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/ News

That's the Look: ABC's 'The Lexicon of Love' Updated with 40th Anniversary Vinyl/Blu-ray Box

June 29, 2023 By Mike Duquette 3 Comments

ABC Lexicon of Love 40

BUY NOW FROM AMAZON.CO.UK

Who's got the look? British band ABC's effortlessly cool debut The Lexicon of Love helped established a cutting-edge style for the decade to come, and it'll be reissued about a year on from its 40th anniversary this summer in a pair of new vinyl editions.

Universal Music Recordings will bring Lexicon back into print on LP August 4 with a new half-speed master cut by Miles Showell at Abbey Road. That new master will also be featured as part of a 4LP deluxe box set, which will include nearly all the contents of a 2CD reissue from 2004 - including rare 12" singles and B-sides, demos and live performances from the year of the album's original 1982 release - plus a host of newly remixed audio and remastered video on an accompanying Blu-ray Disc.

A sleek, cosmopolitan album, The Lexicon of Love married the opposite styles of post-punk and disco, melding the newest in electronics and synthesizers with a lush, timeless orchestral bent. Writing and working together as a band, singer Martin Fry, keyboardist/guitarist Mark White, saxophonist Stephen Singleton and drummer David Palmer (plus bassist Martin Lickley and original drummer David Robinson, who played on parts of the album including the original version of debut single "Tears Are Not Enough") were brilliantly augmented by up-and-coming producer Trevor Horn and a cast of technical/artistic wizards that included engineer Gary Langan, programmer J.J. Jeczalik and orchestrator Anne Dudley. (A year later, Horn would found the pioneering U.K. label ZTT, and one of their earliest signees was The Art of Noise, an innovative dance collective featuring all four of those creatives behind Lexicon plus journalist Paul Morley.)

Three singles from Lexicon would hit the Top 10 in the United Kingdom in 1982: "Poison Arrow," "The Look of Love" and "All of My Heart." "Poison Arrow" and "The Look of Love" would cross over into the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, with the latter also topping the magazine's dance/club survey. ABC would have bigger hits in the States as the '80s went on, but this album remains one of the gold standards of British pop image and influence, a point Fry acknowledged in 2016 when he released a sequel to the album that became the first U.K. Top 5 record by ABC in nearly three decades.

The new mostly-vinyl box set edition is packaged in a spined double-gatefold sleeve; a booklet includes new notes on the album from Daryl Easlea, a new essay from Fry and outtakes from the iconic album cover shoot. Audio-wise, it includes nearly everything that was in a double-disc deluxe edition issued by Universal in the mid-'00s. (Missing on the vinyl: "an oddity and and out-take" - the unreleased "In the Valley of the Heathen Go" and a live BBC version of B-side "Alphabet Soup" - and two of the 11 tracks from the group's multi-night stand at the Hammersmith Odeon in the fall of 1982.) The trade-off: four new mixes of the album by Steven Wilson, who brings his magic touch to Dolby Atmos, DTS 5.1 and new stereo versions of the original album plus a never-before-heard instrumental mix. Four promo videos - clips for "Poison Arrow," "The Look of Love" and "All of My Heart" and the longform Mantrap (directed by Julien Temple and featuring future Bravo Real Housewives and Vanderpump Rules star Lisa Vanderpump in a role) - have been remastered for inclusion on this disc as well. The lead-up to the box's release will also be accompanied by a set of digital releases covering the three singles and respective remixes/B-sides as well as Wilson's new stereo and instrumental mixes.

Now that no one can ask you (you already know) about this reissue, check out the full track list and pre-order links below.

ABC, The Lexicon of Love (40th Anniversary Edition) (Mercury/UMR (U.K.), 2023)

4LP/BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

Contents of this released on Neutron/Mercury (U.K.) 9824373, 2004. * previously unreleased on vinyl

LP 1: Original album - half-speed remaster by Miles Showell at Abbey Road (originally released as Neutron NTRS 1 (U.K.)/Mercury SRM-1-4059 (U.S.), 1982)

  1. Show Me
  2. Poison Arrow
  3. Many Happy Returns
  4. Tears Are Not Enough
  5. Valentine's Day
  6. The Look of Love (Part One)
  7. Date Stamp
  8. All of My Heart
  9. 4 Ever 2 Gether
  10. The Look of Love (Part Four)

LP 2: The Route to Lexicon

  1. Overture
  2. Surrender (Phonogram Demo) *
  3. Show Me (Phonogram Demo) *
  4. Tears Are Not Enough (Phonogram Demo) *
  5. Tears Are Not Enough (Steve Brown 12") (U.K. 12" A-side - Neutron NTX-101, 1981)
  6. Alphabet Soup (Steve Brown 12") (U.K. 12" A-side - Neutron NTX-101, 1981)
  7. Theme from "Man Trap" (B-side to "Poison Arrow" - Neutron NT-102, 1982)

LP 3: Lexicon Plus (1-3) / The Lexicon of Love Live At Hammersmith Odeon, London, England - 11/23-25/1982 (4-7)

  1. Tears Are Not Enough (Original 7") (U.K. single A-side - Neutron NT-101, 1981)
  2. Poison Arrow (Jazz Mix) (U.S. 12" A-side - Mercury 811 329-1, 1983)
  3. The Look of Love (Special Remix) (U.K. 12" promo single - Neutron NTX-DJ-103, 1982)
  4. Overture *
  5. Show Me *
  6. Tears Are Not Enough *

LP 4: The Lexicon of Love Live At Hammersmith Odeon, London, England - 11/23-25/1982 (continued) *

  1. Date Stamp
  2. The Look of Love
  3. All of My Heart
  4. Valentine's Day
  5. 4 Ever 2 Gether
  6. Poison Arrow

Blu-ray: Remixes and videos

Original album remixed by Steven Wilson:

  • Dolby Atmos Mix
  • DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Mix
  • Hi-Res Stereo Mix (96 kHz/24-bit)
  • Hi-Res Stereo Instrumental Mix (96 kHz/24-bit)

Original promo videos

  • Mantrap
  • Poison Arrow
  • The Look of Love
  • All of My Heart

Categories: News Formats: Blu-Ray, Box Sets, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl Genre: Disco/Dance, Pop, Rock Tags: ABC

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Mike Duquette

Mike Duquette (Founder) was fascinated with catalog music ever since he was a teenager. A 2009 graduate of Seton Hall University with a B.A. in journalism, Mike paired his profession with his passion through The Second Disc, one of the first sites to focus on all reissue labels great and small. His passion for reissues turned into a career, holding positions at Legacy Recordings and Rhino Records and contributing to Allmusic, Discogs, City Pages, Ultimate Classic Rock and Mondo Records, for whom he penned liner notes for his favorite piece of music: John Williams' Oscar-winning score to 'E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.' Born and raised in New Jersey, Mike lives in Astoria, Queens with his wife, a cat named Ravioli, twin daughters and a large yet tasteful collection of music.

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Comments

  1. BillyD says

    June 29, 2023 at 11:49 am

    I know you make $$ from the click-throughs, but if you only want the bluray with slightly altered content:
    https://superdeluxeedition.com/news/abcs-the-lexicon-of-love-on-sde-exclusive-blu-ray-audio/

    Only 5,000 copies available

    Shame on Universal for not offering a cd version 😿

    Reply
  2. Harry N Cohen says

    June 29, 2023 at 3:12 pm

    Sigh...no cd for this one truly feels like a poison arrow.
    Should I just give up on cd reissues? It may be time.

    Reply
  3. Joe Mac Pherson says

    June 30, 2023 at 6:12 am

    If it isn't CD, it isn't for me. Pass.

    Reply

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