Translator - No Time Like Now (1983/2007)

Guitarist Robert Darlington says that the three songs of his that ended up on the second album -- "I Hear You Follow," "Everything is Falling" and "About the Truth" -- were all written on an unplugged electric guitar. The songs on the album feature arrangements based on the way the songs were played live on stage. One of Steve Barton's songs, "L.A., L.A," was recorded in a single take.

"For the second album," says drummer Dave Scheff, "I think David [Kahne, producer] was under a ton of pressure from the label to produce new wave hits." That pressure to conform to then-trendy ideas regarding what a record should sound like may help explain why -- despite the presence of solid songs -- Translator's second album is the most dated-sounding of its Columbia/CBS-era releases.

"We wanted a big sound," says Steve Barton. "That's why there's so much echo all over it." Part of the thinking, he says, was simply to make the second Translator album sound different from the first.

On stage, Translator was unencumbered by production flourishes du jour; the songs took on a harder and more timeless edge. "As time went on," Larry Dekker says, "we became more and more noted for our live sets."