The Lexicon Of Love

Product Information

It features four UK top 20 singles; " Tears Are Not Enough", " Poison Arrow", " The Look of Love" and " All of My Heart". Some of the founding members of the later record label ZTT Records and the band The Art of Noise collaborate in the production of the album. Instead, they got at what makes it great -- the over the top romanticism, the audacious vocals, and the widescreen melodies -- and gave it a wiser, more thoughtful update.

Including] songs as perfect as 'The Look Of Love' – replete with knowingly absurd talkover – or the jaw-dropping 'All of My Heart,' still one of the '80s most underrated singles.

The 10-date headline tour will see Martin Fry and his band perform ‘The Lexicon of Love’ in its glorious entirety together with other hits from ABC’s back catalogue. From contemporary reviews, Mitchell Cohen of Creem declared the album to be a "piece of sumptuous kitsch" and that "the whole shebang is so florid, so exaggerated, so damned catchy – you want to hear "The Look of Love" a second time before it's even half over; it's a casserole of about forty different pop hits and advertising jingles – that you may feel guilty for falling for it. Dave Simpson ( The Guardian) expanded on this noting "lush orchestrations, hurtling brass and synth stabs. Indeed, most of the production team and session musicians on the album would form the basis for the ZTT label, and their work with Horn meant all concerned would be in constant demand throughout the industry in years to come.

In 2009, ABC member Martin Fry played The Lexicon of Love in its entirety at the Royal Albert Hall with the BBC Concert Orchestra which was conducted by Anne Dudley. The majority of the album was recorded at Sarm East Studios in London, as well as at Abbey Road Studios, Townhouse Studios, RAK Studios and Good Earth Studios. Opening at Oxford New Theatre on Friday 17th June 2022 and closing at Southend Cliffs Pavilion on Thursday 30th June 2022, the tour includes a very special homecoming show at Sheffield City Hall on Tuesday 17th 21st June – exactly 40 years to the day since the release of ‘The Lexicon of Love.Ken Tucker of The Philadelphia Inquirer gave the album a one star out of five rating stating that the album was "prissy dance music, light on the beat and heavy on the sort of maundering crooning that the effete English rock musicians frequently mistake for passion. The release of the album was followed by a tour of festival shows during mid-2016, followed by a scheduled ABC tour in the later half of the year including one show with an orchestra, the Southbank Sinfonia, at the Royal Festival Hall, conducted by Anne Dudley. Don Waller of the Los Angeles Times praised the album, stating that producer Trevor Horn "deserves a share of the applause, but the songs — credited to all four ABC members — are the real deal: apocalyptic, widescreen romances with more hooks than a meat-packing plant. Widely hailed as a new wave masterpiece and one of the greatest albums of the 1980s, ‘The Lexicon of Love’ shot straight to Number 1 upon its release in June 1982 and it spawned the hit singles ‘Poison Arrow’, ‘The Look Of Love’ ‘Tears Are Not Enough’, and ‘All Of My Heart’. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 70, indicating generally favorable reviews, based on eight reviews.

ABC released the follow-up album ‘The Lexicon Of Love II’ in May 2016 and it entered the Top 5 of the UK album chart. The band had formed a few years earlier as electronic band Vice Versa and released their first single as ABC " Tears Are Not Enough" in 1981. It was released on June 25, 1982 and reached number 24 in the United Kingdom and number 24 in the US Billboard 200. Tickets to ABC’s The Lexicon of Love UK Tour go on sale from Absolute Radio Tickets at 10am on Friday 17th September 2021.

The Lexicon of Love was again performed live in its entirety on 18 December 2012 at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. The album was followed by a tour with the band extended to an 11-piece onstage, reaching Europe, USA and Japan. Crooning, whispering or bellowing, Martin Fry is the group's suave centre of gravity; Trevor Horn's vivid production on disco-pop numbers like "Poison Arrow" and "The Look of Love, Pt. The songs on the album were written collectively by the band, with arranger Anne Dudley given songwriting credits on some tracks.