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Abracadabra (ABC album)
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Abracadabra (ABC album)
Abracadabra is the sixth studio album by the English band ABC. It was originally released in August 1991, on the label EMI. It was the final ABC album to feature founding member Mark White, who departed the band in 1992.
ABC moved to the EMI label, where they recorded the album Abracadabra, a tightly produced fusion of early 1990s techno sounds and 1970s dance grooves which was met with muted critical approval and appreciation from the band's fan base.
The first single, "Love Conquers All", peaked at No. 47 on the UK Singles Chart and remixes of "Say It" (done by Black Box) were well received on the US dance charts.
In a 1997 interview, ABC's lead singer Martin Fry said of the album, "Went round in circles making this. Started in the U.S. in Detroit, Chicago and New York City. Scrapped a lot of music to get to the finished record. Finished it at the Townhouse, Shepherd's Bush. A low."
In a 2004 appearance on VH1's Bands Reunited, Fry said of White's departure: "We signed this big record deal with EMI in Europe and the level of expectation was so high. You felt it every day. And we made a record, and midway through it Mark just says 'I can't do it any more, I've had enough'. And I said to him 'you should persist, you know, let's finish the record'. And at that point he just said 'look I quit, I've had enough, I don't want to do it any more'."
In a 2006 interview, Fry spoke of the album, saying: "We got a massive deal with EMI, but, by then, the group had really burned out .... Some of the record worked. 'Love Conquers All,' and 'Spellbound,' with Phil Manzanera (from Roxy Music), worked. There's some moments on it. What can I say? I'm very critical, very critical."
In a 2009 interview, Fry summed up each ABC album, and said of Abracadabra that it was "A hybrid of different genres, it's idealistic really. You can hear the civil war internally as our lucrative opportunity to make the album of our career slithered through our hands. We perfected the music and atmosphere that became the record, yet the process was indirectly intense."
Upon its release, Betty Page of NME noted the album finds ABC "on the mellow tip, producing the sort of smooth, liquid sound that they'd have killed for in those early, faltering days". She noted that "at times it almost touches on the languidity of late Roxy Music" and there's a "quietly confident maturity about this record that makes it wash over you in warm waves". She concluded, "There's nothing cutting-edge about ABC here, but Abracadabra has a soothing, reflective quality which oozes contentedness." Paul Lester of Melody Maker felt the album "exposes an even deeper love for black American funk and soul" than ABC's previous work, with many of the songs either "borrow[ing] liberally from, or are faithful reconstructions of, essential late Seventies/early Eighties dancehall memories". He felt that ABC "lovingly recreate some of the genre's finest moments" on the album and also noted the "lavish production techniques and exquisite details". He warned that some may find Fry's "occasionally hackneyed lyrical devices hard to take" and added, "Certainly the LP's more drippy moon-June couplets and corny elemental imagery rankle, not least because this was the crooner who once subverted every known cliché in The Lexicon Of Love."
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Abracadabra (ABC album)
Abracadabra is the sixth studio album by the English band ABC. It was originally released in August 1991, on the label EMI. It was the final ABC album to feature founding member Mark White, who departed the band in 1992.
ABC moved to the EMI label, where they recorded the album Abracadabra, a tightly produced fusion of early 1990s techno sounds and 1970s dance grooves which was met with muted critical approval and appreciation from the band's fan base.
The first single, "Love Conquers All", peaked at No. 47 on the UK Singles Chart and remixes of "Say It" (done by Black Box) were well received on the US dance charts.
In a 1997 interview, ABC's lead singer Martin Fry said of the album, "Went round in circles making this. Started in the U.S. in Detroit, Chicago and New York City. Scrapped a lot of music to get to the finished record. Finished it at the Townhouse, Shepherd's Bush. A low."
In a 2004 appearance on VH1's Bands Reunited, Fry said of White's departure: "We signed this big record deal with EMI in Europe and the level of expectation was so high. You felt it every day. And we made a record, and midway through it Mark just says 'I can't do it any more, I've had enough'. And I said to him 'you should persist, you know, let's finish the record'. And at that point he just said 'look I quit, I've had enough, I don't want to do it any more'."
In a 2006 interview, Fry spoke of the album, saying: "We got a massive deal with EMI, but, by then, the group had really burned out .... Some of the record worked. 'Love Conquers All,' and 'Spellbound,' with Phil Manzanera (from Roxy Music), worked. There's some moments on it. What can I say? I'm very critical, very critical."
In a 2009 interview, Fry summed up each ABC album, and said of Abracadabra that it was "A hybrid of different genres, it's idealistic really. You can hear the civil war internally as our lucrative opportunity to make the album of our career slithered through our hands. We perfected the music and atmosphere that became the record, yet the process was indirectly intense."
Upon its release, Betty Page of NME noted the album finds ABC "on the mellow tip, producing the sort of smooth, liquid sound that they'd have killed for in those early, faltering days". She noted that "at times it almost touches on the languidity of late Roxy Music" and there's a "quietly confident maturity about this record that makes it wash over you in warm waves". She concluded, "There's nothing cutting-edge about ABC here, but Abracadabra has a soothing, reflective quality which oozes contentedness." Paul Lester of Melody Maker felt the album "exposes an even deeper love for black American funk and soul" than ABC's previous work, with many of the songs either "borrow[ing] liberally from, or are faithful reconstructions of, essential late Seventies/early Eighties dancehall memories". He felt that ABC "lovingly recreate some of the genre's finest moments" on the album and also noted the "lavish production techniques and exquisite details". He warned that some may find Fry's "occasionally hackneyed lyrical devices hard to take" and added, "Certainly the LP's more drippy moon-June couplets and corny elemental imagery rankle, not least because this was the crooner who once subverted every known cliché in The Lexicon Of Love."