I had been looking for this on vinyl for a while and was delighted to find an original 1982 pressing of this classic album! Some of the founding members of the later record label ZTT Records and the band The Art of Noise collaborate in the production of the album. This is a really good LP for turning up loud and blowing away the cobwebs so it's a thumbs up from this reviewer. Ken Tucker of The Philadelphia Inquirer was less enthusiastic, dismissing the album as "prissy dance music, light on the beat and heavy on the sort of maundering crooning that the effete English rock musicians frequently mistake for passion. Songs were written collectively by the band, with arranger Anne Dudley also given a credit on some tracks.

With the concept album, singer Martin Fry processed a separation, which the often critical to cynical lyrics make clear. Concept sur l'amour comprenant un ensemble de tubes incontournables: Poison Arrow, Tears are not enough et The look of love.Double CD of the show, presented in a deluxe 6 panel fold out sleeve with accompanying 8 page booklet. Show Me' is a lively opener whilst '4 Ever 2 Gether', which weighs in at over 5 minutes in length, is quite inspired.

ABC were joined by the original orchestral team of Southbank Sinfonia and longtime collaborator and arranger Anne Dudley who conducted the evening. However, one has to wonder what Trevor Horn would do if he dared to do a surround mix or revisit of this masterwork. ABC was formed by Stephen Singleton and Mark White following the breakup of electronic band Vice Versa. A year after its release, Horn, Langan, Dudley and Jeczalik formed the Art of Noise, and most of the production team and session musicians on the album formed the basis for the ZTT label.

In case it’s not clear from the above, there is no CD version of The Lexicon of Love available as part of this 40th anniversary campaign! All four Steven Wilson mixes are previously unreleased and an instrumental version of the album is entirely unheard (and fascinating! I had this album many times over the years, first on tape and then on CD, I actually got this latest one just purchased from the USA as its getting harder to find it now. I talked them into getting a better bass player, which maybe wasn't a kind thing to do,” he said, "[but] Brad Lang was quite brilliant".