The stimulus for me to buy this record was seeing a performance of "Mirror Mirror" on a re-run of Top of the Pops and realising it was the work of Trevor Horn. This epiphany must have been around 2009 but I was content with digital files until I came across this LP going cheap on eBay a few years ago. I'm glad I didn't pay much for this record as it is a bit noisy and seems incapable of reproducing frequencies below 500 Hz. It's like listening to a barrage of mid range with some occasional clicks thrown in.
Looking at the images on the sleeve might lead you to genuinely ask the question: were these guys serious? Well yes they were and Trevor Horn's involvement attests to this. Not only did Trevor write and produce four tracks on this album, but the lead vocal on "Hand Held in Black and White" sounds almost entirely Trevor to my ears. Also involved were Anne Dudley and Bruce Woolley on keyboards with Gary Langan behind the desk as engineer. Therefore it should come as no surprise that the "Trevor songs" are by far the best here. The afore mentioned "Mirror Mirror" and "Hand Held in Black and White" are complimented by ballad "Give Me Back My Heart". "Videoteque" draws a very eighties image of a near future in which video has become the primary medium for nightclubs. This song has some distinctive PPG Wave and Linn Drum sounds alongside the prototypical brass stabs and Fairlight wizardry employed by The Art of Noise.
The remaining tracks are written and produced by the band. Songs such as "I Got Your Number Wrong" and "Give Me Some Kind of Magic" have some cracking eighties slap bass that sounds so cliched it's almost good. "Dangerous Blondes" is probably the pick of the Dollar tracks, but they all lack a spark and sound a little naive when compared to the work of the maestro. Still, not the worst 99p I have ever spent. 3/5
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