If you spend any signficant time listening to 80s music compilations (or whatever form of radio you happen to use), you will eventually hear After the Fire's "Der Kommissar". This English language version of Falco's German original was a top 10 hit in the United States and, to many American listeners, the accomplishment of this one hit wonder. Had I not come across the ATF album at one of the half dozen record shows my dad, brother, and I attended in my teenage years, that would have been me. But, the random find of that former library loaner was quite signficant to my view of the musical world. The ATF album is a compilation of material previously recorded by this British band and packaged into an American release to feed off the success of "Der Kommissar". My younger self didn't know this. My lack of context did not, however, effect my pure attraction to the collection of new wave music contained on the LP. From one song to the next, a listener is treated to original, impassioned, and consistently strong performances that demonstrate the beauty of the new wave movement in the evolution of rock music. "Laser Love" leads the album with some seriously dated sounding synthesizers and goofy-ish lyrics, but it's catchy pop music. Those sythesizers are used to better effect throughout the rest of the tracks and compliment excellent rock instrumentation and an even more impressive use of background harmonizing. "Dancing in the Shadows" begins as soft verse contrasted with the sharp jabs of a multi-voice chorus, ultimately building to general excitement. "Sometimes" is pure energy that slows down just enough at the end to highlight the repeating sentiment of the song, "...when you say you love me there's nothing I can say, times like that I think you just blow my life away". "Carry Me Home" is longing, synthesized. And, "Starflight" is a journey through space (yes, space) with high pitched tones and exhilarating lead and backing vocals. This is an LP I have listened to sporadically for my entire adult life. It almost always garners a full listening; very rarely cherry-picking individual songs. I am comfortable sayings ATF is one of my absolute favorite LPs. But, it was relegated to occassional listening due to format. I wanted a CD. In 2001 (unbeknownst to me), Collectibles released the album as Der Kommissar on CD. Finding it more than a decade later, I was excited. This disc contains the track list from the American release with a couple additional pieces (a dub version of "Der Kommissar" and a high energy instrumental called "Joy"). From an After the Fire perspective, all should be great in my little corner of the world. Well... almost. Unfortunately, the Collectibles release replaces 3 of the original version of songs with inferior re-recordings. So, "One Rule For You", "Dancing in the Shadows" (replacing some of the synthesizers with horns!?!), and "Starflight" are different. I'm happy to have easier access to ATF, but I guess I still need to hold onto my (two) copies of the LP. Technically, I have reviewed the CD version that you can still buy new. Add half a star for the original LP version.