First ABC album in 11 years, "Traffic" (4/29)
04-23-08, 10:29 PM
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First ABC album in 11 years, "Traffic" (4/29)
ABC has always been one of my favorite bands, and they're releasing a new album on April 29th in the UK.
The album's first single, "The Very First Time", can be streamed on the band's MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/martinfryabc
It's currently in the Top 5 on BBC Radio2.
The album's first single, "The Very First Time", can be streamed on the band's MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/martinfryabc
It's currently in the Top 5 on BBC Radio2.
04-24-08, 08:33 AM
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Originally Posted by The Bus
OK, was it completely ridiculous for me to expect this to be news regarding a new Another Bad Creation album? 
04-24-08, 02:41 PM
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Originally Posted by The Bus
OK, was it completely ridiculous for me to expect this to be news regarding a new Another Bad Creation album?
04-24-08, 02:50 PM
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Originally Posted by The Bus
OK, was it completely ridiculous for me to expect this to be news regarding a new Another Bad Creation album?
04-28-08, 11:17 PM
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I hate when crappy groups (read: music I don't like) come out with the same or similar names to good groups (read: who play music I do like). Besides ABC, there was a stupid female rapper named Yella after there was a good group called Yello, there was a boy band called LFO a few years after a techno artist with that name, and I see now there's even someone calling themselves The Shop Boyz when the Pet Shop Boys have been around forever.
I could tolerate running into that hippie named Mark Almond when I was looking for Marc Almond records, but these other ones are just too much.
I could tolerate running into that hippie named Mark Almond when I was looking for Marc Almond records, but these other ones are just too much.
05-02-08, 12:35 PM
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The album's out now, and it's excellent!
Here's an interview Martin Fry did Wednesday with the show "This Morning":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXpD_UEt3Ao
And from later in the same show, here's ABC performing "The Look of Love":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVkvE4GmmAE
Here's an interview Martin Fry did Wednesday with the show "This Morning":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXpD_UEt3Ao
And from later in the same show, here's ABC performing "The Look of Love":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVkvE4GmmAE
05-03-08, 03:40 PM
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First review -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/release/96jw/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/release/96jw/
ABC - Traffic
Review by Daryl Easlea
02 May 2008
Well I never. 11 years after their last album, Skyscraping, ABC return with a playlisted single on BBC’s Radio 2 (The Very First Time) and a confident 12 track album, Traffic, that frankly shouldn’t be as good as it is. That said, Martin Fry was always one step ahead of the new romantics with whom he’s erroneously associated. There was only a small club of turns from that period who genuinely delivered on album, and their 1982 debut, The Lexicon Of Love is, along with Dare by the Human League, up there as a bona fide classic of its day. Their special blend of Earth Wind & Fire, Chic and the Sex Pistols was served potently. The outfit’s desire to move on signed their commercial death-note, but for those who remained loyal, a cornucopia of pleasure beckoned.
Recording between Los Angeles and London, the album retains all the widescreen aspirations of the outfit. Reunited with drummer David Palmer, Fry has enlisted Palmer’s Rod Stewart band cohort Chuck Kentis as co-writer and producer. The three have crafted something that sounds just like an ABC record, full of swooning strings, big beats and Fry’s lyrical puns and conceits. Sixteen Seconds To Choose opens the album in grandiose ABC style, (“you’re hanging around for your standing ovation, plugging your crap at the radio station”), before we hear the out and out irresistibility of The Very First Time, a tune that sounds like a relative of 1985’s Be Near Me. Even when you think we’re off clutching at straws in search of a melody (Caroline, Validation) along comes a bespoke chorus to die for.
Whether the album gives Martin Fry a commercial renaissance is another matter – but Traffic is an exceptionally credible record and in the track Love Is Strong, Fry has recorded something equalling his all-time best.
Review by Daryl Easlea
02 May 2008
Well I never. 11 years after their last album, Skyscraping, ABC return with a playlisted single on BBC’s Radio 2 (The Very First Time) and a confident 12 track album, Traffic, that frankly shouldn’t be as good as it is. That said, Martin Fry was always one step ahead of the new romantics with whom he’s erroneously associated. There was only a small club of turns from that period who genuinely delivered on album, and their 1982 debut, The Lexicon Of Love is, along with Dare by the Human League, up there as a bona fide classic of its day. Their special blend of Earth Wind & Fire, Chic and the Sex Pistols was served potently. The outfit’s desire to move on signed their commercial death-note, but for those who remained loyal, a cornucopia of pleasure beckoned.
Recording between Los Angeles and London, the album retains all the widescreen aspirations of the outfit. Reunited with drummer David Palmer, Fry has enlisted Palmer’s Rod Stewart band cohort Chuck Kentis as co-writer and producer. The three have crafted something that sounds just like an ABC record, full of swooning strings, big beats and Fry’s lyrical puns and conceits. Sixteen Seconds To Choose opens the album in grandiose ABC style, (“you’re hanging around for your standing ovation, plugging your crap at the radio station”), before we hear the out and out irresistibility of The Very First Time, a tune that sounds like a relative of 1985’s Be Near Me. Even when you think we’re off clutching at straws in search of a melody (Caroline, Validation) along comes a bespoke chorus to die for.
Whether the album gives Martin Fry a commercial renaissance is another matter – but Traffic is an exceptionally credible record and in the track Love Is Strong, Fry has recorded something equalling his all-time best.
05-07-08, 07:33 AM
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OK, I downloaded it last night. And it's FANTASTIC!!!! A must buy.
05-08-08, 12:43 PM
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Originally Posted by nothingfails
whatever became of Mark White? He was as visual to the band as Martin in the 80's but since the early 90's has been MIA
Mark left and became some type of therapist. He wouldn't even answer the door of his practice when VH1 approached him about reuniting with Marty Fry. I just Googled him and apparently Mark release two solo albums in the late 90's. Weird. I never heard that before.
05-08-08, 12:48 PM
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haha, I wanted to see that Bands Reunited, but kept missing it, and it's not like they aired that one 100 times like they did Berlin
I wonder if he and Martin had a big falling out, it's funny that he refuses to talk ABC now when I think he was as synonymous with their videos as Martin during the mid/late 1980's
I wonder if he and Martin had a big falling out, it's funny that he refuses to talk ABC now when I think he was as synonymous with their videos as Martin during the mid/late 1980's
05-08-08, 01:43 PM
#23
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Originally Posted by nothingfails
haha, I wanted to see that Bands Reunited, but kept missing it, and it's not like they aired that one 100 times like they did Berlin
I wonder if he and Martin had a big falling out, it's funny that he refuses to talk ABC now when I think he was as synonymous with their videos as Martin during the mid/late 1980's
I wonder if he and Martin had a big falling out, it's funny that he refuses to talk ABC now when I think he was as synonymous with their videos as Martin during the mid/late 1980's
05-08-08, 02:52 PM
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Originally Posted by Daytripper
Yeah, I don't get that. Why ignore what made you so rich and famous? I'm guessing maybe White hasn't aged so well and doesn't want to be seen (??) But hey, Fry's not exactly Dorian Gray. Heh.
05-08-08, 03:10 PM
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Originally Posted by Burgundy LaRue
I thought the same thing! Shoot, now I'm all upset. I was ready to swing my beat at the playground!
at the playground, ya know...
thats where i saw that cutie...