This is the 1993 second album from Elegant Machinery, following their debut "Degraded Faces". Right away I realized.. this is the Elegant Machinery I knew. The sound quality is remarkably better - the synths, vocals and all sound supremely clear when compared to the debut album.

The songs here are just excellent. "Hard To Handle", "Flag Of Truce", "Hard Rain", "Cold As Ice".. It's just a constant parade of excellent, excellent songs. From the high-tempo more dance oriented songs to the ballads, each and every track here just works perfectly. One really neat touch is that the final three songs all segue into each other, making for a even more smooth listen.

It's almost hard to describe just how good this album is. If you like analog based synthpop music, you owe it to yourself to find a copy of this album. Imagine Erasure but with a more baritone vocal, and songs just as good or better than Erasure at the top of their game, and you've got a good idea of what to expect here. Just a wonderful album!

Jason Baker, June 2004