Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A near-classic album given deserved remastering - at last!, 26 Aug 2006
The opening thunderclap and pavement-slab scrapings hint at this being a dramatic, and far more produced, successor to their subliminal debut album. "Crushed By The Wheels" (album mix) is classic H17, political yet poppy, mainstream yet subversive. Other tracks that keep the listener wondering include "Lady Ice and Mr Hex", "Key To The World" (great BVs) and "The Best Kept Secret". Ofcourse "Temptation" is here, with Karol Kenyon delivering the goods (but never really credited) and so is the slightly pedestrian "Come Live With Me". However as a whole it never quite lives up to expectations - but meanders along at it's own pace.
This is one in a series of remasters approved and apparently checked by the band (according to their own website), although they were not involved in the actual remastering (Martyn, why not?). It's great to see Virgin now offering this treatment to the boys, after doing the honours with the League many years ago. "Penthouse" is their real classic, but this album is a good second (and still kept essentially to electronics and bass guitar). The liner notes and photos/artwork are pretty good, if a little indulgent (ie not really sticking to the music on the cd at times) and make this a worthwhile addition for any fan.
However, why do such reissues invariably include a tracklisting mistake? The bonus "dub" of "Who'll Stop The Rain" is in fact the vocal extended remix (which the liner notes accidentally stumble across!). The US 12" (promo) dub mix (which is an extended re-edit with most of the vocals taken out) is 6.53 mins and certainly not present on this cd! This, and the fact the band had no real input into the sleeve notes, results in 4 stars - but don't let that spoil the real music on this album!
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Still a pleasure after all these years, 3 Oct 2006
I have loved this album since it came out way back in the time when you were faced with the choice of cassette or LP versions -1983. As audio cassettes were an uncertain and generaly unreliable way of listening to music (they generally either snapped in the player or intertwined themselves into some sort of mad plastic ball!),and I had bought the band's first album (Penthouse And Pavement - check it out)on cassette ,when The Luxury Gap came out I plumped for the LP version. I have now bought the CD version and am very plesed to have revisited this strange, yet sublime masterpiece.
The gloomy sound of a storm greets you at the start of Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry and a thumping bass line along with swirling electronica grace a story, which carries over very nicely from Penthouse and Pavement (wannabes and yuppies are the target here), some stunning piano work drive this song to its finale.
Who'll Stop The Rain is another bass thumper (some very interesting and intricate chord changes here), with some very silly lyrics to boot.
Let Me Go is a fantastic song, encapsulating all that was great in 80s synthesizer music. A wonderful bass and drum combination, some great lyrics on this one, some brilliant use of synths,and a number of clever hooks add up to a mighty fine song - worth buying the album for this song alone.
Key To The World carries on in a similar vein to Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry, money making in the eighties (a culture which they were probably right to revile looking at the materialism which is rife nowadays). It has some strange uses of horns which somehow seem to pull the whole song together.
Temptation was, and probably always will be, Heaven 17's most famous song. This song seems to still be the staple diet of your general family disco. Carol Kenyon's marvelous vocal range, together with incredibly catchy, danceable music make this a classic.
Come Live With Me tells the story of a sugar daddy lamenting the age of his girlfriend. Sheer Brilliance.
Lady Ice And Mr Hex is a powerful drum and piano ballad. The piano is something special here.
We Live So Fast, is indeed a fast tune, a hi energy dance song, and whizzes along as the name implies. There are clever uses of drum breaks and keyboards all through this song.
The final track, after all my gushing about other songs here, is the best song by far and well worth waiting for. The song is a wonderfully swirling mass of orchestra, which coupled by Glenn Gregory's splendid vocals make this song one of the best, in my opinion, of Heaven 17's repertoire. Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh add a wonderful backing vocal, as well as some great percussion to enhance the song even further.
The Luxury Gap is a great record of a time when musical pioneers were venturing to many strange and unusual places. Heaven 17 - I salute you.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
You can't talk about synth-pop without mentioning this..., 22 May 2009
For those of you out of the loop, Heaven 17 comprised of 2 former members of the Human League (who left over creative differences with Phil Oakey) and a mate of theirs who was meant to be the HL lead singer, but wasn't available. That bust up was rather fortuitous, otherwise we would not have little gem! Their lyrical style pushed boundaries (even had a song banned by Mike Reid at one point), yet were not exclusively a political band.
It's good to see that Ian Marsh and Martyn Ware stuck to their principals when splitting from the Human League in keeping the music mainly synth focussed, and with powerful - sometimes politically driven - lyrics, and Glenn Gregory's distictive vocals (you can pick him out when you hear the original Band Aid song Do They Know It's Christmas), it all contributed to their unique sound in an era dominated by synthesizers and sequencers.
The Luxury Gap was Heaven 17's big break and should have been their ticket to greatness and pop immortality.
The Luxury Gap is a chocolate box of great electro tunes, with the star of the show "Temptation" being the hazelnut caramel. It stands the test of time, I am still not ashamed to have it blaring out of my I-pod on the underground and is the reason for my review title. You cannot talk about 80's music without mentioning this - Synth-pop at it's very best - with fantasic vocals, excellently layered sounds, it's so technically well executed that it can wipe the floor with Human League's Dare.
Our toffee fudgy numbers are "Let Me Go" and, in particular, "Come Live With Me" - it has been almost forgotten in the mists of time, yet still good and so enjoyable - catchy chorus and lyrics which make the listener feel slightly uncomfortable about an older man lamenting about his teenage lover and Gregory's spot on lead vocal.
Our solid chocolate cube is "Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry" it's a return to political form and doesn't disappoint, with the eerily prophetic "We Live So Fast" and "Key to the World" our fondants - you can tell they had fun experimenting with sound while making these. "The Best Kept Secret" lives up to it's name - understated and beautiful.
I can't get enough of this album, after it's initial release in 1983, it's still great to listen to - a definate recommendation to anyone interested in 80's electronic music!
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