ABC – The Lexicon Of Love

This is a rare album. "The look of love", ABC's one, is an undeniable hit we all know from the radio, 3:30 of catchy pop sang in a very Brian Ferry style, but it was a surprise when I actually listened to the whole album and discovered a kind of gimmicky but very emotional piece of work.

Above the whole album, just from the very first seconds, the amazing talents of Trevor Horn and Anne Dudley surface. You will never, and I say never, listen to an album that merges so well orchestral grandiosity with pop structures, organic and electronic, dance and melodrama. From the very first seconds, from the cover itself, the intentions of making a kind of Broadway musical album about love, oversang, overacted, even a bit camp, are very clear, and from the very first seconds... it works. Just listen to the key song, "The look of love". Some orchestra sounds in key moments, then it goes to the background, then you hear an arp when the emotion is in crescendo, then a soprano choir in the bridge... every detail was there for a reason, like a very complex machinery, an artificial machinery that makes you believe in the heart ache of the amazing Martin Fry. Why do they use blatantly artificial string keyboards in one second, then a full orchestra in the next one? And how they manage to make it sound so well?

Songs like this one, "Date Stamp" or "Valentine's Day" (wonderful violin background) just make me cry. It's like theatrical disco, it's like the best new wave (and it was just the beginning of new wave!) with the grandiosity of progressive rock, which sounds gay and funny and tears you apart. And it has never sounded that powerful than in this deluxe edition.

An essential record to understand the 80s, or the modern musical production. Or, whatever, an essential record, period.