2008 album from Martin Fry and company, the long-awaited follow-up to their excellent 1997 album Skyscraping. 'The Very First Time' is one of a number of tracks written whilst touring America last year, while `16 Seconds' was written on a tour bus in Europe and reflects on how fast life is in the 21st century. Fry says of the new album "It's a cosmopolitan record and it's about today - about the journeys people are making today, country to country, internet traffic, human traffic, moving from the past to the present to the future.''. 12 tracks. Borough Music. Album Description
 |  | ABC Circa 2008 - Martin Fry in Fine Form! |  |
As a long-time ABC fan for over 25 years, I eagerly awaited for ABC's new TRAFFIC CD, their first real full-length CD of new music since 1997's SKYSCRAPING 11 years ago - and the wait was worth it! This isn't ABC resting on its laurels, but creating state-of-the-art pure pop confections all informed and elevated by Martin Fry's still-suave voice and clever wordplay - is there any contemporary singer-songwriter aside from Elvis Costello who knows his way around a quick-witted couplet? Tracks like THE VERY FIRST TIME, WAY BACK WHEN, LOVE IS STRONG, RIDE, and more all compare to the best ABC tracks over the years - the soaring sonics of LEXICON OF LOVE paired with the guitar attack of BEAUTY STAB but updated for '08 sensibilities. Taken as a whole, the CD is very impressive and a solid listen all the way through, considering ABC has been churning out singles for almost almost three decades. Too bad U.S. radio and/or MTV/VH1 won't touch this: TRAFFIC deserves to be a hit on both sides of the Atlantic. Martin Fry and Co. are still "so hip it hurts."
August 17, 2008| | | I have missed ABC, its been too long! | |
I am going to see them in the ReGeneration tour at the end of the month and wanted to check out the latest music. Very good CD but this is not an 80's flashback, it has a modern sound.
Should be in alot more music buyers collections than it probably is.
August 5, 2008 | | Finally! Great new ABC music | |
i have been waiting for this new ABC cd since i heard the first whisperings of a new album. the music is great! Very ABC! but not a "stuck in the 80's" sound. it's fresh and modern but with that incredible melody, harmony, smooth production, and clever "rhyming couplets" that fans like myself want from Martin Fry. i wish Mark White were still interested in participating in the music; but the collection of songs certainly isn't lacking from it. "Sixteen Seconds" (the first track) is a touch "hard rockin" for me but still a great song.
June 14, 2008Martin Fry and David Robinson, two fifths of the original ABC, join many other session players for ABC's eighth album, "Traffic". It's been 11 years since ABC's last effort, the mostly solo Fry, on "Skyscraping." Fry and Robinson do an adequate job with reasonable material. There are some good songs here like "Sixteen Seconds To Choose", "The Very First Time", "Life Shapes You", "Way Back When" and "Fugitives", but there are other places like "Caroline", "Validation", "Minus Love", "Lose Yourself" and "Love Is Strong" where the material does not hold up. "One Way Traffic" even sounds like a Duran Duran song!
I was hoping for something more considering that Fry obtained Robinson for the first time in 25 years. To me, though, ABC began to unravel around 1989's "Up", and Fry hasn't quite been able to recover. It sure would be nice if Mark White, Stephen Singleton and Mark Lickley would re-join to make the complete picture.
Instead, we have "Traffic", which is much like a cross between 1983's "Beauty Stab" and 1997's "Skyscraping". A slight extension of the latter, and just a touch of the former. "Traffic" is good ABC, but not their best. The best thing is just having a new ABC album to listen to, and that will do for another decade.
June 6, 2008After listening to this album a couple of times it really grew on me. All the songs are real catchy and unique; now it's all I listen to. Martin's voice sounds great and the music is outstanding, if you enjoy ABC than you will definitely enjoy this album.
May 5, 2008More reviews at Amazon.com ...
