After Raise the Pressure, I was a little nervous about how this album was going to turn out. I never cared much for RtP, as it seemed tired and worn out. It was as if they had phoned the performance in. I guess they were also competing with Grunge and Britrock at the same time. The fact that Twisted Tenderness was also only going to be released in the UK even furthered my concern. If you can't even get a US label to pick your album up, there's got to be trouble.
Needless to say, the album was almost as good as their first one, and far better than their second. Some of the tracks you had to warm up to, but there were other anthems that really stood out as exceptional. The title track, Twisted Tenderness, and Late At Night are the best ones on the disc, by far. But, nearly every track is worthy and I will always treasure the work that these guys put forth.
I hate the old man cover, so I switched it with the interior art and staggered the boxes like the LAN single sleeves. The construction of their covers, too, make it a little odd, as the track listing is on the front. That being said, When you look at the sleeves above, remember, the two squares go on the front, and the group shot (?) goes on the inside.
For those of you who remember when this album came out... Can you believe it's twenty years old this year? And, it's stood the test of time. Great work!
I think this actually came out in 1999. I don't think the original Rasputin cover really did this record much good and made it look like an industrial record. Yours is a huge improvement. Like Raise The Pressure, image wise, they seemed lost, or needed a better graphic department. But by 1999 they weren't electronic enough, as electronica was all the rage, rather, compared to BT, Sasha, Underworld, Faithless, Chemical Brothers and Prodigy, they sounded more like a rock band. However, I agree, they wrote some good songs for this one which would be "classics" if released as New Order.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, mistake on my part. When I was talking about Raise the Pressure, I had to go back and look at Discogs, because I couldn't remember the name of the album. I saw 1996, and it stuck in my head. You will notice the file names of the covers and the zips were already 1999, so I had it right at one point... Thanks for pointing that out...
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