The cover art is a great representation of what this album is about. The girl with the tear-smudged, goth make-up looking up to the light is doing exactly what Stabbing Westward were up to here. Heavy with acoustic guitars and dreamy melodies, the band's change of direction is quite significant as they drop nearly all of their industrial tendencies and became a dark pop/rock act. Luckily, Stabbing Westward happen to be very good at this. This is a Stabbing Westward disc that your mother could enjoy, but something an old SW fan should not be ashamed to have in their collection, as the band never loses their sense of songcraft. The album's appeal is largely based on Chris Hall's smooth, plaintive voice and Walter Flakus' masterful atmospherics, but there are some great songs here (The Only Thing, Perfect) . If there was any justice, this would have been huge and wiped the likes of Creed and Nickleback off of mainstream radio.
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