Never Stop

AMG Review of Never Stop

Ned Raggett
All Music Guide

The fine follow-up to the peerless Front by Front, and the final release of the band through Wax Trax!, Never Stop is a quick but worthy treat from Front 242, topping off its string of uniformly excellent late-'80s efforts. The title track itself, appearing in two versions, makes for a great single, with the band's usual fusion of spacious, dramatic arrangements, sample cut-ups, and brisk vocals, in this case from Richard 23 on his own, running rampant. "Work 242" also stops by in two different mixes, both paranoid, fast-paced creep-outs featuring 2-4-2 samples much like the main track, only here from a male instead of a female speaker. A heavily distorted Jean-Luc de Meyer appears toward the end of the first version, buried low in the mix. "Agony (Until Death)," a slow mood setter, fills out the contents of the disc effectively enough, though it's generally a lesser track in comparison.