ALPHABET CITY

’80s pop sophisticates ABC return with The Lexicon Of Love II! Frontman Martin Fry explains all.

“Ifigured it was time to make a sequel to The Lexicon Of Love, about a man in his fifties, assessing if he’s learned anything from his travels,” says Martin Fry, with a flourish you’d expect from someone synonymous with pop at its most baroque. “It’s a big orchestral record, where you have a chance to catch up with the main character.” It’s March 2016 – 34 years since ABC released the single Poison Arrow, a miraculous blend of disco flamboyance and post-punk attack – and the urbane Fry is in a studio north of Bicester, putting the finishing touches to the follow-up to one of the best-loved albums of its era. Issued in June 1982, The Lexicon Of Love – featuring Poison Arrow and further singles The Look Of Love and All Of My Heart – became a benchmark for ’80s immaculacy and sonic derring-do. With its witty lyrics (Fry was more influenced by Cole Porter than anyone from the rock canon), epic production from Trevor Horn and as many strings as arranger Anne Dudley could cram into 37 minutes, it was a critical and commercial triumph, entering the charts at Number 1 and staying there for four weeks. It also proved something of an albatross, as subsequent albums failed to match its success. With only two long players released since 1991, the formerly cutting-edge ABC became regulars on the nostalgia circuit. But in 2009, ABC went back to find their future: Fry performed Lexicon live at London’s Royal Albert Hall, accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Dudley, to rapturous reviews. Further shows with Dudley and the Southbank Sinfonia made the new record inevitable.

“It’s all been leading up to this,” says Fry, explaining that 80 per cent of his latest songs will feature strings. “Through standing on a stage with an orchestra, I became interested in making a widescreen record with a lot of scope.” It’s as grandly symphonic as you could want, thanks to Dudley. Julien Temple has just filmed a video at Stratford East theatre – the location for the Poison Arrow clip – for first single, Viva Love. Even Paul Morley, the journalist whose fulsome prose helped make ABC a mainstream reality, is on board for sleevenote duties. But no other original members are involved, nor is Horn. Instead, Gary Stevenson is at the controls. “It would have been wonderful to work with Trevor again,” offers Fry, “but it would have been a bit like George Lucas and JJ Abrams in the same room.” With palatial soundscapes in place, Fry was similarly audacious lyrically: “You came, you saw, you taunted me/ High priestess powers anointed me,” he croons on The Flames Of Desire. Aware of the need to match the cascading images and puns from Lexicon, he has, to employ the 1982 parlance, Gone For It. “They’re unapologetically romantic – as much in the tradition of Rodgers & Hart as Rodgers & Edwards,” he says of his new songs, co-written with erstwhile Lady Gaga collaborator Rob Fusari. Fry, married for 30 years, says the lyrics concern “the way love and relationships can bloom, then fade and reignite”. This is the 1982 Fry – who he says was “pretty hyper” – grown up but “still trying to find something magic in a song”. “I really wanted to get back to the flavour and spirit of that first record,” he reflects. “But I didn’t want to do it through the eyes of the boy I was. And I want to take the audience forward with me if possible.” Back on a major label, all he has to do now is agree with them on a title. Fry, who notes that Oswald Boateng suits have now replaced the gold lamé gear of 1982, has in mind The Lexicon Of A Lost Ideal. The label prefer The Lexicon Of Love II. He may not need too much talking down. “I do listen to good advice these days,” says Fry, who would like to see LOL II filed beside the modern R&B of The Weeknd. “I love The Weeknd,” he says. “He’s a guy in his own movie. I wanted to make a record that defined, only from my perspective. A shiny, cheeky, cosmopolitan dance record.” Paul Lester

The Lexicon Of Love II is released by Virgin/ EMI on May 27.