martes, julio 01, 2025

Rocktrospectiva: The Sublime "A Secret Wish" Turns 40

 
Released on 1 July 1985 "A Secret Wish" was the debut album of the German synthpop band Propaganda. Released by ZTT Records and produced by Stephen Lipson under the supervision of label boss Trevor Horn. They were known as "ABBA from Hell," their album spawned three singles "The Nine Lives Of Dr. Mabuse", "Duel" & "p:Machinery."
 
The opener "Dream Within A Dream" based on a poem by Edgar Allan Poe, had an eight-minute opening track, completed with extended flute solo and the sort of keyboard flourishes normally heard on albums bearing Roger Dean paintings. The track "The Nine Lives Of Dr. Mabuse" had been released as a single in February 1984, but the label had been too busy with Frankie to follow it up, inspired by noir filmmaker Fritz Lang, the Horn-produced Mabuse still sounded amazing.

A Secret Wish was a triumph of melodic concision and proto-techno programming as much as a victory for instrumental finesse and studio excess, from the synth swells and Chris Squire-goes-cosmic-funky bass part on "The Murder of Love to Frozen Faces" to the melodic and calm "Duel", this album still sounds revolutionary. 

Everything counted, from the production, the voice of the wonderful Claudia Brucken, the lyrics, the arrangements and Trevor Horn, who then showed all his strength and imagination. Another worth example was the track "Dream Within The Dream", which Claudia Brucken delivered with perfect diction and such an ease, charm, coldness and calmness that was supposed to convey the incredible atmosphere of the song, heavy sarcasm and irony with almost industrial drum section in "Sorry For  Laughing", hysterical screaming in "Jewel".

The singles "Duel" and "Dr. Mabuse" were both Top 30 UK chart hits. The track "p:Machinery" (a line from which gives the album its title) was also released as a single and was featured in an episode of the '80s TV show Miami Vice and also on the video "Drum" by Duran Duran's Simon Le Bon for his Whitbread Round the World Race in 1985.
 
A Secret Wish Track List: 
 
1. Dream Within A Dream
2. The Murder Of Love
3. Jewel
4. Duel
5. Frozen Faces
6. p:Machinery
7. Sorry For Laughing
8. The Chase
9. Dr. Mabuse  

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