Propaganda – A Secret Wish

Dream Within A Dream is worth the price of ission alone. And somehow I ended up with the Swedish pressing (west coast USA). 🤷‍♂️

So many CD re-releases of this brilliant vinyl album, none of them getting it right.
When will there finally be a CD / digital version that contains the original tracks in their original sequence?
The additions of the superflous "Frozen Faces" and the re-recorded 9 minute version of "A Dream.." were nice gimmicks for the transitional era between vinyl and CD, but let's be honest,
the changes that were made don't add too much, and Susanne's vocal on "A Dream.." sounds different. Another annoyance is the fact that on none of these releases the great non-vocal version of "Jewel" is used. It worked greatly as a prelude to "Duel", replacing it with the full vocal version just is a little bit too much because it IS the same song twice. It would have been totally ok if it had remained where it belonged: on the b-side of the DUEL 12" single or on special compilations.
There was a two CD release which contained all the original versions, but again, they were not in sequence but added as extra tracks, as so-called "analogue versions". Of course, everyone can program those tracks in the original order themselves, but should we really have to do that when I'm sure that the album will continue being re-released multiple times in the future!?

With so many versions of the songs on various releases and the extra long reconstructions by Blank & Jones, I wanted the album to fit neatly on a 60 minutes tape. So I compiled and rearranged the album like this:

Side A:
1. Dr. Mabuse (Blank & Jones So8os Reconstruction, edit starting at 1:53 with "Why does it hurt")
2. The Murder Of Love (Loved) from mix album WT
3. Jewel (vocal edited version) from compilation Outside World
4. Dream Within A Dream (Blank & Jones So8os Reconstruction)
Side B:
1. P-Machinery (Beta) from compilation Noise And Girls Come Out To Play
2. Sorry For Laughing (Alvin Clarke 12" Mix) from ZTT compilation Art Of The 12" Vol. 2
3. Duel (Blank & Jones So8os Reconstruction)
4. The Chase (Goodnight Mix) from SW bonus
5. Dr. Mabuse (reprise) (first 40 sec. of Blank & Jones So8os Reconstruction)

I was never a friend of Duel & Jewel being tied together, so I put them at third place on each side.

I notice a bunch of interesting artists on this one, does Steve Howe play live on this or is he sampled?

One of the best Synth-pop records of the 80's, definitly... "ABBA from hell" as Ralf Dörper used to say ... ;-)

Surprised by some of the comments below to be honest. I've always held the view that this is one of the most ambitious and sonically brilliant albums of the 80s - few can touch it in of technical brilliance. Superb orchestral arrangements flow beautifully with the sequenced electronic elements - all very filmic and very clever pop music. The Pet Shop Boys did their own tribute to the Propaganda/ZTT blueprint with 1989's 'Left To My Own Devices' - high praise too and another superb track. This album is highly recommended if you love the 80's output of Mode, New Order, PSB etc.

As sampled by Dave Angel for his remake/remix of Sweet Dreams by The Eurythmics entitled the Nightmare Mix..
Great opening track Dream Within A Dream on this l.p. by Propaganda but the rest is not for me what so ever.. So 4 stars for the sample and nowt else..

The noteworthy list of session men and engineers printed on the edge of the inner sleeve gives no clues as to who played or sang where, but Steve Howe at least is safely on "The Murder of Love" - the tone and phrasing of that brief, tasteful solo have his fingerprints on them. I wonder who played the searing guitar on Dream Within a Dream, though? This long, expansive opener track is one of the peak points of the album and a triumph of playing, pacing, vocals and production.

"Did anyone know the CD and the Cassette version had slighlt different mixes."

The LP's remix of Jewel is shorter than the CD's version.

Well, a nice album but I think it's a bit overestimated by some points.

I never liked some songs: Sorry for laughing is terrible, The chase is nice but just a filler. Some versions has the Femme fatale which I think is a terribly childish composition musicalwise and doesn't match to the mastery of the symphonic value of the strenght of the album.

Then, apart from the tasteless songs almost everything else suffers from similar factors: the synthesizer usage is sometimes rudimentary, sometimes is taste-less. The cold and almost plain sonic timbres of the high-tech instruments are sometimes painful. (That's valid exactly to the 95% of the Synclavier productions. I think there's only a very few people in the world had the time to tweak-out anything valuable from those monsters and the rest was based upon the factory presets. It's halway understood due to the incredible studio-fees and only top-end studios could afford such synths). A typical example is the most of the basses. They were harsh and teasing and a bit emptied-sounding (for me, even THOSE times).

The drummachine is bloody rudimentary. Boaaah... It was always the weakest point of the ZTT but on the FGTH albums it was still excuseable.

The recording soundquality is below the average due to my memories. No dynamics, no low ends and lack of transients. Info-less in overall just like many of the ZTT releases of the period. (Just think about the FGTH - Liverpool which was incredibly low - end recording partly due to the early digital machines, but even if it's so, there were excellent DDD recordings by then...) I had it on LP and still have some CDs... Remastering won't help it, especially there's NO way to digitalise the old material on a state-of art A/D converter if the maser was already digital. What was lost is lost...

Last don't least don't we forget: there were already all the counting synth-pop releases out by then in 1985! Depeche Mode was over with their first sampler LP and utilised incredible solutions sonic-timbred and bombastic drumming by then. Kraftwerk has introduced us the way of rhythmisation, the synth-sounds, drumsounds, elegance and transcendence. The Soft Cell was an immediate blast in 1981! Yazoo (Yazz)? No question: was a master. Human League was over with their best period. Alphaville showed us top-end of everything, icl. the drumming also. The Twins - Until the end of time (1985) was just incredible. Telex, Thomas Dolby, Yello was all much known by then... The new thing was here is the symphonic feel but (for me) was no consolation for the albums weaknesses.

Apart from it all, it's a very good album though, full of power, grandioso sound, incredible vocals, nice mixing and some very great compositions. Look further for Claudia Brücken + Thomas Leer's ACT -project! That's just incredible.