song on this album, definitely, but one of those songs is so great, so catchy, and so original that all the other songs can't help but look a little paler when placed next to it.
"I'll Melt With You" has seriously got to be one of the best songs ever--the "Don't Fear the Reaper" of 1980s New Wave--epic, anthemic, wildly structured, feel-good, and evidently made for driving and singing along. What a song! What a song.
"I'll Melt With You" is a song that simaltaneously defines and transcends the 1980s--the wildness of an effeminately dressed and coifed rebellion, the happiness of smiling hooligans, the sort of time when everyone (everyone white and middle class and American, anyway) seemed to say "That's cool" instead of "That sucks."
I lived through it as a kid, and I'm still living through it through my older brothers and through music such as this.
"I'll Melt With You" is almost enough to make this a five-star album, and maybe it is enough. The other seven songs are generally catchy as well, if a bit Duran Duran-esque and a bit dated. They haven't aged quite as well as most of The Smiths' songs.
If I were to make a mix tape with one or two songs for every decade, I'd probably have "I'll Melt With You" represent the '80s. It deserves its reputation as a classic, and this album, "After the Snow," deserves a good listen."