It's been a long time baby

Yeah, sorry about that. I've had other things on my mind. For example, I've been wondering why it is that ABC are (still) slightly lauded for their first album only. Especially since the second is every bit as good but every bit as different. And I am aware that that sentence makes no sense whatsoever. I'm not entirely happy with the last one either. Or that.
Anyway, The Lexicon of Love was the first album I ever bought (jointly with my brother, on cassette, we saved for ages and bought it in secret and hid it from our parents because we were worried they'd tell us off for spending so much money on something other than sweets and fizzy drinks. Probably). And I love the strings that give it such richness (Anne Dudley, the most underrated person in British music) which of course were missing on the stark follow-up, Beauty Stab.
But it is good. And as long as you can get past the pretentious lyrics (so overblown at times as to border on the ridiculously sublime - what the hell does that mean?) there is a hard boiled album that is bursting with ideas. And amongst them is the single that really killed off the impression that ABC were gold lamee, funk bass and violin mad. I give you, That Was Then But This Is Now, for the next fifteen minutes, the best song ever.