It’s your first album so we can expect rough and ready, nothing accomplished as that will come through after years of honing your craft.
However, Trevor Horn may produce your first album so ignore all above, ladies and gentlemen welcome to ABC The Lexicon of Love.
Back in 1982 a band fresh out of the blocks are hoping for a hit from their debut to get them on Top of the Pops and maybe push their album up the charts. ABC managed four hit singles from their debut, and it also went to number one, its rightly considered a classic.
If you are of a certain vintage (or you can say old) like me Poison Arrow, Tears are not Enough, The Look of Love and All of My Heart are all instant recognisable classics forty years on. You know how you hear a song from back then and think no I cannot bear that (Karma Chameleon for me) well I feel the opposite for All of My Heart, it is a classic, beautifully crafted and sung fantastically by Martyn Fry.
Ten tracks where Horn’s over the top production with added orchestra does not detract from the band and their songs. You will know the singles but Show Me, Many Happy Returns and 4 Ever 2 Gether are just as good. They never delivered anything like this again but then few bands have crafted a better early 80’s pop record. Relive your youth and enjoy.
8/10
GIVE IT A STREAM: All of My Heart
I agree with everything you have said about this album (from my youth, so I am also "vintage"!
I even 100% agree with your song that you can't bear to hear "Karma Chameleon" it really, really irritates me!
Thank you for your great content & I'm a follower on Twitter.
Keep up revisiting our musical youth (no pun intended re: the crap band!)
Martyn Fry is such a unique vocalist. And, better than anything else I could say about him - I have heard that he is a wonderful person. Have heard that he very quietly does a lot of donating and hands on helping out with charities and organizations. So that makes me like him even more.
Love the review. It must be so hard to get it done with less than 200 words! Kudos to you.