ABC – Abracadabra

Great album. Like the other comment says , it is very hard to find an original UK pressing and also in good shape. The up album is hard to find as well but not as hard as Abracadabra.

Say It (The Black Box Mix) on the Canadian and US Edition (MCA 1991) is a unique version to this release. It is a mash-up mix - it starts with Say It (The Black Box Piano Forté) and fades into Say (The Black Box Mix). The original Say It (The Black Box Mix) was released only on 12" and CD Singles.

The only reason why I won’t give it five stars , is the house arrangements on almost all the tracks. Ok, easy to be a judge in 2018. EMI pushed them perhaps, abc hadn’t had a hit for 4-5 yrs. However this a must for us fans .

I’m a huge fan of ABC and have all their albums from the 80’s which I purchased way back then. I have been rounding out my collection with their later stuff. I had some trouble finding a good copy of this album and had to order it used from the UK. It came in near-mint condition. Abracadabra is a strong offering from ABC. It is well produced and has the distinctive vocals of Martin Fry. I gave it four stars. It didn’t quite make it to five stars because it lacks the same level of catchy melodies and hooks that their earlier stuff had. It is still very listenable and I enjoyed it. My UK pressing is very well mastered. It is very quiet with just a little bit of crackle and has a very strong signal (0 dB on my scale).

Just got this '4Worlds Media' version in the mail from the U.K. today. Nowhere does it say 'remastered', but it sounds slightly better than the 1991 MCA version I've had for the past 24 years. Track 13 is incorrectly labeled as "The Black Box Mix". It's not. On the 1991 MCA cd the final track is "Say It (Black Box Mix)" with a track time of 4:38. So, if that is, in fact, the actual 'black box mix', then I don't know what version is on this 4Worlds Media version. Also, the other reviewer here is correct that track 14 is exactly the same as track 5. That must have been an error on 4Worlds Media's part, and perhaps track 13 was supposed to be the 4:38 'black box mix' and track 14 was supposed to be the 6:18 version, labeled something other than 'black box mix'? Now I have to keep my 1991 MCA copy, thanks for that.

As for the music on this album, ABC's sixth, and final with Mark White, it is in a similar vein as 1989's "Up" club/house sound, just further refined and posh sounding. This would be it until 1997's "Skyscraping" which was just Fry, and it wasn't nearly as good. To me, "Abracadabra" was ABC's swansong. The end of their winning streak that started with "The Lexicon of Love" a decade earlier. I like the first six ABC albums "The Lexicon of Love" (1982), "Beauty Stab" (1983), "How To Be A...Zillionaire!" (1985), "Alphabet City" (1987), "Up" (1989) and "Abracadabra" (1991), but not their last two, 1997's Skyscraping" and 2008's "Traffic".

Tracks 5 and 14 are in fact the same. "The Abracadabra Mix" simply meant "The mix on the album called Abracadabra", which the compiler hasn't had the sense to realise.

Although not in the linear notes this version of Abracadabra seems to be remastered.

Charming dance-pop/white soul release from a band who managed to have a very solid career troughout the 80's - and many of you must remeber that this is no small achievement...
Martin Fry is one of the best male voices in pop music, and Dave Bascombe's production is noteworthy.
Spellbound is the perfect track for a fashion show.