Propaganda - A Secret Wish - 1985 (24/96 Vinyl Rip)

'A Secret Wish' is the 1985 debut album of German synthpop band Propaganda. The album was originally released on Trevor Horn's ZTT Records, also famous for its Frankie Goes To Hollywood releases. Both the singles 'Duel' and 'Dr.Mabuse' were huge hits.

The track 'p:Machinery' featured in an episode of the TV show Miami Vice, exactly the right place for an 80's synthpop band. The song 'Dream Within A Dream' has the lyrics of the poem 'A Dream Within A Dream' by Edgar Allan Poe. "This very original album captivates from start to finish".
Enjoy this (nearly mint vinyl version) with a great recording quality. Note: no silence was deleted, so please burn gapless..




Review:

Here's a much forgotten secret from the mid eighties, Propaganda's Secret Wish is one of the best albums from this period of golden pop. The album was produced by one of the UK's best known and most successful producer's Trevor Horn, who was also the driving force behind the trend setting debuts of ABC and Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Horn's love of complex string arrangements are used to good effect giving Propaganda's well constructed songs an added dimension that starker electronic albums could sometimes lack. Propaganda proved they were on equal terms with fellow German innovators Kraftwerk by releasing an album where every track is a gem.

Clever use of synth sequencing and analogue layers give many of the tracks a definite edge, and the album still sounds superb by today's techno standards some 15 years after it was released. This sort of music is always helped by a strong vocalist, and the enigmatic Claudia Brucken with her distinctive German voice is as important to the success of this album as Alison Moyet was to Yazoo. Brucken's vocals easily generate pure emotion against the harsh, industrial sequencing of some of the tracks. On Jewel she provides a manic performance that I really haven't heard from any female vocalist since. It's very difficult to pick highlight tracks as favourites, because they are all so good, but Duel remains as one of the best pop songs from this period.

It's a perfect mix of classical interludes and melodic synths, something Horn was to revisit on the PSB classic Left To My Own Devices from 1988. Heaven 17's Glenn Gregory helps out on the vocals for the single P-Machinery, a song that has one of the catchiest synth leads I have ever heard. Japan's David Sylvian also provided the bleeps in the intro. Sorry For Laughing is a touching change of pace and something of a classic. Huge heaps of melancholy and another memorable pop tune.

If I'm pushed, I'd say that Dr Mabuse is the highlight purely for it's complexity and change of pace halfway through into a pure killer of a bassline (I bet Adamski liked this one before recording his track Killer!).
A dramatic song like most of the album and it was no surprise to hear tracks from this album used for endless UK TV theme tunes and car adverts. Secret Wish easily makes my own personal top ten along with the Human League's Dare and Depeche Mode's Black Celebration. Sadly, I own the original 1985 CD release of this album so I don't have the extra tracks, but I can recommend the remix album Wishful Thinking. Buy Secret Wish and you'll love it. Trust me.
review@Amazon.com


Track List:

01 Dream Within A Dream
02 The Murder Of Love
03 Jewel
04 Duel
05 p:Machinery

06 Sorry For Laughing
07 Dr. Mabuse (first life)
08 The Chase
09 The Last Word (Strength To Dream)

The Band: Michael Mertens, Suzanne Freytag, Claudia Brücken, Ralf Dörper