• You've Got a Way is sometimes separated into two pieces, part I and II, in order to distinguish the initial piano piece. This brings the total amount of tracks on some editions to 11.

Another track, "Through And Through" was recorded for the album, but never included.

The Songs

The lyrics are characteristically stark; Borland alludes to the deteriorating situation of the band in the album's opening lyric: 'The flames will flicker/And the wanting will waver/But there's something in this somewhere/That's going to go on forever', although the tone is usually flippant and confident as opposed to doubtful. The familiar topic of love is addressed hopefully in "Hand of Love". The lyrics match the militaristic drums in "Barria Alta" ('I won't drop/I won't stop until I'm up/In the high place'), before confidence reaches its zenith in "Kinetic" (You want to waste this moment, yeah?/You want to waste all our time?/You want to waste your life away?/Well you won't be wasting mine'); "Iron Years" is more earnest and tentative. "Prove Me Wrong" adopts a playful view of loneliness, juxtaposed

Contrast (linguistics)

In semantics, contrast is a relationship between two discourse segments. Contrast is often overtly marked by markers such as but or however, such as in the following examples:# It's raining, but I am not taking an umbrella....

 sharply with the following track "Shot Up and Shut Down", seemingly the effects of a severe depressive episode. "Web of Wicked Ways" expresses regret at living in 'sad days' but is noticeably lighter. "I Give You Pain" acts as a relapse, a frantic piece about mutual destruction which culminates in a twisted guitar solo. The album ends on the sombre, reflective song "You've Got A Way" that displays Borland at his most candid and pained ('You've got a way/To shoot my night right through with the light of day').

Critical reception

The album was received well immediately on release by Big Takeover, who acknowledged it as a 'stunning, moving juggernaut' . Critical appraisal of the work has largely been absent from the mainstream
press, although it was at least championed by Melody Maker

Melody Maker

Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...

upon release:
Allmusic.com list the album with 3 stars, but offer no further explanation.

Thunder Up is also a band favourite. Said Borland in 1998:
Drummer Mike Dudley also named it as one of his favourite Sound albums, along with Propaganda, in a 2004 interview: