Post-punk slowly faded away, and the scene around the New Romantics also changed like a kaleidoscope. Britfunk pushed itself to the fore. There were bands like Pigbag, and Paul Weller broke the jam on to a year later The Style Council to found. ABC wanted everything. They wanted to be punk and Motown and James Bond. They showed attitude, performed smartly and at the same time revived the hedonistic side of disco. They conceived the album about won and lost love like a Hollywood film and thereby revolutionized pop. ABC packed more into each song than some of their contemporaries did on an entire LP. Never has a “hip hip hooray” sounded more sophisticated, a “goodbye” more dramatic and definitive, a saxophone more luxurious. “Martin, maybe one day you’ll find true love…”
Producer Trevor Horn says he’s never come across better lyrics in his career. And then there was the emotion in the voice of a knee-deep wading Martin Fry, a singer you’d never heard of before. Also, this Martin wore that matching gold lamé suit. Spandau Ballet owned a private jet, he this piece of clothing. “Who broke my heart? You did, you did.”
Everyone involved contributed their bit to the success of this work of the century, not just the musicians: Horn, who after his Video Killed The Radio Star who reached for the perfect production at Buggles and shortly before founding the label ZTT; using the latest equipment at the time, he made the album sound really expensive. Gary Langan, the sound engineer. Anne Dudley who wrote the string arrangements and played keyboards. All afterwards united at Art Of Noise.
“The Lexicon Of Love” still sounds modern in 2023. To ABC’s credit, they avoided copying this album for a long time. Finally, in 2016, The Lexicon Of Love II was released. But that wasn’t the same…