List | E | Elegant Machinery | 'Shattered Grounds' CD 1993

Track:	Name:	Time:
1.	Repressive Thoughts	3:21
2.	Hard To Handle	4:07
3.	Cheap Girl	4:01
4.	Shattered Grounds	3:57
5.	Under Contention Instrumental	4:05
6.	Cold As Ice	2:50
7.	Flag Of Truce	4:29
8.	Words Without Meaning	4:32
9.	Forget What I Had I Mind	3:49
10.	Hard Rain (Watching You)	4:25
11.	Another Hard Rain	1:15
11.	Hard To Handle Excerpt	0:17
	Total	41:44

Comments:

This, their second album, is a lot more refined than the previous, and with more of an album feel instead of just a collection of songs. The production is more professional, the lyrics are less cheesy and naive (although still somewhat in places) and the tunes are generally catchier. It's got a synthier feel to it too, and with more apparent Data influences - especially the way the drums and bass on track 4 are similar to that of 'Living Inside Me'. Not to the point of annoyance, mind you, since the vocal styles of these two bands differ quite a lot; Data having lots of female vocals whereas Robert Enforsen of EM sings a bit more slick, smooth and even whining at times. (To be honest, I had a bit of trouble liking his voice at first, since he sounded quite a lot like a friend of mine I had a band with ages ago. Maybe that's an unfair comparison to them both, but that's what I thought at the time.)

The tunes that stick out the most on this album are firstly the instrumental tracks, and secondly the 'Hard Rain' remix ('Another', that is). The instrumental track has something of an oriental flavour, and with some gated voice samples here and there that somehow remind me of some Violet Arcana. 'Another Hard Rain' is probably the funkiest (and unfortunately shortest) track on the album; it's just about the only time they dare to leave the 4/4 beat for a while, and experiment with a slightly 'harder' sound and some vocoded vocals. Actually, it kind of reminds me of their old song 'Degraded Faces', which was my favourite off the album with the same name.

So, what can I say about this as an album, then? Well, it's actually very good musically, and pretty ok lyrically. I guess I'll have to put it in my all-time favourite Swedish synth pop albums, smooth as it may be. Actually, this album has grown a lot on me over time. I only wish they could have done more in the vein of the last track.

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