Good Morning!
Today we’re listening to “Look Of Love” by ABC
ABC was a band tailor-made for the early 80s. Long on catchy beats and short on meaningful lyrics. No matter as Martin Fry’s voice carried even the most nonsensical lines.
I mean…
If you judge a book by the cover
Then you judge the look by the lover
I hope you'll soon recover
Me I go from one extreme to another
It didn’t matter; we were all too busy on the dance floor (or roller rink) to care.
The video was also a product of the time. In 1982, music videos were still a relatively new format, and directors had for some reason decided the winning formula was to just throw one of everything into the clips.
How else did we wind up with a gravity-defying nun, a giraffe, and people in lederhosen in what looks like some disco-fied Candy Land? All the while, the band is dressed and dancing as a barbershop quartet.
Trevor Horn of Buggles fame produced Lexicon of Love and makes a cameo in the video looking as bemused as the rest of us.
Don’t ask me what it means indeed
The song was originally released in 4 parts. In the US a 12” extended mix was released as the A-side of the single.
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In retrospect, The Lexicon of Love was an incredibly ballsy record to make. The worst thing imaginable in 1982 was anything even remotely close to disco, especially from a bunch of cheeky unknowns from Sheffield. But being British seemed to work in their favor. Instead of being viewed as disco, it was New Romantic synth pop, or something, which was the Next Big Thing at the time. But let’s be real here: it’s a disco record, and a damned good one at that.
Read the rest of the lookback here.
Listen:
“Look Of Love” by ABC| Lexicon of Love, 1982
Click the record to listen on your platform of choice.
As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this track!
Thanks for being here,
Kevin—
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One of my favourite bits of music trivia: That's Martin Fry's ex-girlfriend saying "goodbye" after Fry sings "when your girl has left you out on the pavement". As in, the woman who broke his heart and inspired this whole album. Trevor Horn got her in without consulting Fry.
I think they were able to join the New Romantic “wave” of the time, no doubt helped by the popularity of Duran Duran and their (Duran’s and ABC’s) prevalence on MTV. I personally have a softer spot for “How To Be a Zillionaire” (song and album) but Lexicon of Love and Beauty Stab still both get played fairly regularly at home.