funny - a fan of the old stuff. some of it's interesting and cool, some of it's like bad Kraftwerk. :) i liked Empires and Dance, tho. and i debated New Gold Dream, it is excellent, true. but for me, Sparkle has a harder sound that makes it edgier than the standard (warm) recording of most albums. the drum sound on Sparkle is harsh-ish, and i like it for its difference. they recorded the drums in a big room (from the sound i assume it had a lot of glass or marble slabs or whatever in it) but the cymbals sounded like crap in it so they overdubbed those in another room later. i read somewhere that bassist Derek Forbes' fingers were bleeding after they laid down The Kick Inside Of Me. listening to it, you would think so. ;>
as for anything after that, i thought Real Life and Street Fighting Years were good. SFY has a bunch of quality people on it, too: Stew, Lou Reed, Manu Katche, Lisa Germano. just listened to it last night. it ages fine.
