I had this album on cassette in the 80s and absolutely loved it. At the time it melted my teenage head that this album only had 6 songs on it. I had albums with 6 songs per side! Tracks on ‘Introspective’ start at 6 minutes with a couple stretching over 9 minutes.
Originally, the album was available as a three 45-rpm set of 12 inches which gave an idea of how PSB saw the record. They had created 6 club bangers, put them together and loosely created an album. And what an album it is.
You will have heard the singles ‘Left To My Own Devices’, ‘Domino Dancing’, ‘Always On My Mind’ and ‘It's Alright’ but probably haven’t heard these extended versions. They are essentially the club mixes and are much better than the 7” versions I reckon.
The two non-singles are ‘I Want A Dog’ which goes all brilliant Ibiza piano in the middle and ‘I’m Not Scared’ which was later covered by Eighth Wonder (of Patsy Kensit fame). Both are cracking.
Kudos to PSB for turning the release structure on its head, creating an album of mixes then putting out cut-down, radio-friendly singles afterwards.
I loved this album in 1988, I still love it today. 48 minutes of synth-pop greatness. PSBs best work? Possibly.
Tracks To Try: Any of them.
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