Thirty Years Ago Yesterday: ABC's The Lexicon Of Love was released

For reasons he cannot begin to fathom remember, HERC bought The Lexicon Of Love 30 years ago, shortly after its release.  Since then, this easily accessible concept album has grown into one of his favorite records to listen to all the way through, from start to finish, in about 37 minutes. How many records inspire that sort of commitment these days?

Over the years, the album has been issued in three additional configurations with various bonus tracks including demos, remixes and live versions.  HERC, being the obsessive dutiful musical consumer, has snapped them all up yet nothing tops the original ten track album.

scan by thepennypost.co.uk

As rhythmically funky as it orchestrally lush and packed with more heartbreak scenarios than any romance novel, The Lexicon Of Love still manages to sound contemporary 30 years after its release. (Love, after all, is timeless.) And this is love in its purest romantic albeit cliched form. Martin Fry is hardly original in his delivery, drawing on Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra, David Bowie and Bryan Ferry before him, but somehow it doesn’t matter because the words he sings and the way he sings them ring true and sound sincere.  All of this hopeless romanticism is set against an immersive and sonically superior wall of sound constructed by Trevor Horn (featuring many of the players who would later go on to form Art Of Noise), in one of his earliest productions, that melds the burgeoning new wave synth heavy sound with string sections and a throbbing disco dance beat. The album flows lyrically and musically towards an all too soon end but that’s okay because you can play it again. And again. Like HERC does.

The first UK single, even before there was an album, was "Tears Are Not Enough" in October 1981.  Produced by Steve Brown, that single sounded a lot like the performance in this video.  The song was the B-side of the first US single, "Poison Arrow".  It was re-recorded with Trevor Horn producing before being re-released on the album later the following year.

Four months later, in February 1982 - just in time for Valentine's Day! - "Poison Arrow" was released.  It climbed higher on the charts than the previous single and even made the Top 30 in America.  Like "Tears Are Not Enough" the song was released in both 7" and 12" formats.  The US 12" remix is featured below for your listening pleasure.

"The Look Of Love (Part One)" was released as the third single from the album in May 1982.  Sounding unlike anything else on the airwaves at the time it shot to the top of the Dance Club charts and even cracked the Top 20 in the US.  

The 12" single (which can be downloaded from DJ Paul T's site HERE) featured all four parts of "The Look Of Love": the album version, an instrumental version, a vocal remix and a short instrumental coda which was also featured on the album.  HERC played the song repeatedly and once he discovered the full length 12" remix, he played that in all of it's dubtastic glory.  (Anyone out there know of a dubstep treatment of this track yet?)  Something about that bass synth and those annoying "look, look, look" lines.  Listen for yourself below:

The fourth and final single released from The Lexicon Of Love was "All Of My Heart", a beautiful track with a haunting hook.  It's B-side was "Overture" an orchestral medley of songs from The Lexicon of Love.

scan from cedmagic.com

In 1983, ABC released a long form music video,  Mantrap, featuring many of the songs from The Lexicon of Love performed live.  Initially released on VHS and laserdisc formats, it remains unreleased in modern digital disc format.  The short film is an interesting, high-concept concert video with bits of drama and action broken up by live concert performances.  You've come this far, you might as well spend another hour and watch it in the five parts below.  Then be sure check out the Spotify playlist at the bottom of the post.

A portion of this post first appeared HERE.

More love for this album HERE.