ABC - How to Be a...Zillionaire!
#416/1051
October 1985
ABC
How to Be a…Zillionaire!
Genre: SynthPop
3.75 out of 5
Highlights:
Be Near Me
It’s impossible to ignore the pop confection of “Be Near Me”. It’s as good as anything Martin Fry has ever written and, in fact, it really belongs in a Broadway show. I think that’s what he always was, anyway. ABC’s sense of theater coupled with their catchiest hooks makes me wonder why this hasn’t actually happened? Is there any other band that is shouting, “Make a jukebox musical out of our catalog!”?
Well, yes. Jukebox the Ghost.
But, you get it.
When he’s at his most unctuous (“Ocean Blue”) I just wanna get off the fucking train. It’s another of those moments when I realize how much garbage MTV tried to foist on us and how much we ate up…
When does 120 minutes fire up?
He does sort of out-Adam Adam Ant on “15 Story Halo”. Adam’s never sounded this Ant-y. “A-Z” is so dumb it’s actually fun and the Thomas Dolby-ism of the title track is also kind of infectious.
Like all previous ABC records, it’s fun and forgettable. Nothing I’d return to, nothing I’d run to turn off when it came on.
