ABC Album Reviews

The Lexicon of Love (1982)                 ****.5 (4.5)

Beauty Stab (1983)                               *** (3)

How to Be a Zillionaire! (1985)           ***.5 (3.5)

Alphabet City (1987)                            *** (3)

Up (1989)                                               *** (3)

Absolutely (1990)            GH               **** (4)

Abracadabra (1991)                            **.5 (2.5)

Skyscraping (1997)                             ***.5  (3.5)        

The Lexicon of Live (1999)                ** (2)

The Look of Love – The Very Best of ABC ****(4)

The Lexicon of Love – Deluxe (2004) ****(4)

Gold (2006)                        GH            ****(4)

Traffic (2008)                                       **.5 (2.5)

When ABC’s debut album The Lexicon of Love arrived in their native homeland, the Brits went absolutely nuts over it, proclaiming it a modern masterpiece. It was so well received in fact, that every subsequent release was considered a disappointment (some major, some minor) in comparison. Stateside, ABC’s debut didn’t have quite the same impact and this allowed their later work to be judged more fairly. Lexicon, meanwhile, has grown in stature and is now regularly considered one of the highlights of the early 80s British Invasion. “Poison Arrow” and “The Look of Love” remain the two best known songs from the album, but they are far from the only delights as “Date Stamp” “All of My Heart” “Show Me” and “Tears Are Not Enough” remain favorites. These lads could write a clever lyric or two as well as “If you judge a book by the cover, then you judge the look by the lover” ably demonstrates and there are more to be found. “Me? I go from one extreme to the other” probably describes most adolescents and young person’s emotional lives as well.   And check out the awesome album cover too! These guys knew their way around drama!!

Beauty Stab was greeted with outright hostility in the UK when it failed to continue nicely and logically from the debut. The songs aren’t as good or as catchy but it seems the less-than-precise production is what annoyed everybody. And what’s with the emphasis on guitars/drums over synths? Whatever. 30 years on, these are minor quibbles as the album is far from bad, though “That Was Then, This Is Now” is the only track that really comes close to anything on Lexicon. After the brutal press treatment, lead singer Martin Fry and guitarist/synthesizer whiz Mark White shuffled off the band moniker (and the other members) and essentially became a duo, though there would be occasional other members, who would essentially stop in for a bit of tea.

The resulting album How To Be A Zillionaire! provided their biggest US hit to date in “Be Near Me” and an equal classic in the (almost) title cut (“How to be a Millionaire!”). One suspects that had this album been the direct follow-up to Lexicon, ABC might have been spared some of their harshest press notices. The best songs on here are equal to anything on the debut, but that being said, there’s considerably more filler in this excursion and this filler sounds fairly dated too.

Alphabet City contains their final hit single “When Smokey Sings” which cracked the Top 5 in the US. Curiously, they’d never crack the Hot 100 Singles chart ever again. The accompanying album included the superior “The Night You Murdered Love” but nothing else was particularly memorable. Plenty of artists have gone on to release incredibly worthwhile albums long after their hit-making days are over, but it’s unlikely anyone but diehard fans will be particularly interested in any of ABC’s later work. This is a shame, actually as much of their latter albums are of essentially equal quality. Up contains “Where is the Heaven,” one of their best album tracks.

They began the 1990s with the very necessary hits compilation Absolutely though if anyone thought this was a “part 1”, they were sadly deluded. When ABC said goodbye to the 1980s, they also said farewell to their hit-making years. Abracadabra exists almost outside of time. There are no concessions to the 1990s and this album sounds defiantly 80s in tone and production. It’s also, unfortunately, unremarkable. Not bad, but nothing of particular interest either. Abracadabra was the final album to feature founding member Mark White. Afterwards, lead singer Martin Fry (who had been the primary leader for a decade) would essentially be a one-man-band continuing to tour and release albums sporadically.

“Stranger Thing” leads off Skyscraping and it’s easily their best song since “When Smokey Sings.” In fact, the whole album is surprisingly strong. “Who Can I Turn To” and the title cut are also of similar quality. Of course, the entire album sounds nothing like 1997 and seems designed to appeal to those who still love 1980s music but this is primarily a smoother more mellow sound. Then “Rolling Sevens” comes along and makes the listener question that assessment because it’s such an amazing and modern song.  The album does lose a bit of steam near the end but this is probably the best ABC album since 1985.

Unfortunately, lackluster is the only way to describe the follow up album The Lexicon of Live. Recorded live, nearly every song is missing the punch of the studio version and matters aren’t helped by an extraordinarily muddy recording.

Greatest Hits compilation The Look Of Love – The Very Best of ABC followed in 2001 and although the track listing is very similar to Absolutely, this is the compilation worth owning. Remastered sound and a groovy layout make this a winning package. Also, there are no remixes (like on Absolutely) leaving room for a few more (including newer) tracks. This was re-issued as Gold in 2004 with a 2^nd disc full of remixes and rarities. Another retrospective released at this time, the deluxe edition of The Lexicon of Love includes a 2^nd disc of live tracks and rarities. Those already in love with the original will enjoy this, but all newbies are directed to the original release 1^st.

Traffic arrived in 2008, eleven years after ABC’s last new studio album. While one would expect nostalgia to be the order of the day here (after all, would anyone who didn’t love ABC’s earlier work even consider owning this album), Martin is not looking back here. He’s not going to reinvent the wheel and he’s secure with his spot in 80s history, so he just gets on with another rollicking set of songs. Not as good as Skyscraping as no individual songs jump out as readily as the best there. For whatever reason, this album reminds moi more of Adam Ant than the classic ABC sound (though “Love is Strong” the only single sounds like vintage ABC.) Was this intentional? No idea.

All in all, if you enjoy 80s music, there’s a lot more to ABC than “Poison Arrow” or “Be Near Me” so do yourself a favor and check some of it out. This writer doubts you’ll be sorry.