"The Lexicon Of Love" by ABC – June 1982 UK Debut Album on Neutron Records – Featuring Martin Fry (Lead Vocals), Mark White (Guitars and Keyboards), Stephen Singleton (Saxophones) and David Palmer (Drums) with Guests Anne Dudley and JJ Jeczalik on Keyboards, Brad Lang and Mark Lickley on Bass, Kim Wear and Andy Gray on Horns, Tessa Webb and Gaynor Sadler-Harp on Backing Vocals with Production by Trevor Horn (November 1998 UK Mercury/Neutron CD Reissue – Dick Beetham Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

<iframe style="width:120px;height:240px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" src="//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=mabasreofcdbl-21&language=en_GB&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B00000I2PG&asins=B00000I2PG&linkId=76d6a7ee4e79cabc390df7a10e8624f3&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true"></iframe>

<iframe sandbox="allow-popups allow-scripts allow-modals allow-forms allow-same-origin" style="width:120px;height:240px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" src="//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=mabasreofcdbl-21&language=en_GB&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B0BZL1MX5Y&asins=B0BZL1MX5Y&linkId=af56fb38e3fc6d43bd49fe788dfb0500&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true"></iframe>

This Review and 209 more are in my E-Book

Available on AMAZON 

LET'S GO CRAZY - 80ts Music On CD

Your All-Genres Guide To Exceptional CD Reissues and Remasters

Classic Albums, Compilations, 45s

All In-Depth Reviews from the Discs Themselves

Over 1,650 e-Pages of Info

(No Cut and Paste Crap)

 

"...Rich Cargo..."

80ts Music used to be the whipping boy of every hipster reviewer casually slagging off all those terminally earnest young men in lurid makeup trying to look dangerous behind a keyboard that looked like a Woolworth's toy. 

But I was there - stuck in - hungry for the next notch up. Some of that vitriol was deserved of course - the big hair - the big videos - the planet-sized egos telling you of their genius. But then I bought ABC's alarmingly cool-sexy Rock-Funk debut album "The Lexicon Of Love" (like everyone else in June 1982) produced to within an inch of its bow-tied life by the digital dandy of the underworld Trevor Horn of ZTT fame. And indeed the word genius did again pop into my tiny 33⅓ addled brain.

In June 2022 (it’s now September 2021), "The Lexicon Of Love" will enjoy a 40th Anniversary (can it really be that far back) and rehearing it on this spiffy 1998 remaster only hammers home what we instantly knew back in the day – it was a barnstormer - even something of a game-changer. So my cinematic drama queens waiting dewy-eyed by the stage door with a revolver, a bouquet of fading lilies and a broken heart - let's get poisoned once again by its 11-arrows of tears and many happy returns...

UK released November 1998 (October 1998 in the USA) - "The Lexicon Of Love" by ABC on Mercury/Neutron 538 250-2 (Barcode 731453825024) is a straight no-extra-tracks 1CD Reissue and Remaster of their 1982 debut UK LP (originally on Neutron Records) that plays out as follows (42:13 minutes):

1. Show Me [Side 1]

2. Poison Arrow 

3. Many Happy Returns

4. Tears Are Not Enough 

5. Valentine's Day 

6. The Look of Love (Part One) 

7. Date Stamp

8. All Of My Heart 

9. 4 Ever 2 Gether 

10. The Look Of Love (Part Four)

11. Theme From "Mantrap" 

Tracks 1 to 11 are their debut album "The Lexicon Of Love" - released June 1982 in the UK on Neutron Records NTRS 1 and July 1982 in the USA on Mercury Records SRM-1-4059 as a 10-track LP minus "Theme From "Mantra"" at the end of Side 2. As "The Look Of Love (Part Four)" is only 56-seconds long, the UK LP has 10 full tracks while the US has only 9. 

ABC was: 

MARTIN FRY - Lead Vocals 

MARK WHITE - Guitars and Keyboards 

STEPHEN SINGLETON - Alto and tenor Saxophones 

DAVID PALMER - Drums and Percussion 

Guests: 

ANNE DUDLEY (of Art Of Noise) wrote both "Tears Are Not Enough" and "4 Ever 2 Gether" - also played keyboards and arranged orchestration

MARK LICKLEY played Bass on "Poison Arrow", "Tears Are Not Enough" and both parts of "The Look Of Love"

BRAD LANG played Bass and J.J. JECZALIK (of Art Of Noise) was the Fairlight Synth Programmer 

GAYNOR SADLER played Harp and LOUIS JARDIN played Additional Percussion 

KIM WEAR played Trumpet and ANDY GRAY played Trombone (on "Tears Are Not enough" only)

TESSA WEBB - Additional Vocals

The 12-page booklet is a strangely underdeveloped curio with new additions from Lead Singer and ABC leading light MARTIN FRY and GILES SMITH. But there are none of the four single sleeves pictured - Tears Are Not Enough (October 1981), Poison Arrow (February 1982), The Look Of Love (May 1982) and All Of My Heart (August 1982) – not one bonus track either. We get both sides of the inner sleeve that squeezed out the lyrics for each song in one long angry diatribe, but naught from Trevor Horn who was such a huge part of this album – especially its sound. Martin Fry gives a good stab at their early all-encompassing belief in themselves desperately trying to convince Trevor Horn to produce their debut – he bored into a stupor by the Muzak on the jukebox of the cafe they were inhabiting. Fry explains how their musical interests danced between Chic and The Clash (which so totally makes sense now) and that they genuinely set out to record a world-beater – England's answer to "Thriller" if you like which would appear the following year. 

At least the DICK BEETHAM Remaster (done at Tape To Tape) gives us his huge career of Audio experience because this CD sounds fabulous. The perfect Bass runs, those plucked/swirling strings, whacked drums, punctuating synth notes – the sheer melodrama of it all – Beetham has captured it expertly. It’s meaty rather than overly loud and when Side 1 ends on the fantastically over-the-top "Valentine's Day" – the sheer muscle will probably deliver a tear to many any eye. Despite or perhaps even because of its so-Eighties vibe - "All Of My Heart" still sounds like Martin is going to wet his emotional underwear with the pain – but what a blast. And although that 56-second Part Four of The Look Of Love is oh so short – I wished they’d put "Alphabet Soup" (the B-side of "Tears Are Not Enough") on here or Part Three as a Bonus (it was the B-side of a rare Japanese issue of "Valentine's Day"). It's also weird now to know that American copies of the LP on Mercury dropped the "Mantrap" theme song on Side 2 altogether – so I suppose they're calling it a bonus track here?

Their second album "Beauty Stab" would fall like a brick hod tumbling onto your bare feet when it was issued in 1983 - a huge disappointment. But "The Lexicon of Love" was and is a great album – and Neutron NTRS 1 still sounds like it came roaring out of another world snarling and ready to impress...