I had a lot of fun the year this album came out. I remember it was the summer between my eighth and ninth grade years in school, going from Junior High to Senior High. I had grown into the city, Chicago, and felt very much at home with the people and my surroundings. I'd put on my walkman tape player and get on my bike at 7:00 in the morning and ride into the city. I remember pulling into a seedy gas station and going in to look at their comic books, picking up X-Factor Annual #1 for a buck and a quarter. Easy money.
I liked this album because I felt it was unpretentious, it was simply pop music with great melodies, and warm vocals. This was also prior to my segregating my music by genre, so it didn't matter if I listened to New Wave or Hard Rock or what. I listened to what I wanted to listen to.
I listened to this one with Duran2's Notorious album, TFF's Songs From the Big Chair, Peter Gabriel's So, and the Bryan Ferry/Tangerine Dream song from Legend. All good music.
Simply put, the album with the extras at the backend, and the picture sleeves.
Plug and play.