The inventor of the Futurepop-genre is also one of the survivors of this often dead-written music style. Tom Shear did it again, and I guess almost all of our readers or listeners of Electronica music have discovered him and his famous work. "Compass" provides 10 tracks in its regular version, but also a limited edition featuring a bonus CD with remixes and additional new and unreleased tracks, can be purchased too. Tom’s compositional signature is still the outstanding part in his tasteful arranged sound environment, although an ongoing slight dedication to some acoustic instruments can be noticed too. Did I hear real guitars in "Leave This All Behind", for example? More than 2 years in the making it is may explainable, that Tom offers one or another tracks, which are lyrically still a settlement with ex-president George W. Bush ("How Can You Sleep", but what a great ballad of a track!). "Compass" generally seems a bit of a thoughtful album, subtle and filled with Tom’s own review of his personal episodes that can happen in life. "Spark", as being the teaser release to this album, stands for the rather danceable and highly catchy moments of this album, and to me, only "Impermanence", "Smoke" and "Alive" can follow this masterpiece and seem to be ideal invitations for additional CDS releases. I wouldn’t go that far, to call "Compass" as being his best work so far, but it is another constant good work of a matured musician. This album got also released as a limited edition, which features a second CD with 5 unrleased extra tracks. If an artist decides to offer own and unreleased works over that usual remix works collection, it seems to be quite logical, which of the both available versions you should try to purchase, shouldn’t it?