It's gotten dismissed over the years because of the bad production. But if you go into the listening experience with an open mind, you start to see something more passionate and extreme and scary. "I'm Gonna Love Her For Both Of Us", "More Than You Deserve", "I'll Kill You If You Don't Come Back" and "Read 'Em And Weep" are almost sinister, back-to-back. That's a lot of "the dark side of love" there, and it's not broken up. I don't even see "Dead Ringer For Love" as comic relief. "Everything Is Permitted", to me, is like the aftermath of a murder. That's what's going through the culprit's mind as he watches everything unfold. The album feels like the build-up to a murder, or some scary confrontation, that I've never come across in any other album I've heard. There's an intimacy, and there's intensity in that intimacy, that you don't get from the others. "Dead Ringer" freaks me out.
I can't remember who told the story about "Dead Ringer" reflecting the urban legend about the people who ring bells "in their tombs" to let other people know that they haven't really died. "Dead ringer for Love". Again, the production and the arrangement on that CD takes away all of that. You'd never think this way about it if you didn't pay close attention to the lyrics, and just focused on the production.
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