This album found the band, and Martyn in particular, backing away from electronic instruments and using more session musicians to deliver "instant satisfaction". Unfortunately what the band delivered was a rather dull album with few highlights.
The single "Contenders" kicks things off with its pop/soul groove that features bass guitar, rhythm guitar and acoustic drums. Whilst this is a bright and chirpy song it sounds like everyone is trying too hard. "Trouble" is another uninspiring song that was never going to be a hit.
The blue eyes soul nonsense continues with "Somebody" which is a bit flat as a composition but is a very finely polished production. "If I Were You" is bad enough to make me curl my toes and it seems to go on forever. "Low Society" is a poor Level 42 sound-a-like that annoys me - it's not a homage, it's just appropriation of someone else's sound. The band were clearly proud of the horn arrangement for "Red" but forgot to include a tune.
There's a ballad called "Look at Me" and a couple of generic mid tempo tracks to see us out. This album is beautifully produced and has a real polish, but unfortunately the songs are forced an uninteresting. There's no doubt that when this album was made, Heaven 17 were leaving behind any notion that they were a synth-pop band and they saw more virtue in getting a conventional band to play a song as they produced it. This approach doesn't appeal to a lover of electronic music and it didn't seem to strike a chord with the record buying public either. 1/5
