Though Heaven 17 hit their greatest commercial heights in the early 1980s with hits like “Let Me Go” and “Temptation,” discerning dance fans may have noted the group has continued to release new music on an increasingly sporadic basis through the 1990s and now "Before After" sees Heaven 17 returning with their first album of new material since 1996’s “Bigger Than America.” Pleasingly enough, “Before After” is perhaps one of the groups most dancefloor focused albums yet and is filled with a plethora of funky Disco-styled Pop-House stompers.
Opening with “I’m Gonna Make You Fall In Love With Me” (that has Heaven 17’s Glenn Gregory sharing vocal duties with veteran House songster Billie Godfrey on the call-and-response chorus) the album then continues with two of its most driving cuts “Hands To Heaven” and “The Way It Is,” both of which slam along with infectious rhythm tracks and hook-laden choruses that highlight the ideally featured background vocals from Godfrey as well as the legendary Angie Brown making either of the two tracks stand out as potential singles.
Also of note are the album’s spacey electro ballads like elegantly sweeping “Into The Blue,” the evocatively ominous “What Would It Take,” and the delicately aching “Someone For Real” which give “Before After” a level of compositional depth that make it work as a cohesive whole rather than as just a compilation of tracks. By combining the aesthetic sense of their early work with the technology of today, “Before After” shows that the group is still a creative force to be reckoned with.
