Beautiful Machine by Shihad

Beautiful Machine is the seventh album by Shihad and was released on 21 April 2008 in New Zealand and 17 May 2008 in Australia. The album is much softer than previous Shihad releases, including many electronica elements and '80s backing rhythms - to the point where lead singer Jon Toogood has called some tracks "dance songs". The lead single "One Will Hear the Other" was released early January 2008, where it peaked as the second most played Kiwi song. "Vampires" was the album's second single and surpassed "One Will Hear the Other" in airplay, peaking as the number one most played Kiwi song shortly after its release. Beautiful Machine entered the New Zealand Music Chart at number 1, going Gold on its first day of release (7,500+ sales). Despite this achievement it failed to go Platinum, Shihad's first album to not do so in 12 years. Like Shihad's previous album Love Is the New Hate, Beautiful Machine's top position on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart was 11.