raydium, Jan 30, 2008
After striking gold with the last single off of "Happy Birthday," Altered Imaged stuck with Martin Rushent for this album and he was truly the UK producer of the moment, hot off the heels of the Human League's Dare with his Roland Microcomposer and Linn Drum. A few weeks later the world would be beating a path to Trevor Horn's door, but at this point in time, Martin Rushent ruled, OK?
The tracks here continue somewhat in the bittersweet vein of their debut, lyrically, but the songs are fleshed out with strawberry marshmallow production that threatens to rot the teeth right out of your mouth. But I'm okay with that! Only the singalong cover of "Song Sung Blue" is a greivous misstep. Elsewhere, delights like "See Those Eyes," "See You Later" and "I Could Be Happy" make this a potent excursion into ginch-pop territory, enlivened by contrary lyrics as in "Happy." When the music is sweet and the lyrics as cutting as can be found at the climax to that single, the reward is considerable.
4.0/5 (