return to form, in a completely different way!

Review Score: (10/10)
Beauty Stab, while in retrospect a great album, was a little hard to swallow on the heels of Lexicon of Love. This is why "Be Near Me" (and the b-side instrumental "What's Your Destination?") promised a return to greatness for ABC.
But of course it was a return on ABC's terms. The strings were back, as was the dance beat, but mixed in was a decidedly electro and hip-hop (such as it was in 1984) feel. The title track sounds like a British filtering of the US breakdance beat scene, and it is. Be Near Me was that comeback hit the band needed, and still sounds sweet today. Ocean Blue is perhaps the closest thing to Lexicon of Love we'd get from ABC at that time, while 15 Storey Halo was really the logical successor to Lexicon. It has towering beats, lush strings and a raw funkiness.
Judy's Jewels has been called ahead of its time, a time which has not come yet imho. A blight on an otherwise brilliant re-statement and pushing forward of ABC's efforts in the pop music world.

Everyone should own Lexicon of Love, but to go deeper pick up How To Be... and Up to hear just how good ABC was in the pop wastelands of the mid to late 80s.

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