I rated this release 1/5 for dead-mastering and over-compressing. They've squashed every bit of dynamics out of the recordings (which were fantastic, when they were still original). Avoid! (and if you have a turntable, better go buying the LP!)

RATIONAL YOUTH … well, actually no other group has so deeply inspired Anna and reinforced her love for synthesisers (and especially the Roland TR-808 drum machine) and electropop than Bill Vorn and Tracy Howe did with their 1982 album “Cold War Night Life”. Anna has no doubt that it is THE BEST EVER RELEASED ELECTROPOP ALBUM OF ALL TIMES, simply pure and incredible synthesiser pop perfection with the most amazing synth sounds and pop compositions full of wonderful harmonies and ideas. RATIONAL YOUTH was formed in 1981 in Montreal, Canada, when Bill and Tracy found out they had the same fascination for synthesisers and the German electropop pioneers Kraftwerk. It is guessed they didn’t think they could do even much better than their idols, but they did! In 1981 they released a first 12” on YUL records featuring the classic tracks “I want to see the Light” and “Coboloid Race”, soon to be followed by “Cold War Night Life”, recorded with a maximum efficiency gear of Moog Source, Logan String Melody, Roland SH-5, MC-4 MicroComposer, TR-808, System-100, System-700, Vocoder SVC-350, Space Echo 201 and Casio VL-1. CD includes the complete album plus the aforementioned 12” tracks plus “Power Zone” from the “City of Night” 12”. This is synthesiser poetry and this album belongs to any collection of any sort of electronic music, if not in any collection in general!