What an UNDERRATED accessible rock album of the 80's! Compared to their album True (made 3 years before), Through the barricades is more sophisticated straightforward rock with a solid electric guitar sound clearly in the foreground. A bit less pop and easy listen than True, the album here is nevertheless very catchy, fresh, clean, lively and accessible: it is slightly similar to the Duran Duran of the mid 80's. Very good saxophone parts are played here too, despite I find this album slightly less sentimental than True; it should however still please many girls and women. For those who like an excellent electric guitar sound, then you should not be disappointed at all here. The modern keyboards are rather rhythmic and sometimes floating. As usual, the typical Spandau Ballet's lead & backing vocals are a very strong point on this record. The electric guitar solos on "How many lies" approach Steve Hackett's "Spectral mornings", especially the second one! The "Through the Barricades" song starts with a gentle and sentimental mix of folkier acoustic guitars and lead vocals, embellished with a very dreamy & atmospheric stream of keyboards; then, the song becomes louder and more visceral; it ends with military drums and lush keyboards through a familiar acoustic guitar arrangement. The album does not really sound New Wave, except maybe a bit "Fight for ourselves".  All the tracks are EXCELLENT!

I really like this fresh, lively, catchy and accessible pop rock album. Made during the strong years of the new wave music, True is definitely not really new wave, with the usual artificial synthesizers and clinical sounds it used to be: maybe 10% of the music here has a new wave flavor. Rather somewhere between Simple Minds circa "New Gold Dream" and George Michael, True is an easy listening elaborated rock album made for both women & men who like sentimental rock music full of saxophones and romantic lead & backing vocals. There is an excellent balance between the light electric guitar notes, the expressive saxophones, the punchy bass, the insisting male lead vocals a la Michael Sadler(Saga), the romantic backing vocals, the pleasant mix of drums and percussions, the discreet keyboards & the piano: the band never falls into a dull, ridiculous and cheap music for the simple-minded. All the tracks are very good, and the mega-hit "True" is one of the best sentimental pop hit of the 80's.