User Profile

I'm a big Tears For Fears fan and their first 3 albums especially the first will always hold a special place in my heart and rank among my all-time favourite albums and so needless to say I really really wanted to like this album but I would be lying if I said this album comes anywhere close to the high quality of that early trilogy. A redeeming factor could be said that this is still better than the albums that followed said trilogy and is at least on par with the previous album but given the very high standards that they themselves set from the start this is a really disappointing release. Very forgettable but I guess at least for fans we'll always have "The Hurting."

This is by far the last great ELO album and is a product of its time and yet still sounds very good today. Together with "Face the Music" which represents the best of their early period this album represents the high point of their late period and provided me with hours of untold listening pleasure and still does so today. "The Lights Go Down" is my personal favourite ELO track of all time with "Evil Woman" from "Face the Music" being my other favourite. "New World Record" is good but over-rated for me. If I had to rank the best ELO albums of all time they would be: 1. Time, 2. Face the Music 3. Discovery 4. Out of This World 5. New World Record 6. Eldorado 7. On The Third Day.

I really wanted to like the album and after listening to the Bright mix I told myself maybe the Dark mix will be better but sadly this is an overlong trap-beat infested meadering mess that I found myself glad when it was over and I can safely say I'm not revisiting anytime soon if ever. So forgettable in fact that unlike the first word in this sentence that still ranks as his best ever album I don't remember a single track even minutes after listening to both mixes and with Road To Joy was it really necessary to steal Hendrix's Purple Haze riff? Thankfully for fans we'll still have his third album, So, his great soundtrack albums and the wonderful compilation album Shaking the Tree to turn to and treasure. As for this I found it hard to suppress a hard yawn.

Listening to this album the question arises: "What did we really expect?" Hoping for tracks akin to "Dancing Queen" or "Gimme Gimme A Man After Midnight" from 70-year olds is ridiculous and so we get here more tracks with themes and lyrics that you'd expect from artists who have obviously matured not only physically but mentally as well and it shows in the lyrics. At a little over 37 minutes the running time is short by today's standards but is about the same as "The Visitor." Abba has always really been more of a singles band anyway and it could be said that their best ever album is: "The Definitive Collection" although studio album-wise their three best are still: "The Visitor", "Voulez Vous" and "The Album" and probably in that order. Listening through this album though there is nothing for Abba fans to be ashamed of as we still have quality tracks albeit without the few standout blockbuster fast-paced hit singles that we got in the past but we have here an overall high quality album to be proud of that is consistently of a decent standard. A couple of tracks even make a conscious effect to recall hits from the past with "Just a Notion" reminiscent of "Waterloo" and another ends with the "S.O.S." opening/closing piano riff. No, album-wise this does not rank among their better efforts but that does not mean this is a bad or even among their worst albums either. All said this is a decent farewell album and ultimately a treat for fans to be proud of.

Danny Elfman's attempt at NIN is way way too long and misses the mark; kudos for at least making the attempt. Just okay for me.

By far the best album from their second stage but also among their best ever albums; rich in content and hence invites repeated listens that make it seem like listening to a new album each time when you pick up things you didn't hear the previous time. A pleasant surprise from a band long in the tooth but definitely still having the goods to deliver great music even to this day. Highly recommended.

A band from back in the old days of the 80s comes back with a surprisingly very good release that sounds great today. This one is a keeper that will reward repeated listens and a welcome addition for those of us tired of the same old mediocrity that passes for pop music these days. Highly recommended.

I've been a fan since the very beginning; I still remember listening to my tiny transistor radio to the BBC program "Top of the Pops" in the early 80s when the first synth strains for the debut single "New Life" came on and was blown away. I was hooked and bought all their albums and kept every one up to "Violator" which I feel to be their magnum opus although virtually every album of theirs prior I also consider to be masterpieces. Albums after that though felt like a big step down and while "Delta Machine" and "Spirit" were vast improvements I wish I could say the same for this release.

Albums up to "Violator" were truly albums in the sense that every track was intended to bring something to the table so that the album itself becomes greater than the sum of its tracks. I guess I'm still very much an album guy and will listen to entire albums instead of what we have today where people just listen to tracks which I find to be quite sad. It's this reason perhaps we get a disjointed album here with some tracks standing tall and could be counted among the band's best ever such as "Ghosts Again" and "Caroline's Monkey" but sadly they are also surrounded by too many pretty mediocre tracks such as "Soul With Me" and so makes this not one of Depeche Mode's stronger releases.

That said given the "quality" of albums out there today and for too many years before this album still ranks highly by today's standards however from the very high standards set by the band itself this one didn't do it for me. At least I can still go back to my cds from "Speak and Spell" to "Violator" whenever I want to remind myself just how great this band was and it is still good to know that after all these years they are still making decent music that is still head and shoulders better than their contemporaries while sadly not as good as they own formidable previous album releases. Overall an okay album but certainly not among their better ones.

Wow! What a pleasant surprise! This is clearly the best Scorpions' album since the mid-80s reminding me of although not quite surpassing the quality of the awesome "Lovedrive", "Blackout" and "Love at First Sting" albums but coming really really close. I'm glad the band waited for inspiration before coming up with this album and the time taken to do so pays off amply on this really good release. Definitely rewards repeated listens and fans of the band during their heydays of the 80s will simply love this. Very highly recommended!

Wow! This really made my day! After years of album after album of mediocrity we finally get Styx's best album since Paradise Theatre; as a long time fan the only thing that would have made this perfect for me is if Dennis DeYoung had been involved in some capacity although he really isn't missed with regards to the quality of this album with both Tommy Shaw and James Young doing the vocals admirably with wonderful harmonies too! I found myself feeling sad at the end wishing the album would go on (don't let it end? :-) ); the last track did seem cut off or faded out too early to me for some reason. Much better than DeYoung's last two solo albums at any rate but I suppose given all the bad blood it would have been too much to ask for a full reunion of surviving band members. For now though I'm content at finally getting a Styx album that rewards repeated listens the way Grand Illusion, Paradise Theatre and Styx Classics Volume 15 still do for me after all these years. Recommended!