Modern English’s second album will always be known first and foremost for the group’s signature song, the legendary “I Melt With You,” an ur-Eighties combination of acoustic and electronic elements celebrating love and desire in the shadow of the bomb. But the album as a whole was an elegant progression from their debut Mesh and Lace, with songs like “Life in the Gladhouse,” “Someone’s Calling” and the delicately tense title track capturing sweeping postpunk guitar and synth energy with elegance, Robbie Gray’s yearning vocals the killer touch.

– Ned Raggett