Who's Gonna Love You (When You Are Old Fat and Ugly)
Frozen Rivers
Joy
Dancing in the Shadows
Billy Billy
1980-F
Rich Boys
Starflight
Laser Love
Love Will Always Make Your Cry
One Rule for You
Sailing Ship
The English new wave act's 1982 & final album for Columbia, featuring their top five smash rendition of Falco's 'Der Kommissar'. 13 tracks total, also featuring 'One Rule For You', 'Laser Love' and 'Rich Boys'.
The English new wave act's 1982 & final album for Columbia, featuring their top five smash rendition of Falco's 'Der Kommissar'. 13 tracks total, also featuring 'One Rule For You', 'Laser Love' and 'Rich Boys'.
CD Reviews
Great Band, Great Songs, Some Wrong Versions
David B. Isbell | San Diego, CA USA | 02/27/2003
(3 out of 5 stars)
"I bought a copy of this with hopes of listening to some charished old tunes. For the most part this was the case, but a handful were remakes. I sampled the same songs from the ATF: Der Kommissar CD (strongly resembling the 1981 vinyl release of ATF: After the Fire) and was sadly disappointed that the same ones were remakes and not the originals that I had spent my teen years with. My recommendation is to send away your vinyl copy of the 1981 album to get remastered to CD by a private studio or figure out a way to record it to CD yourself. Otherwise settle for the "Best Of" or "Der Kommissar" discs and live with some mild discomfort. The original vinyl was an absolute 5 star production. They seriously need to consider printing all those original songs on CD.
And as for originality, some people do not care whether the original cuts were used or not. Such people will buy anything, like the RUN DMC version of "Dream On" or Dolly Parton's version of "I will Aways Love You," which Whitney Houston performed so much better whether Dolly wrote it or not. So those of you who do not care whether Nirvana is "unplugged" or if Sting does big band versions of his old Police hits, this recording will probably not bother you. But if you want the tunes exactly as you heard them back in the day, then this CD will slightly disappoint you. At least it's better than nothing. I would easily have rated an original version 5 stars. If they ever release all the original recordings on CD I will be the first in line."
Great to hear ATF again, but two BIG problems
08/10/1999
(2 out of 5 stars)
"I grew up on ATF, so I was delighted to hear them again (and I'd never heard the instrumental "Joy", which is cool). However, I was extremely disappointed by two things. First, three of the songs were remixed: "Dancing in the Shadows", "Starflight", and "One Rule for You". "Starflight" isn't too bad, but the other two are TERRIBLE. The originals are MUCH better. Second, how in the world can you release a Best of ATF without including "Carry Me Home"? I love the disk because it's ATF, but a plea to Sony, echoing other reviewers: PLEASE RERELEASE THE ORIGINAL ON CD!!!!!!! I would buy it in a heartbeat. And DON'T remix anything this time."
A very underrated band - great songwriters
M. J. Rimmer | 08/26/1999
(3 out of 5 stars)
"If you're a fan of 80's synth pop, then this cd is for you. I've known about ATF since i was a kid. I recognized their talent right away and could only hope that L.A. radio would play more than just their remake of Der Kommissar. There were so many other great songs like "Sometimes" and "Love will Always Make You Cry." ATF had many catchy "hooks," which remained undiscovered by those who were not lucky enough to be introduced to their music. Although the music on this cd is somewhat outdated, the feel, power, talent and melodies all remain fervent and new. I loved these guys...too bad radio didn't. It was their (radio's) loss. If any of ATF is still around, I'd love to play drums for you."
ATF a band better than their record sales suggest!
M. J. Rimmer | Halesowen, West Midlands United Kingdom | 12/28/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Aside from denting the British singles charts and the huge American hit Der Kommissar, After The Fire never really got the type of success their hard work and creativity deserved. This album was a contractual filler that was mainly aimed for the American market that had just seen Der Kommissar hit the top 3. originally recording as a prog rock band in the mid seventies, a change of musical direction when they signed to CBS saw the band creating a fresh style of synth led edgy pop rock way ahead of its time. Combining the songwriting creativity of frontman Andy Piercy (now known for producing the early albums of the excellent british band Delirious? and a miriad of CCM albums)and the adventurous synthesiser experiments of Pete Banks, the band deserve more recognition for their work than their chart successes. Tours opening up for ELO, Queen and Van Halen certainly gave them wider exposure and this compilation gives an indication of what made the band special. Obviously Der Kommissar is the biggest thing here, originally recorded by Austrian artist Falco, the band heard the song when recording in germany and Banks decided they should give it a shot. Other hits include their debut british hit One Rule For You (in remixed form) which put them in the charts in 1979 and its follow up single and title track from their debut release, Laser Love. Instrumentals like 1980F and Joy were always live favourites and crowd pleasers like Starflight with its thundering rhythms and excellnt synth and the humorous Who's Gonna Love You (When You're Old & Fat & Ugly)all still sound fab! Other singles which didn't make it are included in the set, dancing In The Shadows, Rich Boys and Love Will Always Make You Cry all sound good nearly two decades on and leaves me wondering why this band were never huge. Since this is their only material currently available on CD, it's worth checking out. As for me? I have fond memories of seeing the band in concert, I even manged to make it to their farewell gig, Christmas 1982 in London. Very good band, spiritually alive and musically on the cutting edge in their day."
Track Listings (13) - Disc #1