The Twins' Commercial Breakthrough Album But An MLPS Disappo
Frederick Baptist | Singapore | 09/11/2009
(3 out of 5 stars)
"This album was one of my earliest favourite ever and fittingly came out of what I feel to be the most creative and exciting time to be a fan of music. Growing up during the New Wave Movement was like dying and going to aural heaven given the vast diversity of music ideas and experimentation that was oozing out of the pores of the gifted musicians at the time: U2, Peter Gabriel, Human League, Soft Cell, Eurythmics, Depeche Mode, Adam and the Ants, A Flock of Seagulls, Boomtown Rats, Level 42, Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran, Kajagoogoo, Howard Jones, Nik Kershaw, Blancmange, Ultravox, Visage, Heaven 17 and on and on and on and of course The Thompson Twins. Like most people at the time, I was mostly impressed by "Hold Me Now". That single holds special memories for me as a friend of mine at the time very kindly brought it back for me from London where she was vacationing at the time; in fact, I still have that 8" single vinyl. Maybe I'll frame it up someday?
BMG Japan would do well though to learn from Epic records as Epic know what good quality mini-lp replica sleeve (mlps) design means. The mlps designs they executed for the recent Michael Jackson albums "Off the Wall", "Bad", etc and Men At Work's "Cargo" are fantastic and are good examples of what great mlps designs are supposed to be. They did the same great work for Billy Joel's "Innocent Man" as well as for REO Speedwagon's "Hi Infidelity." Instead, we get a very shabby mlps treatment for one of the great albums from the brilliant New Wave era of the late 70s to the early 80s. The design is pathetic coming in thin cardboard haphazardly assembled looking like something a kid in kindergarten would do on a typical school day. Once the glue gets old this baby will come apart and in fact gaps are already beginning to show on my copy. Included is a 16-page booklet that contains all the lyrics in both English and Japanese. The sound quality is good but not great though and so any alleged remastering done has not improved the original sound quality a great deal.
The bonus tracks are:
1. Let Loving Start - filler material that was originally the B-side of the "Hold Me Now" single (I know because I actually have it)
2. Nurse Shark - uninspiring filler
3. Passion Planet - ditto
4. Out of the Gap (Megamix Extended Version)- actually interesting and useful as it is a medley of tracks from both this and the prior album and so you get snippets of "Lies", "We Are Detective" etc.
My favourite tracks and the ones that stand the test of time for me are "You Take Me Up", "Hold Me Now" and my favourite track of all and I feel the most interesting and hence the best track here: "No Peace For the Wicked."
Overall, if you already have this cd in the jewel case version, given the poor mlps design I cannot recommend an "upgrade" to this expensive version and you are better off staying with the cd you already have."
Track Listings (9) - Disc #1
