The fourth studio album by this ever-morphing
Factory
post-punk outfit would be their last for more than a decade, and was marred by trouble and disorganization even before its release.
Section 25
had grown from their early days as a shadowy,
Ian Curtis
-produced goth punk act to a more electronic-leaning entity, then shrank from their five-piece form to include just-married couple
Larry Cassidy
and
Jenny Ross
for work on most of
Love & Hate
. The album was finished for two years before its 1988 release, leaving
's career effectively dead on arrival at that point. Tragic, really, as
's strangely primitive take on the burgeoning club sound translates to something almost as raw and punky as their earlier material, especially on the sterile electro of "Bad News Week" and the
Satie
-flavored instrumental experiments "Tim Lick My Knees" and "Shit Creek No Paddle." ~ Fred Thomas