Track Listing

1. Dream within a dream
2. The murder of love
3. Jewel
4. Duel
5. Frozen faces
6. P-machinery
7. Sorry for laughing
8. Dr. mabuse
9. The chase
10. Strength to dream

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13172 in Music
• Released on: 2000-02-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Customer Reviews

All time classic. As fresh today as 20 years ago,
What can I say about this album that hasn't already been said? If you only ever buy one album of 80's electro-pop, make it this one. Every track shines out like a beacon, and it hasn't dated at all. Not one little bit. I first heard of this band when 'Miami Vice' featured the track 'P-Machinery' as the soundtrack to a fast night driving scene in the episode 'The Fix' and I went straight out and bought the album on the strength of ten seconds or so of the intro to this track.
In the intervening years it has never been far from my CD player (This is actually the second copy I've owned, as I wore the first out!!) If you like this, buy 'Outside world' as well, for the remixes.
As Paul Lester (Uncut) wrote:
'Sheer brutal beauty'

Electro-Perfecto!
Here's a much forgotten secret from the mid eighties, Propaganda's Secret Wish is one of the best albums from this period of golden pop. The album was produced by one of the UK's best known and most successful producer's Trevor Horn, who was also the driving force behind the trend setting debuts of ABC and Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Horn's love of complex string arrangements are used to good effect giving Propaganda's well constructed songs an added dimension that starker electronic albums could sometimes lack. Propaganda proved they were on equal terms with fellow German innovators Kraftwerk by releasing an album where every track is a gem. Clever use of synth sequencing and analogue layers give many of the tracks a definite edge, and the album still sounds superb by today's techno standards some 15 years after it was released. This sort of music is always helped by a strong vocalist, and the enigmatic Claudia Brucken with her distinctive German voice is as important to the success of this album as Alison Moyet was to Yazoo. Brucken's vocals easily generate pure emotion against the harsh, industrial sequencing of some of the tracks. On Jewel she provides a manic performance that I really haven't heard from any female vocalist since. It's very difficult to pick highlight tracks as favourites, because they are all so good, but Duel remains as one of the best pop songs from this period. It's a perfect mix of classical interludes and melodic synths, something Horn was to revisit on the PSB classic Left To My Own Devices from 1988. Heaven 17's Glenn Gregory helps out on the vocals for the single P-Machinery, a song that has one of the catchiest synth leads I have ever heard. Japan's David Sylvian also provided the bleeps in the intro. Sorry For Laughing is a touching change of pace and something of a classic. Huge heaps of melancholy and another memorable pop tune. If I'm pushed, I'd say that Dr Mabuse is the highlight purely for it's complexity and change of pace halfway through into a pure killer of a bassline (I bet Adamski liked this one before recording his track Killer!). A dramatic song like most of the album and it was no surprise to hear tracks from this album used for endless UK TV theme tunes and car adverts. Secret Wish easily makes my own personal top ten along with the Human League's Dare and Depeche Mode's Black Celebration. Sadly, I own the original 1985 CD release of this album so I don't have the extra tracks, but I can recommend the remix album Wishful Thinking. Buy Secret Wish and you'll love it. Trust me.

Kraft-y-werk? You could say that!
After hearing Duel on the radio & reading other people's reviews about A Secret Wish, I decided to make a purchase. Not the most convincing of foundations to justify making a purchase but I don't care because I'm glad I bought it!

This album in places reminds me of Kraftwerk because some of the tracks such as `Dream Within A Dream' and `Dr Mabuse' have an experimental feel to them - they're focused more towards the sound they create rather than lyrics and can last for quite a while with the longest track being `Dream Within A Dream' @ 8 minutes long. However, if you're worried the song you started playing at the beginning of the Autobahn will still be playing at the end of it, fear not because unlike Kraftwerk, the appeal to the mainstream is there for all to hear I think, and if their "experimental" material does not appeal to you, then I'm sure `Jewel', 'Duel' & 'P-Machinery' will - if you like synth-pop. Having listened to the Human League, Heaven 17 & New Order, A Secret Wish immediately stands out because of its industrial edge - it adds a different dimension to synth-pop which even today (over 20 years after it was released) sounds good and fresh.

I must admit I have bought albums on fragile foundations before (i.e. little or even no research into the albums' tracks) and sometimes it has been to my cost but like (and I will admit, luckily!) most albums I've bought this way, A Secret Wish has rewarded me. Satisfied? That's an understatement!