Firstly, as everybody knows, this album has been in the can for over two years as the band sought a distribution deal for their work. Some tracks have been previewed at live shows since, but now at last we have an opportunity to hear them in full. (even though, I'm reviewing from an MP3 rip as I haven't found a UK retailer with the CD yet!). I Feel Light - Hang on a mo! Stabbing guitar effects with feed back - All Night Party - it must be 1979! A disco bass-drum and clap beat kicks in with that unique plucky rubber band bass sound which ACR have mastered so well. Jez Kerr's vocals are spaced-out and interplay with overdubs from both keyboards and guitar effects. Dojo's live drums are deep in the mix - with a remarkable resemblance to The Fox. A great opener! Down, Down, Down - This funky club work out sounds as if it is the first ACR track specifically written for Denise Johnson's superb voice. A superb keyboard hook drives the track through washes of funky guitar and effect overlays. Is it Morris Day, is it Prince, no it's Cameo! You do eagerly await for a horn section to kick in, but alas no. A highly commercial slab of disco funk. superb! Everything is Good - No it's not! After two fantastic openers, I can't find much to like about track 3. "Where the fuck is this and who the fuck am I?" sings Jerry Kerr. If it wasn't for the guitar riffs and nice keyboard effects, this track would be fucking awful. Way to Escape - Hannett-esque echo effects, plucky funky guitar, deep & scarey yet somehow dreamy vocals. An ode to the troubled mind for sure. "A lonely place, where everybody thinks you're insane.." "I've seen what he saw, I'm still here looking at it." Poignant lyrics make you sit up, listen closely and take notice. Rialto 2006 - The original Rialto is one of the best tracks of 1981's classic Sextet album. I'm not too sure why the band felt it necessary to rework this track, although Denise Johnson's voice does add an extra dimension to the original instrumental. If anything, the drums are too much up front in this mix, so the unique, almost B-movie soundtrack feel of the original is lost. This version does work well live, however serves little purpose here. Mind Made Up - The title track follows just where Way to Escape left off. Heavy keyboard effects and an driving guitar riff push the track further and further to a peak, then it all starts over again. Kerr's lyrics are as powerful and troubled as they have ever been, yet sung so softly they take you to some very dark places. Teri - Allegedly a long lost & unrecorded track from 1978, brought up-to-date for this album. I will stick my kneck out and say I love it. Many will hate this. "Teri, I love you, don't leave me" narrates Kerr over a simple bassline and piano. Is that an old noisebox effect? "Say what you mean and not what you feel" - great chorus and a rare moment of uplifting melody. The most unusual track ever recorded by ACR. Bird to the Ground - Many have said that ACR had an influence on the funky direction taken by Talking Heads in the early 80's. Well, this is Talking Heads circa - 86 pop! Nice idea, works well with some unusual effects in the mix. A road to nowhere well trodden. Starlight - Nice new intro with some typical Moscrop wah-wah guitar. Apart from that, I always thought this was more of an out-take from Change the Station and still do. Which is Reality? - "Shaft" guitars kick off this funky workout, wait is that a horn section?? The title does suggest a hark back to Simon Topping's 1979 lyric, but far from it. In reality this is a superb jam with a great lead guitar and sax riff before suddenly you feel as if Jerry and Dojo are about to break into Waterline. Skunk - known to many live as "Funky Guitar". It's as funky as fuck! ACR do Maceo as well as Maceo ever could. Even people who can't dance, will dance to this. Superb sax and horns, squelchy & funky keyboards driven along by the Kerr & Dojo rhythm section topped off with Moscrop's funky guitar. Oh yes! Very Busy Man - It's Blown Away, it's 2000ACR, it's Nostromo-a go-go! It's Winter Hill! No ACR album would be complete without a percussion work out. This time Jez plugs his bass through a flange pedal, loads of trumpets (is ST back?), whistles and effects etc. Happy hands! A very much long awaited return for A Certain Ratio and easily their strongest work since Force. Without trying to emulate any current scene, ACR remind everybody of their quality and their true groundbreaking approach to music and also how cyclical style truly is. This is no retrospective project, as times change, certain bands remain at the forefront of contemporary music by doing what they do best and remaining true to their own. This is very much an album for our times and infact truly timeless as well. Run out and buy this, if you can find it!

Two tracks in, and I'm thinking if the rest of the album is anything near this level, then it's a bona fide classic (or as the sticker on front proclaims, a masterpiece). Third track starts strong, sounds a bit more conventional. Album continues: moody, deeply funky, laid back yet intense, brooding, ethereal, tight rhythms / loose improv'd vocals, experimental. Simply outstanding, and only halfway through. Middle section perhaps not so fist-raisingly good, but still better than most artists could hope for, and then finishing strong again toward the end, closing with a piece reminiscent of their classics "Winter Hill" and "Si Firmi O Grido." Building on the classic ACR sound, adding new, interesting sound textures, this record is danceable yet introverted, informed by other great post punk and dance sounds, thoroughly modern, uniquely English, adventurous. One gets the sense that the players had a lot of joy in this production.