The Lexicon of Love 1. Show Me 2. Poison Arrow 3. Many Happy Returns 4. Valentine's Day 5. The Look of Love (part one) 6. Date Stamp 7. All Of My Heart 8. 4 ever 2 gether 9. The look of Love (part four) - 1982
The CD that was issued for Lexicon of Love back in 1993 (I talked about the new artwork in the last issue of Lexicon) was infact a re-mastered version from the original master tape! The initial version available in the US was from third or fourth generation. I listened to the the two and there is a noticable difference. I also listened to the US CD versus the new UK remastered version and the US sounds much better!
David Richards
Beauty Stab 1. That Was Then But This Is Now 2. Love'S A Dangerous Language 3. If I Ever Thought You'd Be Lonely 4. Power Of Persuasion 5. By Default By Design 6. Hey Citizen! 7. King Money 8. Bite The Hand 9. Unzip 10. Sos 11. United Kingdom - 1983
How To Be a Zillionaire 1. Fear of The World 2. Be Near Me 3. Vanity Kills 4. Ocean Blue 5. 15 Storey Halo 6. A to Z 7. How To Be A Millionaire 8. Tower Of London 9. So Hip It Hurts 10. Between You And Me 11. Fear of the World(In Cinema Scope) (CD) 12. Be Near Me (Munich Disco) (CD) 13. How To Be A Millionaire (Bond St.) (CD) 14. Vanity Kills (AbigailŐs Party Mix) CD - 1985
Alphabet City 1. When Smokey Sings 2. The Night You Murdered Love 3. Think Again 4. Rage and Then Regret 5. Ark Angel 6. King Without a Crown 7. Bad Blood 8. Jealous Lover 9. One Day - 1987
Up 1. Never More Than Now 2. The Real Thing 3. One Better World 4. Where Is The Heaven? 5. The Greatest Love Of All 6. North 7. I'M In Love With You 8. Paper Thin 9. One Better World 10. The Greatest Love Of All 11. Never More Than Now - 1989
Abracadabra 1. Love Conquers All 2. Unlock The Secrets Of Your Heart 3. Answered Prayer 4. Spellbound 5. Say It 6. Welcome To The Real World 7. Satori 8. All That Matters 9. This Must Be Magic 10. What'S Good About Goodbye 11. Say It (The Black Box Mix) - 1991
Skyscraping 1. Stranger Things 2. Ask A Thousand Times 3. Skyscraping 4. Who Can I Turn To? 5. Rolling Sevens 6. Only The Best Will Do 7. Love Is Its Own Reward 8. Light Years 9. Seven Day Weekend 10. Heaven Knows 11. Faraway - 1997
"Like a Dollar album, pretty damned naff really but packed with choice bits and fragments that are wunnerful by themselves." - Sounds
"His passion's for the song not the subject, the "Lexicon" not the "Love". According to my criteria, that's immortality forever out of reach. Fry will just have to settle for laudible brilliance." - Melody Maker
One of the greatest albums ever made...will be played to the point of nausea by everyone who buys it." - NME
Entered the top 20 at number 1 in the UK on 3rd July 1982 and spent 4 weeks there.
A fond memory of the early '80s: witnessing Martin Fry in all his gold- lame-suited splendor fronting a 16-piece (if memory serves) ensemble featuring an all-female string section (just like his idols, Chic), performing THE LEXICON OF LOVE in its entirety. Happily, the album (remarkably, ABC's debut) holds up magnificently, far superior to the Spandaus, Durans, Culture Clubs, Haircuts, and other artistic also-rans of the period. LEXICON attempted to create a classic romantic song cycle combining the sophisticated songsmithery of Smokey Robinson or Bacharach/David (not so different from what Eric Matthews is essaying today) with the classiest disco, which means only one thing in '80s Britpop circles - Chic, Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards' influence suffuses this album - in the string and horn arrangements, the backing vocals, the throbbing bass lines, and it's all to the good. As is singer/composer/leader Fry's considerable verbal invention and melodic knack. The album is a seamless suite of love songs, running the gamut from starry-eyed devotion to betrayal. Memorable lyric excerpts abound (the "you did/stupid/Cupid" rhyme sequence in "Poison Arrow," that endearingly corny "They say, Martin, maybe one day you'll find true love" segment in "The Look Of Love," and this almost-too-clever-for-its- own-good verse in "4 Ever 2 Gether": "I stuck your last proposal/In the waste disposal/If that's the trash aesthetic/I suggest that we forget it"). Musical delights are equally abundant, with the marvelous hits "Poison Arrow" and "The Look Of Love" matched by "Show Me" and "Date Stamp" and exceeded by the exquisite "All Of My Heart." Fry can project the image of the quintessentially plummy Brit at times, but the dash and emotion of his vocal stance overcomes any lingering poseur vestiges. He and his bandmates can be proud - LEXICON is one for the ages. (4/5) - Ken Barnes
Q on the re-issue - Reviewed Apr 25, 1996
Review in The LEXICON Volume 3.
Lexicon stands as fine a debut as any by a new band, but it is also much more. This was the LP that gathered together all of their singles to that point and a few other tracks. And rather than simply slap together previously released tracks, Trevor Horn went into the studio with the band and a host of session players to rebuild the early singles and build up the new songs. At the time of release Martin Fry was very frank in saying that he and Trevor Horn had built up the album from nothing, layering on note upon note. This was no jam album. There was no band that had been playing in the bars for years. At the time the result was something that many people considered to be a freak, an album made rather than just recorded. In many ways this is why the album is such a milestone. ABC, a post punk pop band and not really an art band, stood up and said that it was okay to record pop songs painstakingly and over a period of many months. Not since Phil Specter ruled the pop airwaves had such a notion taken hold. Think back to the UK and even world pop at this time. The Clash, Adam Ant, and Joe Jackson were all throwing up pop that was "raw". ABC presented refined pop, sweeter than honey. The album starts with the sound of strings, a basic element in this album that clearly breaks it away from most pop albums. Certainly strings had been used to great effect in many disco sides, but now rather than being simply accents they became the back bone. Joined with a hip-hop super funky base line and a back-beat-you-can't-lose-it, they open the album with "Show Me." "Poison Arrow" follows, the group's second single in the US and perhaps the group's best remembered song. This is classic ABC in all respects, with the disco bass and the tragic lyrics of love and remorse. The next song is "Many Happy Returns," which contains the great line "I know what democracy is and I know what's fascist!" Next up is what was actually ABC's first single, redone by Trevor Horn, "Tears Are Not Enough." It was the last single released off of this album in the US by Mercury. "Valentine's Day" is one of ABC's gems. A slight, almost throwaway song, it sinks in after a few listens. More great Fry lyrics inhabit the tail end of this song as well. It was released as a single in Japan. Side two on the old vinyl starts with "The Look of Love (Part One)." "The Look Of Love (Part One)" was not their first single in the UK, but it was their introduction to the US. And while "Poison Arrow" has aged better in the minds of the US pop audience, "Look of Love" was actually the bigger hit (Peaking at number 18 on the Billboard chart in 10/82.) The great call and response chorus harks back to soul records from the 70's. The next track "Date Stamp" further reveals the group's fascination with material wealth (it was the 80's after all) first brought up in "Many Happy Returns." Lyrically clever, Fry closely links the always intertwined love and money. "All of My Heart" was a single in the UK and shopped to several music services in the US (like Muzak) but was never released in the US. Essentially the albums ballad. It is as fine a love song as the group has ever produced (even if everything turns out bad in the end.) Next, "4 Ever 2gether" is the album's weakest point. Not a bad song, and had it appeared on any other ABC album it might have been an album highlight, but compared to the rest of Lexicon of Love it just sort of sits there. Lastly is the tag of "Look of Love (Part 4)," the instrumental coda to the album. We would see this again with Trevor Horn's Buggles album Adventures in Modern Recording and on the first FGTH album. It was a neat way to tie up this classic record into a perfect pop package. It should be noted that Lexicon was the only album in which the original ABC appeared. Shortly after its release in the US David Palmer, the drummer, left. He would later show up in Electronic and eventually settle into the band incarnation of The The (although he would come back and drum for Up.) Trevor Horn also would leave the band behind to start up his own label, Zang Tum Tum (ZTT.) The album has been remarkably successful for one that didn't exactly top the US charts. It got only as high as #24 in November of 1982 in Billboard magazine compared to a #1 debut in the UK. It has since then sold over a half million copies in the US alone. The record was certified Gold in May of 1995 by the RIAA. According to Soundscan, the company that has tracked US record sales since 1991, the album has sold over 38,000 copies in the 90's alone. That means that the album has been selling an average of about 150 copies a week in the US during the past five years. And it has aged well. NME in Britain named it the 15th best album of the 80's (off by at least 13 or 14 we think.) Q gave it five (out of five) stars when it was re-released in the UK last year. And while you may have trouble finding some other ABC albums on CD, this album has always been in every record store we've been to, right next to their greatest hits. Lexicon of Love was a high that the band would never reach again for an entire album. It really marked the nadir of the New Romantic / Neo-Bowie movement in Britain. With in a year of it's release, full fledged UK pop like the Culture Club had moved in; pop that had no real new wave roots and certainly didn't cop much to Bowie. The style and suave-ness of this album (both in music and image) would soon give way to the new rock of Beauty Stab. Lexicon has seen several versions released, although none, save the most recent, have any major differences among them. The first version was, of course, the vinyl version. Released with cassette at the same time, the LP highlights the really nice, well thought out artwork, whose impact is lost on subsequent CD releases. Next up was the first US release, on Mercury, of the CD. It is noted mainly by it's plain font spine and plain font song listing on the back. This version, released early in the CD game, was made in Germany. The CD itself has the Neutron logo around the center. The rest is a red Mercury logo. Later (not sure when), Mercury released a US made version of the CD and changed a few things. The spine now has the ABC style font and the back does as well. Gone is the listing of the publishers and instead of saying "except 9 written by ABC / Anne Dudley" it now says "except 4 ever 2 gether written by ABC / Ann Dudley." No telling where the "e" went. The CD itself does not have the Neutron log but does have the ABC style font on it. Last year Polygram UK re-released the CD with six extra tracks (see last issue).
"ABC have become U2 with a Nelson Riddle production. A sickeningly smug revelation of over-30's rock, glossed over with a thin veneer of big band sound." - Sounds
"Boy George has more soul in his little finger than Martin Fry's entire, awkward body." - Melody Maker
"Get off the picket line, boys, and get back to the boudoir or the ballroom." - NME
"Beauty Stab may be one of the few really excellent albums of '83, a year of great singles and lesser LPs. With seven sure kills out of eleven songs, this one could have a surprisingly long shelf life." - Musician
"There's no need to compare this LP with The Lexicon Of Love, Zillionaire may not be as lush as dramatic but it's rather fab all the same. (8 out of 10)." - Smash Hits
"Zillionaire sees ABC in a surprisingly strong shape. Their own funky dance style remains but they've left out the strings to make the overall impact stronger." - Hitkrant
"Alphabet City is full of lush orchestrated tunes and brilliantly corny words even if it's not quite as good as their first LP. One song however, King Without A Cown, is a work of quite unbelievable brilliance and is quite possibly the best record ever made." - Smash Hits
"Alphabet City is supreme quality. Martin Fry has grown as a lyricist and singer while Mark White produces imaginative guitarplay." - United Dutch Press
"Up comes very close to the quality of The Lexicon Of Love. Fry and White return to the dancefloor with endearing songs and skilful arrangements." - United Dutch Press
"Up is a dance record with draught and definitely the best ABC since Lexicon Of Love." - OOR
"Up is ABC's fifth LP, a heaven sent shock of helium-high pop that hovers through the House Palace, with songs as enhanced disco decorations that you can gawp at in the bedroom or groove to in the dancehall." - Melody Maker
In which that proud owner of an Eng. Lit. degree from Sheffield University, Martin Fry, sinks further into ABC's dancefloor megamix. And no bad thing. But for "Paper Thin," "The Real Thing" and the homesick "North," the club action isn't impeded by over-complicated parodies of the pop song form as habitually delivered in Fry's overwrought croon. The sizzling "One Better World" exemplifies the new, improved ABC: a plea for caring, sharing awareness such as may be heard on nearly every club hit these last few months, its real cleverness resides in an arrangement which sustains a simple jazz-funk piano riff for as long as your shoe-leather holds out. Nagging yet evocative, ABC stake one foot in the Pet Shop Boys/New Order corner and the other in modern US club R&B. Credit surely goes to ABC's quiet other half, musician Mark White, who has fashioned out of seeming "formula" music, a gem. (4/5) - Mat Snow
Q Issue #38 (November 1989)
"This Must Be Magic, Say It and Love Conquers All are fast and enjoyable songs, but afew slower songs could have been more interesting. A partly successful dance party." - OOR
"ABC returns to form with Abracadabra, gliding through a lush set of R & B flavoured housers that White likens to Cole Porter on acid. Fry's theatrical vocals transform melodramatic odes like Inlock The Secrets Of Your Heart and Spellbound into believable anthems. Meanwhile, the possibilities for club play are nearly bottomless. Abracadabra is groove-conscious without sacrificing the traditional song structure. First programming priorities should be Say It and Answered Prayer with its deep-baked bass line and caressing strings. Delicious. (From Billboard)
Ten years on from their Top 20 glamourpop debut single "Tears Are Not Enough," Sheffield's Martin Fry and Mark White are into their sixth studio album and second major label.
Shot into the brightest part of the firmament by the critical and commercial success of their debut, the Trevor Horn produced THE LEXICON OF LOVE, replete with star singles like "Poison Arrow," "The Look Of Love" and "All Of My Heart," ABC were ominously swift to haul themselves down to earth with a bump. 1983's abrasive Beauty Stab perplexed fans and critics alike, and merely paved the way for 1985's mediocre HOW TO BE A ZILLIONAIRE.
Two years later, a return to their polished pop roots on Alphabet City brought resurgence and rehabilitation soon after Fry himself won his own personal battle with cancer. By 1989, and with relations between the duo and then label Phonogram deteriorating, ABC seemed content to work out their contract with Up, a filler LP of club grooves. It was unremarkable but for the pacy single One Better World. Ironically with last year's gold-selling singles collection, Absolutely, Phonogram did their former charges a favour, putting ABC back into the limelight with a stirring reminder of their most glittering moments. With ABRACADABRA, that's a favour of which Fry and White have conspicuously failed to take advantage. Openly plundering the archetypal late '70s/early '80s disco sound that THE LEXICON OF LOVE so brilliantly parodied, ABRACADABRA is far from a return to ABC's former classic style. The gift for gorgeous melody that could still make 1987's When Smokey Sings such irresistible additions to the chart is notably absent. In its place, the liberal resort to lush Philly-style strings, bubbling bass beats and tingling, Steely Dan-style guitar picking adds up to little more than surface sheen. Meanwhile, while retaining his ability to turn a cute phrase, Fry's unremarkable vocal range and power seems to have grown even more restricted.
The perky "All That Matters" and "A Prayer" still hint at former successes, the former opening with particularly tuneful confidence before the LP's all-pervading aimlessness and the constant inability of producer Dave Bascombe (Tears For Fears) to create any kind of dynamic conspire to overcome its best intentions. Elsewhere, inspirational echoes get too close for comfort, with the rhythm track for This Must Be Magic following Change's 1980 classic Searchin' so completely that Fry's vocal melody is drowned by the memory. Ultimately ABRACADABRA is an album that suffers badly by comparison: with former glories; with the memorable originals that too many songs too closely echo, and, perhaps most damningly, with more modern contemporaries like Deee-Lite for whom the ABC's original cartoon, clubland posing was such an inspiration. (2/5) - David Roberts
Q Issue #60 (September 1991)
Martin Fry's problem is always going to be topping Lexicon Of Love and, while they fail again, this is a pretty reasonable stab. All the ABC motifs are present in a dated, but naggingly familiar collection. (3 out of 5)
15 March 1997
Floppy-fringed pop messiah Martin Fry bounds back from a six-year absence with an album that picks up the spangled threads of ABC's unfinished career. The fruitily epic and utterly gorgeous pop whirls of Stranger Things, Skyscraping, Who Can I Turn To and Love Is Its Own Reward continue to trace the jetstream left by Poison Arrow, Look Of Love, When Smokey Sings, All Of My Heart and a suitcase of shimmering Sheffield pop nuggets -- Fry still capable of timeless pop couplets ('Look into my eyes baby, it's such a spectacular view') with an engaging, irony-drenched mixture of gushing simplicity and knowing wit. A rarity amongst comebacks, Skyscraping is not a disaster. (4/5).
After a five-year hiatus Martin Fry's back with a new copy of Bowie's 'Young Americans' and protesting rediscovered passion. Rare in this kind of comeback, more than half the time it sounds like he means it. Still in command of a turn of phrase that cheerfully rhymes "Aphrodite" with "Cupid and Psyche", retreads of former glories verging on sessioneering are augmented by strange stuff the ABC of old wouldn't have touched with a barge pole. Grizzled but still debonair despite the lows ("... Such an ugly business/ In and out of fashion..."), Fry's return shows an appreciation of saucy '70's pop values that you don't get from buying a Lewis Collins leather jacket and a Faces best-of. (3/5).
In the '80s, greed was good and pop music was defiantly upwardly mobile. But the '90s can be cruel and Fry's idea of a renaissance look distinctly of a certain age and time. For all the buzzing synthesizers and electronic approximations of pop-rock (Roxy Music is a big influence, apparently), Skyscraping is too grand to inspire emotion. (5/10).
You can't help but have a sneaking affection for Martin Fry. He was, after all, the inspired dreamer who made 'Lexicon Of Love', one of the great pop records of the '80s - a lush, lovingly stylised realisation and celebration of what a pop group and a pop record could be. Since then, he's stubbornly refused to give up on trying to progress from perfection. And so, 15 underachieving years on, ABC (for, now Mark White has left, it's just Fry) seem almost to have come full circle. Unfortunately, it's full circle back to the '80s.
On the sleeve of this record, our Martin is pictured in a dynamic action shot, climbing a seemingly endless flight of steps up to the azure skies of the future, impeccable in a white designer suit and orange shirt, that lemon-meringue fringe somehow classic, unaffected by the years. Inside, we find him staring out at pies in the sky amid a technocratic futurescape that could only have come from a hi-fi systems catalogue from 1983. What can it all mean? But we call off the fashion-police dogs when we hear the two vintage soul-pop tracks on this record - current single 'Stranger Things' has the old string-swept romance and elegance of old, albeit with a tinge of nostalgic regret. Then, when you hear the echo of Smokey singing, holding you tight while crooning dewy-eyed to the stars on 'Skyscraping', you're tempted to believe that this is timeless music by a timeless group. Then you realise why Glenn Gregory is credited as co-writer and producer of this record, as 'Ask A Thousand Times' and 'Rolling Sevens' sound like Heaven 17's over-inflated arse.
Thenceforth, we never really regain those early highs, as Martin appears more interested in engaging, but hollow-sounding pastiches of Roxy Music circa 1973 ('Only The Best Will Do', 'Love Is Its Own Reward'), presumably to relive his own passions of youth rather than actually writing the kind of memorable and romantically-charged tunes he once had a patent on. Skyscraping? Alas, more like barrel-scraping. (5/10)
Johnny Cigarettes
There's an old theory in the music industry which has it that an artist shouldn't listen to other music when making an album 'cause it would influence the recording too much. Martin Fry obviously took the time to sit back and listen to a lot of the stuff he grew up with (Roxy, Bowie, Pistols, Bolan etc.) in the previous year and as a result of this the brand new ABC album, their first in six years, sounds more retrospective than ever.
It does sound different from the old ABC and the departure of Mark White could well be a reason for this. The new people Glenn Gregory (giving an electro Heaven 17 flavour to some of the songs) and Keith Lowndes (bringing in stylish seventies guitar riffs and solos and contemporary drum patterns) obviously bring in less dance influences than White and ABC drain themselves in 70s song structures, guitar and saxophone parts. Those influences are most prominent on 'Only The Best Will Do' which almost sound like a Roxy song and 'Love Is It's Own Reward' which is Pistolesque. Best example of the reduced dancefloor claims (despite being signed to British dance label Deconstruction) is 'Seven Day Weekend'. This song was originally recorded as a duet between Gregory and Fry and sound less modern and danceable a year later when Fry takes care of all the lead vocals and Lowndes does the guitars.
The new stuff is quite good though and in good ABC tradition it's a little different from all their previous albums. It's very energetic and you can tell from listening to it that the musicians were really enjoying what they were doing when writing and recording the stuff. The title track of the album is quite probably the ultimate ABC track: uplifting, intelligent, romantic, original, clever lyrics and strong vocals, it is definitely one of their best tracks ever. This is ABC at their supreme finest. Another traditional ABC song is the romantic Philly soultrack 'Who Can I Turn To'. Other glorious moments include 'Rolling Sevens' (fabulous guitar riff and scintillating backing vocals by Carol Kenyon), the majestuous 'Light Years' and the strong 'Ask A Thousand Times'.
Skyscraping means a step in the right direction and let's hope Martin Fry will be able to come up with a follow up to this one within about a year and a half and focus on the future instead of the past. If he manages to do that ABC would really be skyscraping! At least he has provided us with the ultimate ABC anthem in the form of the tremendous title track and this album will bring you a lot of pleasure and enjoyment in the meantime. (8,5 out of 10)
Melvin Welters
Martin Fry is back from the 80's graveyard and doesn't look too shabby either. The first single from the forthcoming Skyscraping is "Stranger Things." A curious choice, not the strongest track in the ABC catalog, not even off the album. Still a solid, very pleasant track. The single also offers an "acoustic" workout that highlights the strings. More promising are two non-album b-sides, "The World Spins On" and "All We Need." Both show a stylistic development for ABC into a Neo Roxy Music sound. Fry's lyrics are still top notch ("tomorrow's twisted smile") and the sound is still as smooth a silk and lush as triple fudge. Much more satisfying is the album sampler from deConstruction. It highlights five songs, including the single. The title track can stand next to anything the band has done post Lexicon and in some ways exceeds it. Fry has been liberated (by the absence of Mark White?) from the dance beat and the result is pure joy in the melodies. "Ask A Thousand Times" sounds like Fry re-visiting the Beauty Stab sound and getting it right (or are we just ready for it now?) "Only The Best Will Do" leans a little heavily on Bowie, but is still a winning track. The last one, the yearning and elegant "Who Can I Turn To?," sounds like a matured "Ocean Blue." Over all, it sounds very promising for the upcoming album. Glen Gregory, while present, does not overwhelm anything. It seems like he was more a "spice" than the main ingredient. Oh yeah, and the cover shot of the sampler is classic! It is a photo of Martin in a gray suit, seen from the back. Over his shoulder on a hanger - a gold lame suit.
David Richard - The LEXICON
File alphabetically under Z. Skyscraping sees ABC return to 1985 for the inspiration to their latest album and provides us with some of their best material since that era. Every album they make changes direction to some degree, but this one has it's heart firmly in the Zillionaire period. Supported by humming synths, pumping saxophones, toy pianos and short sharp lyrics, ABC rediscover luxury, romance and the big beat. Keith Lowndes proves a worthy successor to Mr Mark White, bringing an authentic 'ABC' sound to the proceedings, so familiar in fact, that I'd be surprised if they hadn't been sampling stuff from their back catalogue. As you'd expect from an ABC album, it seeks out new territory too, and this time the strings and zip guitars are accompanied by unplugged acoustic overtones. Some of the little touches are notable by their absence - Martin croons where once he'd just speak, the bridges that became familiar at the end of each song have gone and the wordplay isn't quite as inventive. If it falls short of being their best so far, it still improves upon the last three albums and Skyscraping stands out on its own as a fine collection of songs, original as it is familiar. Sadly, the biggest downfall is the lack of publicity it is having, (was a video shot for Stranger things?) and with such little airplay it is destined to become one of those overlooked classics like Beauty Stab. 7/10
*Thanks to Paul for supplying the Q reviews.
The best tunes: Ask a Thousand Times, Only the Best will Do, Love is it's own Reward, Seven Day Weekend, Light Years, and the title tune are indeed reminiscent of Beauty Stab, a comparison I am pleased to make, because I feel that this is the great underdog of their output. The production is odd with the synth seasonings of Glenn Gregory, although I wish that the arrangements allowed for a bit more jamming with the sax and guitars. Highly recommended.