The place for
Art of Noise neophytes to start,
Daft collects
(Who's Afraid Of?) The Art of Noise! and Into Battle with the Art of Noise, along with two reworkings of "Moments in Love" from the original U.K. release of that song, to make a fantastic hour's worth of music. If anything, a single or two aside,
Daft beats out the official Best Of compilation by a mile. Having aged superbly with time,
AON's early works sound all the more advanced and of the moment, a testament especially to
Trevor Horn's excellent production and
Anne Dudley's gripping arrangements. Further entertainment comes from the liner notes, which aren't merely state-of-the-art 1984 album design but an apparently barbed attack on the further incarnation of the band from one Otto Flake. The exact seriousness of this is up to the reader. As for the "Moments in Love" versions, both are gentler and more elegant than the already lush original, and none the worse for that, though "(Three Fingers Of) Love" does have rather disconcerting sound effects added to it. ~ Ned Raggett