new introductory bit here.

This is a reviews page based on my own collection, which just keeps growing despite itself. If it isn't listed here, it's because I don't own it yet, or I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Also, bother your local "new rock" radio station and make sure they are playing "new rock" and not "Rock the Casbah," which is not new.

note: entries in red text indicate my pick for the artist's best available album. A gold numeral indicates the POPocalypse winner of the year's best album; second- and third-place winners are in blue. Green lettering indicates an obviously exploitative record company compilation without apparent artist input.

They were formed in Sheffield and led by Martin Fry's arched eyebrow, stiff posture and self-aware delivery. Incredibly camp, with gold lame and sleeve-note manifestos, they made their name among the New Romantics and were, for around 15 months, one of the biggest bands in Britain. However, Fry's restless creative energy left him desirous to shift images as frequently as Bowie, but the result was never as compelling, or as critically accepted.

For some reason, Americans have a lot of trouble believing that the first ABC album is so damn good that at least two music critics risked their reputation by calling it the greatest album ever made upon its release. It's not, though it's close. It's a thundering, overdramatic masterpiece, with insightful couplets, powerful images and just enough self-realization to avoid becoming pretentious. No, not quite the best album ever made, but certainly the best debut album by anybody, and my pick for the best sleeve in the history of record cover design. Taking the "pop act as star" idea to its natural limit in a very short time, ABC even starred in an incoherent 60-minute spy thriller called Mantrap which made British cinema screen to critical bafflement.

Following up, and dropping drummer David Palmer, they issued Beauty Stab with a totally different guitar-and-sax sound with assistance from several of Roxy Music's old sidemen. The critics turned on them and sales dropped, but that wasn't a patch on what would happen with the next project. Their third album sees Fry and White, now a duo, morphing into a kitsch cartoon band with the addition of two non-playing members: a short, bald man and a stacked blonde. The Zillionaire project was massively advertised, with the new animated ABC making appearances on billboards and television. Unfortunately, Fry forgot to bring some good tunes with him. The ballads "Be Near Me" and "Ocean Blue" wear very well, but the rest is mostly garbage and the four bonus remixes the CD adds just prolong the problem. It's easily the worst thing Fry's ever involved himself with.

Mercifully back on track after spinning his heels with these other styles for five years, Fry again adopted the pose of an ironic statesmen of love's riches for Alphabet City, their last album to hit the UK top 40. He and White take on musical influence and assistance from a number of soul sessioners from Chicago and Minneapolis. Very listenable, if a shade too serious in places. The visual selection for this album is Armani and Gucci, as Fry tried out-Ferrying Ferry with sharp Italian suits. It's miles removed from the dancefloor dress of Up, where, with baggy pants and stripes, he and White managed to steal the Happy Mondays' look several months before "Madchester" stormed the British charts and style pages. The album is probably the best since the first, a confident and assured collection of eight dance songs, but it drew no real hit singles and heralded the downturn of their chart career, although "The Real Thing" did some business on the dance charts in 1989.

ABC's final album for six years was Abracadabra, a very good effort of low-key dance rhythms which predates trip-hop. Sadly, their new label, MCA, didn't push it even halfheartedly and so it bombed. Key tracks on this underrated effort include "Love Conquers All," "Say It" and "This Must Be Magic." Following a lackluster job of promotion, Fry and White went into seclusion and eventually made it nearly permanent.

Six years after parting ways with Mark White and closing up ABC, Fry returned with new members Keith Lowndes and Glenn Gregory (ex-Heaven 17) for this really impressive comeback, possibly the best material he's done in 15 years. Sadly, the album was issued in England only and on a tiny label at that, so few have heard it. The wonderful single "Stranger Things" dented the UK top 60, but the LP only made #97, which may be good for the label, I'm not sure. Fry resumed touring with a new band and released a live album before going back to the studio. In 2001, ABC toured England as Robbie Williams' opening act.

ABC: Absolutely (1990, UK #7, *****)
An excellent collection of all ABC's singles, except the lousy "Vanity Kills," through 1990, including the '90 remix of "The Look of Love." They're not in the right order, but the packaging and information is very good and there are three extra bonus dance mixes. It's more palatable than their second or third album, and the hits from the first are enough to make nearly any ABC compilation worthwhile.