Although it came out only two years after 1985's The Enigma Variations, this follow-up shows how strikingly Enigma Records' stable of artists had changed in the preceding 24 months. 1985's little boomlet of goth bands has disappeared entirely and only Plan 9 remains to keep the neo-psychedelia torch burning. Punk and power pop are the label's bread and butter now, with tracks by Wire and ex-Van der Graaf Generator leader Peter Hammill evincing a newfound interest in progressive rock as well. And of course, synth-dance producer Jon St. James, one of Enigma's early success stories (he brought Berlin to the label in 1982, making the imprint a tidy profit when Geffen Records bought out their contract less than a year later) weighs in with two tracks, one a rare effort under his own name and one a previously-unreleased track by an otherwise unrecorded post-Stacey Q lineup of SSQ.



Actually, The Enigma Variations 2 is even more interesting than its predecessor in that way; although only 11 artists are represented (with the Smithereens, Poison and the label's other commercial success stories notably absent), each delivers not only a key track from a recent album but a previously-unreleased or rare nugget. So along with Game Theory's power pop classic "Erica's Word," there's the noisier "Shark Pretty," from their pre-Enigma Distortion EP. Besides Wednesday Week's excellent Don Dixon-produced single "Why," there's also Dixon's own version of the song, with his blue-eyed soul vocals in place of Heidi Rodewald's over Wednesday Week's original backing track. A couple of the tracks were previously unreleased for a reason, but this is the rare sequel that actually bests the original. A third volume covering the label's 1988-89 output could have been more interesting still, but unfortunately, Enigma Records went bankrupt in 1990 before that could happen. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide