I clearly recall walking to the record store and buying this cd after work. I had been anticipating it for months, reading little tidbits about how the band wanted to do a double album. I knew they were in a fertile creative period and was super excited as a fan to see what direction they would go with it. I turned the volume all the way up on my Aiwa discman, put my earbud headphones in, broke the sticker seal on the top of the jewel case, and opened it up to find an orange disc with the silhouette of the showgirl on it. The opening riff to Dumb Love hit hard, and with that, I wore the biggest smile for the rest of the walk home. I listened to the whole album three times that night. While the 18 year old version of me felt it was a very good record, it took maturing for me to really appreciate how awesome the song craftsmanship is on this album. This album captures a period of time where the band’s creative star is shining at it’s brightest and where they really are firing on all cylinders. The special feeling of this pinnacle era prompts so many “what ifs” that many of us, including I, have spent time pondering on here. Maybe subconsciously, beyond the tunes themselves, that’s part of the appeal and mystique of this band. There’s so many “what if” scenarios that there’s a lot to talk about. We all longed for some kind of different outcome or course of direction at many different points. One of those to me always has been to wonder what the immediate follow up album to this would have been like. All In The Suit That You Wear was such a great teaser to that.
