I absolutely adore early Attrition. Albums such as "Smiling At The Hypogonder Club" and "In The Realm Of The Hungry Ghosts" are essential Gothic rock classics, along with the superb moody electronics on "3 Arms & A Dead Cert." Though "The Hidden Agenda" and "The Jeopardy Maze" are very similar in style to "3 Arms & A Dead Cert," THAT album was the pinnacle of creativity due to the juxtaposition of brooding viola and some of Julia's most ghostly operatic performances with hard edged, beat heavy electronics and overall creepiness and solid atmosphere. There was just something about the way the band utilized these formulas on this album that I feel will be very hard for them to surpass. "The Hidden Agenda" is the CD that was working toward that perfection, and "The Jeopardy Maze" was the surreal and worthy aftermath, but "3 Arms..." was the masterpiece.

I think having to wait for this CD for so long was a bit of a disadvantage. Since I was forever searching for it, inadvertently, I began to have really high expectations for it which it unfortunately did not live up to. It's not a bad CD by any means, but it's not their best. Nonetheless, I am glad that has finally been made available again for fans. It is definitely a must for any Attrition fan, especially fans of their recent contemporary electro sound.


Buy this   April 28, 2005
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

If you are an attrition fan, and don't have this CD, BUY IT (along with "the hand that feeds", and most other attrition CD's for that matter). If you are not an attrition fan, then this may not be the best introduction to attrition (try "3 arms and a dead cert"). Attrition for those who haven't heard them are a difficult band to describe since they progress with the times in a similar way to David Bowie (but with fewer calamities like the "Earthling" album), attritions music is always gothic, mostly dark, sometimes industrial and quite often electronic with superb male-female vocal interplay from Julia Waller's operatic voice to Martin Bowe's minimalist whisper.
The "Hidden Agenda" pipes up with the dancy and comparitably upbeat "Lip Sync" which is by no means the best track on the album, but nether the less worth buying the album to hear. The remaining tracks illustrate utter musical perfection, although they all take some time to get into, apart from the "Deadline" and "Silent Mind" which should be instant hits with anybody. The "Deadline" in particular brings out all the chaos and urgency that precedes being late for something excrutiatingly important, whilst the "silent mind" brings in some superb 80's like sounds to give it an almost comic grange hill like feel.
All in all this is probobally attritions best work, but that could be argued for any of their albums.