The Lexicon Of Love

ABC's The Lexicon of Love was an instant classic- a vague movement popped up after the dead end of post-punk: records like Me No Pop I, The Sweetest Girl, Partyfearstwo, Penthouse & Pavement, Chant#1 ,Love Action, A Solid Bond in Your Heart & This is What She's Like were all part of a vague movement that took pop music to the next level. ABC's The Lexicon of Love was a key record in all this- taking its influences from the white soul of Hall&Oates/Bee Gees, the perfect pop of Abba, the pristeen funk of Chic, the soulful rush of Curtis Mayfield etc

1981's debut single was an example of this perfect new pop- the previous year or so might have been characterised by the gloomy-goth of Joy Division or Echo&the Bunnymen- but ABC were moving in the opposite direction. Tears are Not Enough (&the resulting album) most definitely predicted the dance music revolution towards the end of the 80s- this is when New Order still sounded like Joy Division...

Dollar-producer Trevor Horn (later behind FGTH & Tatu!)assembled the perfect pop album with ABC (Martin Fry, David Palmer, Stephen Singleton & Mark White)- using future Art of Noise types JJ Jeczalik & Anne Dudley to perfect the sound.

The three singles from 1982 here are examples of the most perfect pop- Poison Arrow, The Look of Love (Part One) & All of My Heart- the latter co-written with Dudley (who had made a wonderful string arrangement on Japan's Other Side of Life) & later used in the second story in Irvine Welsh's Ectasy (how odd...).... The Look of Love (Part One) has a tune that would recur in Madonna's Like a Virgin & a "Brothers/sisters"-vocal that would recur in House Music (Roger Sanchez is an admirer of ABC).
"What's the Look?"- did this influence Prince's U Got the Look?

Many Happy Returns has a lyric typical of the time- as Scritti Politti's Sweetest Girl talked of Derrida & the Government falling, this song told us "I know what's good & I know what trash is...I Know democracy & I know what's fascist"- a substance more than the endless good feelings espoused in most club music. Valentine's Day is another standout, starting with a wonderful burst of strings (that link the album together), subtle bass-playing & inventive lyrics that subvert cliches: "When an umbrella won't work on a rainy day...when your world is full of string arrangements (referring to themselves) etc". It also has a great club moment in the middle- which beats a guitar solo!

Date Stamp has a more outward rock element to it- the guitar's predicting ABC's next work (such as That was Then But This is Now)& the pulsing bassline predicting Frankie Goes to Hollywood's first singles. This one uses Dollar-style backing vocals, which are a bit cheesy but make perfect sense. The album begins on the classic Show Me- which seems to celebrate the perfect present tense & the aspirations to greatness so common to this period. The album ends oddly, never recovering from the grandiose All of My Heart- 4 Ever 2 Gether beats Prince to a similar use of numbers representing words (I Would Die 4 U, Take Me With U, Feel U Up). I think this sounds more like under-rated next album Beautystab (1983); while The Look of Love (Part Four) is an orchestral flourish that ties up what is undoubtedly a perfect album...

ABC wouldn't make work as great as this again, there would be moments like SOS, Ocean Blue, When Smoking Sings & One Better World- but nothing as complete as this. The new pop, or perfect pop, would pretty much vanish around 1985- with releases like Perhaps (Associates), A Secret Wish (Propaganda) & Cupid & Psyche 85 (Scritti Politti). Stuff like Howard Jones, Nik Kershaw & Thompson Twins was in vogue- though I have read one journalist who believes this movement died the day Phil Collins/Phillip Bailey released Easy Lover. But you could blame it on lots of other records- the artists who were rediscovered cos of Live Aid & the dominance of corporate rock like Dire Straits & Queen would not help.

The Lexicon of Love is an album that has to be owned, alongside such releases as Non Stop Erotic Cabaret, Songs to Remember, Fourth Drawer Down, Crooked Mile, Remain in Light, Wilder & that nice Spandau box-set of their early stuff. An 80s classic, for sure! Read more ›