It took a bit of looking to find a download of this album and all I could find was a 128kbps rip. A few Mediafire files were deleted which was quite worrying. The files I did download have now seemingly vanished off my hard-drive which is also quite worrying.
I did manage to listen to the album once though. The first few songs or so didn't really seem to grab me and to be honest my hopes for the album started to sink. But as the album progressed it seemed to get a good bit better and there are a couple of songs that I really enjoyed, such as 'Bruised Arcade' and the last song 'September Sting'. Overall however there is a feeling of inconsistency and the album probably would be better off with two or three songs cut from it. Although I love these kind of albums this one fell short of my expectations overall. The album does have an uplifting feeling (most albums featuring brass usually do!), so it wouldn't sound out of place at a lively 80's-themed party. It does perhaps sound a tad dated with its 80's pop production and perhaps even a bit throwaway.
If I was to recommend similar albums I would probably recommend Infected by The The and You Can't Hide Your Love Forever by Orange Juice. They're both catchy and infectious pop albums yet have their roots in British indie music. Compared to the other albums nominated from 1985 I'd definitely listen to Psychocandy and Tim over this any day, probably because they're two albums I enjoy immensely.
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