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The first song, "Strange" was one I heard several times before getting the CD. It's got a nice dancey beat and dark sounds and showcases exactly what the No Decay style is all about. While not really great enough to really captivate the first time listener, the song is an integral part of the album, which is certainly better than the mere sum of all the songs on it. "Follow Me" shows a few more typical No Decay features, including an introduction that doesn't really presage the sound of the rest of the song, and an unforgiving raw "electronic-ness" to the sound. Oh, and it's very similar in tone and theme to "Strange." "Deep" also features the gradual introduction into the song-proper, as well as an even harsher, darker tone, and even more robotic, electronic sound than we've seen previously. The slightly distorted vocals during the main verse portion of the song further emphasize the harshness of the song, although it's still a far cry from EBM. Interestingly enough, "Deep" and "You Enchant Me," the next song, are about the two tonal extremes on this album. "You Enchant Me" is the closest thing to a standard pop-song on the album, and as might be guessed from the title, has a more cheerful love-song like format and theme. "Usual Life" isn't nearly as dark as "Deep" but it's still a much more vaguely melancholy, dream-like haunting song compared to "You Enchant Me" with a return to extremely distant, robotic/electronic sounds. It's also the first song without a tough dance beat -- there's no percussion at all until the chorus. It segues very neatly into "In the Crowd" another slowish paced song with a hauntingly dark and electronic theme and sound. This song tells an odd story, about a kid who's an everyday "boy next door" who seems to be living a darker, second life. This song also features themes that have haunted the German psyche ever since World War II, which further the Teutonic and slightly alien nature of the music. "Warning Angels" is a much more aggressively tempoed song at times, although it starts out with a slow-moving yet threatening introduction, and the verses change the dance beat to a beat that's too odd to dance to. Probably the most hauntingly beautiful as well as enduringly formatted songs is "On and On" with a fragile introduction, a later dance tempo, a long outro featuring brilliant synthwork. "Wasted Time" is very electronic in sound, with a slower beat that takes a really long time to get started relative to the length of the song overall. When it gets moving (about half-way through) it has some piano and suddenly one of the most electronic sounding songs here picks up a bit of naturalness, further emphasised by the string sounds. "True Answer," like many of the songs here, starts out with a hauntingly electronic, delicate intro, but it turns into something much more like "Strange" before all is said and done -- it's about as close to a pop song as the album gets, barring "You Enchant Me." "Forgiveness" with it's slower tempo and piano is also somewhat more accessible as a song with some pop potential, although the song isn't really done in the normal pop-song format with easily recognizable verses and chorus really. "Caught" starts out with a very electro and somewhat long introduction, as we've seen numerous times already on this album. The song never does pick up much in tempo, but as you can also probably expect, it remains delicately and hauntingly beautiful, and develops a strikingly moving and orchestral outro to finish out. Finally, the CD ends with "Take Your Pride," a song that is more dance oriented, starting with a beat right away and sounding in many ways similar to "Strange" or "True Answer."
Overall, the CD is one that needs to be listened to in its entirety (preferrably several times) before judgement can be made. It doesn't sound like typical synthpop, but that doesn't mean it isn't excellent stuff.
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