Customer Reviews
a step back..or a step forward! - By: Mr. Nathan Armstrong, 31 Aug 2008 
the third album failed to capatolise on the success of "into the gap"..but then it is one of the best albums of the 80's
the first actual release "lay your hands on me" is here..and athough not regraded as a tt classic i would beg to differ!
the album was preluded by another single "don't mess with doctor dream" which stop a step back to the quick step album....a clever song with its anti drugs message..but by now a lot of us wanted more angst love songs delivered to an electro beat
along the way you get some songs worth of "into the gap" like "future days" "you killed the clown" & "emporer's new clothes" but a the other album tracks dont match the quality!
two more singles were released "king for a day" which is a great twins track & deserved to do a lot better than no.22in the uk chart...this was followed by "revolution" a cover of a beatles track that is the worst track on the album!
however the album is made complete..not just by stunning lyric notes but by all the rare remixes & 12" versions!
although not the most stunning album the extras make up for it at a budget price!
The Future Revisited - By: Eric Generic, 17 Aug 2008 
Next to the breakthrough dance-pop of 1983's Quickstep & Sidekick, & the imperious perfect pop of Into The Gap a year later, this record felt uneven & decidedly leaden upon releasein 1985. Now, as part of Edsel's generally superb deluxe editions of the mid-period TT catalogue, comes a chance to re-evaluate the album which saw the band's commercial fortunes take a sharp dipin the UK.
Some things haven't changed; the remixed/re-recorded versions of the Top 20 singles Lay Your Hands On Me & Don't Mess With Doctor Dream are still inferior to their 7" counterparts, & the segue between the latter & former sounds no less clumsy than it ever did. Tokyo, meanwhile, always felt like a poor Quickstep-era B-side & betrayed a muddled creative vision for the album as a whole, as they attempted to mix the funkier elements of their earlier sound with the classic pop song structures of Into The Gap without ever really coming up with enough strong material to make any of it convincing.
However, for all its faults there is a surprisingly durable album lurking within the 11 tracks on Disc 1 of this newly expanded edition. The infamous single-that-never-was, Roll Over, appears on the UK release for the first time, albeit notin the same place that original US copies inserted it, & although it's questionable how well it would have fared on the UK charts of Spring 1985, the track is superior to a lot of the main album & is more than simply a curiosity piece.
What transpires, listening to this CD now, is how the track sequencing is probably most at fault for the way HTFD leaves an anticlimactic feeling with the listener; each "side" of the album ends with a pair or unremarkable tracks, while a gem such as Emperor's Clothes is effectively buriedin the middle of the second half. Consider the prospect, for instance, of a 10-track album with the single versions of the hits, Roll Overin place of Tokyo, & a slightly rejigged running order. Not so bad after all, maybe?
The rest of this beautifully-presented package is every bit as good as those for Quickstep & Into The Gap, if not better....those two had a large degree of shared informationin the fold-out booklet, whereas this time a different phase of their career is tactfully covered & the images of merchandise & various paraphenalia is second to none. With all the bonus material from the original double LP/long play cassette included, it's an irresistible package of one of the 80s most frustrating, disappointing but perhaps misunderstood releases.
Change of pace, change of direction - By: Mr. M. J. Smith, 14 Aug 2008 The Thompson Twins were going from strength to strength with first 'Side Kicks', 'Into the Gap' & then 'Here's to Future Days'. The Gap was a huge album & no matter what the group where to come up with it was never going to be easy. Lay Your Hands On Me was the first single to be released & was fanatstic, although not a huge hit, followed by, I think, Don't Mess With Doctor Dream & King For One Day, both should have been huge hits.
It's great to see all the re-releases have been relatively 'untouched' & released as they were originally by Arista, including the extended remixes which could only be found on the cassette format at the time.
What I would really like to see are the first two albums released on CD when the Thompson Twins were a seven piece band then I can put my cassette collection to sleep.
Well done Esdl on these three releases, giving the fans, new & old alike, a chance to relive one the best british bands of the '80's!
Here's To Future Days!
The Thompson Twins Are Dead, Long Live The Thompson Twins - By: Coincidence Vs Fate, 30 Jun 2008 
For me, "Here's To Future Days" marked the end of the Twins' golden period. It was an album that showed their midas touch was wearing off a little.
What we do get are two cracking singles "King For A Day" & "Lay Your Hands On Me", but we don't get the superb albums tracks that we'd seen previously, "Day After Day", for example. We're also "treated" to an absolutely dreadful version of "Revolution".
As with the two previous releases - "Quick Step" & "Into The Gap" - we get a raft of extra tracks that first appeared on the cassette versions of these albums backin the day. These more than make up for the albums' shortcomings.
Believe it or not I am a huge TT fan, I just feel that out of the trio of classic TT albums that this is the weakest. It's not a bad album, far from it; it's just not as fine a collective as the aforementioned "Quick" & "Gap".
Great value for the money though & a great reminder that when they were on form the TT were up there with the best of 'em.
A PASSABLE ALBUM OF A FADING BAND. - By: NEO, 13 Nov 2006 As much as it pains me to say , this isn't a very good effort by Tom & Allanah still at this time with Joe leeway & there new producer. Releasedin 1985 this album produced by the music legend Nile Rodgers fails to bring back the glory days. It's a hotch potch of sounds that are neither synth/pop or rockin a time when Music changed. Tom bailey struggles with the lyrics to try to change the sound & tempo of the Twins. The only tracks that have a hint of 'Into the Gap ' are , King for a day , Lay your hands on me , Emporors clothes & Doctor Dream. 'Doctor Dream' was an effort to bring the drug culture to the fore & there political stance. But after years of cultivating there 'POP' trio sound this utterly fails & sounds odd. 'Revolution' is another track that has potential but sounds awkward & again fails to light up the album. Though they couldn't do another copy of 'Into the Gap' the move to a new style was to fast. With two more albums to follow still as the Thompson Twins with just Tom & Allanah, So this rather poor album marks the true drawn out end to a once mega band which splitin 1991 who just lost there direction & pace.
