''Laughter, Tears and Rage'' was the sole album produced by Act—the short musical collaboration between

Thomas Leer Thomas Leer (born Thomas Wishart, 1953) is a Scottish musician. He has released a number of albums and singles as a solo artist, and was also one half (the other being Claudia Brücken) of the 1980s electropop band Act. Biography Born in Port ...

and ex-

Propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

vocalist

Claudia Brücken Claudia Brücken (born 7 December 1963) is a German singer and songwriter. She was the lead vocalist of the synth-pop band Propaganda for many years. In 1996, Brücken started working with Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark co-founder Paul Humphr ...

. Originally scheduled to be titled ''Name Dropping: Songs for Young Sinners'', it was released on 27 June 1988 by

ZTT Records ZTT Records is a British record label founded in 1983 by the record producer Trevor Horn, the businesswoman Jill Sinclair and the ''NME'' journalist Paul Morley. They released music by acts including Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Grace Jones, the ...

. The album was deleted by ZTT in the early 90s. It was eventually reissued on CD in 2004, as a one disc album and as a three disc

box set A boxed set or (its US name) box set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) traditionally packaged in a box, hence 'boxed', and offered for sale as a single unit. Music Artists ...

entitled ''Laughter, Tears and Rage – The Anthology''. Like most ZTT releases, the LP and CD releases differed quite a lot in track listing. The LP and cassette were both released as 12 tracks, while the CD was 14. However, a number of tracks were exclusive to each format. "Short Story" and "Theme from Laughter" were LP only, while "Poison" and "Bloodrush" were issued only on CD and cassette, and "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" and "The 3rd Planet" were CD only.

Singles

The album featured three singles, " Snobbery and Decay", " Absolutely Immune" and " I Can't Escape from You". None of these set the charts alight with lead single "Snobbery and Decay" reaching #60 upon release. A fourth single, "

Chance Chance may refer to: Mathematics * In mathematics, likelihood of something (by way of the likelihood function or probability density function) * ''Chance'' (statistics magazine) Places * Chance, Kentucky, US * Chance, Maryland, US * Chanc ...

" was withdrawn the day of release due to unauthorised samples.

2004 reissue

A reissue of ''Laughter, Tears and Rage'' was released on 19 January 2004, with tracks that were released on the LP and CD version of the album, along with a number of

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

es and

B-sides The A-side and B-side are the two sides of vinyl records and cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a single usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or ...

. Also a 3-CD box set version was released, titled ''Laughter, Tears and Rage – The Anthology'', comprising almost four hours of material. Apart from the reissued album on the first disc, a second disc anthologised the extended mixes, while a third disc features a collection of rare and unreleased remixes, and an unreleased track: "Body Electric".

''Love & Hate'' (2015)

The album was reissued in a further different configuration in 2015 under the title ''Love & Hate: A Compact Introduction''. The release consisted of a "director's cut" of the album (comprising all of the original tracks plus "Body Electric", in a different order) on one CD, with various remixes and B-sides on a second CD.

Track listings

All songs written and composed by

and

, except where noted

LP (1988)

* UK: ZTT / ZQLP1 Tracks A5 and B5 are listed on the labels only.

CD (1988)

*UK: ZTT / ZQCD1

Cassette (1988)

* UK: ZTT / ZQMC1

CD (2004)

* UK: ZTT / ZTT185CD

Box set (2004)

* UK: ZTT / ZTT185CDX ; Disc one: "(More) Laughter, Tears and Rage" Same tracks as 2004 CD.

Personnel

;Act *

– keyboards,

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

– vocals ;Additional musicians *

Andy Gill Andrew James Dalrymple Gill (1 January 1956 – 1 February 2020) was an English musician and record producer. He was the lead guitarist for the rock band Gang of Four, which he co-founded in 1976. Gill was known for his angular, jagged style of ...

Betsy Cook Betsy Cook is an American-born singer, songwriter and musician. Since the late 1970s, she has worked mainly in the United Kingdom and collaborated with various British artists such as Gerry Rafferty, Ray Jackson, Lindisfarne, George Michael, Pa ...

Luís Jardim Luís Alberto Figueira Gonçalves Jardim (born 4 July 1950) is a Portuguese percussionist born on the island of Madeira. He is best known for his work with producer Trevor Horn. Family Jardim is a cousin of Alberto João Jardim (former presiden ...

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* Neil Hubbard *Pablo Cook *

Phil Palmer Philip John Palmer (born 9 September 1952) is a British rock sideman and session guitarist who has toured, recorded, and worked with numerous artists. He is best known for his work with Eric Clapton and Dire Straits. Biography Palmer grew up ...

*Chris Senior –

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

on "Theme from Laughter" *Casbah – scat on "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" (credited to Lucky Gordon on box set) *

David Bedford David Vickerman Bedford (4 August 1937 – 1 October 2011) was an English composer and musician. He wrote and played both popular and classical music. He was the brother of the conductor Steuart Bedford, the grandson of the composer, painter ...

– string arrangements on "Snobbery and Decay"

References

{{Authority control 1988 debut albums Albums produced by Trevor Horn Albums produced by Stephen Lipson ZTT Records albums 2004 compilation albums