AMG Review of Elemental

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music Guide

For their comeback effort, Elemental -- released seven years after their final album, Ink -- the Fixx trimmed back their dance influences and returned to the punchy new wave sound that brought them to the top of the charts with Reach the Beach. Of course, new wave had passed into the history books years before Elemental was recorded, and the group was showing signs of age in 1998, but the album sounded surprisingly fresh. Nothing on the album matches such classics as "One Thing Leads to Another" and "Secret Separation," but there are moments showing that the Fixx is actually able to mature gracefully, which many naysayers would have hardly believed at the peak of their popularity.