Comsat Angels, Waiting for a Miracle (side A)

1980's Waiting for a Miracle feels like a perfect encapsulation of production techniques that felt modern at that time.  Everything sits in a neatly-controlled place, using a combination of gates and compression to create space, along with drastic panning of guitars and keyboards.  Vocals sound thin and rest far out in front.  Drastic reverbs occasionally stretch these carefully positioned elements.  The song structures lend themselves to these austere arrangements, and the lyrics also match nicely.  The very tight and consistent rhythm section leaves room for the guitars and keyboards to be more textural and free.  The simple cover images look great and fit appropriately.