"It comes like a punch in the gut," sings Mikel Jollett on the title track of his band's second album. It's a fair description of ATE's approach, which up-ramps utilitarian folk rock into anthems that address serious topics like hollow relationships and the road to world peace. You root for the good intentions and enjoy the glints of sunlight from singer/viola player Anna Bulbrook. But portentous verses thud like birds against fuselage, and by the time "Welcome to Your Wedding Day" stages a rousing chant of "We don't negotiate with terror," it's hard to tell whether it's a critique of militarist grandstanding or the genuine item. You can't have your subtlety and bury it too.

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“Karma Chameleon”

Boy George has said this song was about standing by what you believe in. However, at the time, he was involved in a secret affair with Culture Club drummer Jon Moss. "Now people can understand the songs better," he said. "They were written about my relationship with Jon, and they were also written about being a gay man in a homophobic world." The lines "If I listen to your lies, would you say/I'm a man without conviction/I'm a man who doesn't know how to sell a contradiction," described his life at the time, he said. "I was selling this big lie."