The Lexicon of Love

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The Lexicon of Love
ABC studio album

Publication
(s)

1982

Label (s) Mercury Records

Format (s)

CD, LP

Genre (s)

New wave , synth pop

Title (number)

10

running time

37:25

occupation
  • Singing / Keyboard: Martin Fry
  • Guitar / Keyboard: Mark White
  • Bass: Mark Lickley
  • Drums / Percussion: David Palmer
  • Saxophone: Stephen Singleton

production

Trevor Horn , Steve Brown

Studio (s)

  • Recording: Phonogram Studio, London
  • Mixing: SARM Studio, London
chronology
- The Lexicon of Love Beauty Stab
(1983)

The Lexicon of Love is the debut album by British new wave band ABC . It was released on June 25, 1982 and reached the top of the charts in Great Britain and number 24 on the American Billboard 200. Some founding members of the later record label ZTT Records and the band The Art of Noise work together to produce the album . With the concept album , singer Martin Fry processed a separation, which the often critical to cynical lyrics make clear.

History of origin

After the release of the debut single Tears are not Enough in October 1981, drummer David Robinson left the band and was replaced by David Palmer. The band was able to win a producer for the album in Trevor Horn , who had the hit video Killed the Radio Star with the Buggles and who had developed a concept of artificiality with the band Dollar. ABC had something similar in mind, a superhuman production that Horn initially saw as arrogance. Horn used his team consisting of the sound engineer Gary Langan and the arranger and keyboardist Anne Dudley , with whom he had already worked at Dollar, to implement this concept . The album title The Lexicon of Love goes back to a headline by Ian Penman in the NME . The release of Horn-produced singles Poison Arrow and The Look of Love (Part One) , both of which made it into the UK's top ten, paved the way for production. The songs written by Fry and White were made with synthesizers, etc. a. orchestral arranged on a Fairlight computer by Dudley and mixed with Langan's support, full and bright. The album sounds like an expensive production, although only four of the pieces were recorded with real strings.

Track list

  1. Show Me - 4:02
  2. Poison Arrow - 3:24
  3. Many Happy Returns - 3:56
  4. Tears Are not Enough - 3:31
  5. Valentine's Day - 3:42
  6. The Look of Love (Part One) - 3:26
  7. Date Stamp - 3:51
  8. All of My Heart - 5:12
  9. 4 Ever 2 Gether - 5:30
  10. The Look of Love (Part Four) - 1:02

Publications and chart successes

The album peaked at # 1 in the UK and # 24 in the United States.

In 1996 a digitally remastered version was released, which in addition to the titles of the original edition contains a demo version of Tears are not Enough , four remixes, a live version of The Look of Love and the theme of the short Man Trap , which introduces the band. A re-release of the original album from 1998 only contains Theme Form Man Trap as an additional track. In addition to the original album, the 2004 deluxe edition contains the original versions of the singles, several demo versions and numerous live recordings of a concert at Hammersmith Odeon in November 1982 on two CDs.

year title Chart positions annotation
DE AT CH UK US
1982 The Lexicon of Love - - - 1 (50)
July 3, 1982 		24 (?)
1982 		Platinum award from the BPI

Four singles were released from the album: Tears are not Enough , All of my Heart , Poison Arrow and The Look of Love (Part One) . All four were able to place in the upper half of the British Top 40, the latter two reached No. 25 and No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and were able to place in the German single charts.

year title Chart positions annotation
DE AT CH UK US
1981 Tears are not Enough / Alphabet Soup - - - 19 (8)
October 31, 1981 		-
1982 Poison Arrow / Theme from "Man Trap" - - - 6 (11)
February 20, 1982 		- Silver record of the BPI
1982 The Look of Love / The Look of Love (Part Two) 36 (15)
08/23/1982 		- - 4 (14)
May 15, 1982 		25th Silver record of the BPI
1982 All of my Heart / Overture 67 (4)
November 15, 1982 		- - 5 (8)
September 4, 1982 		14th

reception

William Ruhlmann from allmusic awards 5 out of 5 stars and one pick. His verdict: Most of the songs on the album are “dance floor epics” that “deserved to be hit singles”. BBC Music's Rob Webb says: "witty, lyrical and very, very funky". He sees the album as "a landmark in British pop". David Medsker from popmatters says it was the pop album of 1982 par excellence.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Certified Awards Search. In: bpi.co.uk. Retrieved September 14, 2014 .
  2. ↑ a b ABC in the German charts. (No longer available online.) In: Musicline.de. PhonoNet GmbH, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved December 19, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.musicline.de
  3. ↑ a b ABC in the Austrian hit parade. In: Austriancharts.at. Hung Medien, accessed December 19, 2010 .
  4. ↑ a b ABC in the Swiss hit parade. In: Hitparade.ch. Hung Medien, accessed December 19, 2010 .
  5. ↑ a b The Lexicon of Love in the Official UK Charts (English)
  6. ↑ a b ABC albums on the Billboard Charts. In: Billboard.com. Retrieved December 19, 2010 .
  7. ^ William Ruhlmann: The Lexicon of Love. In: allmusic.com. Retrieved January 1, 2011 .
  8. ^ Rob Webb: Review of ABC - The Lexicon of Love. In: bbc.co.uk. November 29, 2004, accessed January 1, 2011 .
  9. ↑ David Medsker: The Lexicon of Love. In: popmatters.com. April 10, 2002, accessed January 1, 2011 .