I missed this lot first time around - maybe it was the suits and the hair made me think they were a typical 80's act of packaging without substance. I admit I was wrong: there are too many good ideas on these tracks to allow them to be forgotten, unlike many of their contemporaries. Yes it was - and is - pop music, but the good stuff still sounds good whatever decade it was made. Great production - mostly by Trevor Horn, with Fry and White themselves taking over later - sharp lyrics with some forgiveable self-reverential indulgence, and vocals that sound like they meant it. A short but impressive creative peak before they burned themselves out and, by some accounts, their egos really did get in the way. They couldn't make the souffle rise a second time when they re-formed some years later but let's be grateful for these efforts. The last four tracks (of seventeen) are re-mixes which neither add nor detract from the originals.
