Propaganda / A Secret Wish ‘art of the album’ reissue plus exciting live news!

CD & vinyl reissues + ‘xPropaganda’ to perform the album live in London!

BMG will continue with their ‘art of the album’ reissue campaign with new CD and vinyl editions of Propaganda‘s 1985 album A Secret Wish.

Remastered from the original tapes ‘for the first time’, the vinyl and CD reissues will replicate the original ZTT vinyl LP / CD track listings. Fans will be aware that these are very different in terms of sequencing and mixes (the CD runs nearly 12 minutes longer than its vinyl counterpart).

Like previous ‘art of the album’ reissues (such as Frankie‘s Welcome To The Pleasuredome) these don’t offer any bonus audio, but what they do offer (apart from the new remastering, which was undertaken by Joel Peters) is new presentation and fresh notes. Ian Peel (who has curated all of the ZTT reissues in the last five or six years) has written new sleeve notes which tell the story of the players, the craft, the impact and the legacy of the album through interviews with band members and producer Stephen Lipson.

The vinyl LP includes a six-page booklet and a 12″ x 12″ art card. The CD comes in a hardcover book (sometimes referred to as a casebound book) and features the notes in a 32-page booklet. Because of the aforementioned audio differences between CD and LP, this is one occasion where there’s an incentive to pick up both formats (assuming you have a turntable!).



A Secret Wish was a critical, if not a commercial success. ZTT did their usual robust job of promotion and multi-formatted singles; All three 45s – Dr. Mabuse, Duel and P-Machinery – were issued as cassette singles with running times from 15 to almost 20 minutes. Duel did do-well to reach number 21 in the charts, prompting the band’s one and only appearance on Top of the Pops!

Propaganda were formed in 1982 in Dusseldorf, West Germany. Initially a trio (Ralf Dörper, Andres Thein and Susanne Freytag), the band were a five-piece by the time they were signed to ZTT (Michael Mertens and Claudia Brücken had joined).

The hot-off-the-press news is that ‘xPropaganda featuring Claudia Brücken and Susanne Freytag’ will perform A Secret Wish in full at The Garage in London on Saturday 24 March 2018. Tickets go on sale next week. The reissues are out on 26 January 2018.

A Secret Wish ‘art of the album’ 180g vinyl LP

Side 1
01. Dream Within A Dream
02. The Murder Of Love
03. Jewel/Duel

Side 2
01. P-Machinery
02. Sorry For Laughing
03. Dr. Mabuse (First Life)
04. The Chase
05. The Last Word
06. Strength To Dream
A Secret Wish ‘art of the album’ CD

01. Dream Within A Dream
02. The Murder Of Love
03. Jewel
04. Duel
05. Frozen Faces
06. P-Machinery
07. Sorry For Laughing
08. The Chase
09. Dr. Mabuse

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