Heaven 17 - The Luxury Gap (1983)

Note: this release was originally purchased as a LP, later replaced by a CD. My copy is the 1997 release from Caroline Records with 3 bonus tracks.

This was the band's sophomore effort, a follow-up to 1981's Penthouse and Pavement. Usually a group's second album isn't as good as the first, but that isn't the case here. In fact, the band actually takes it up a notch here by adding strings, piano, and a horn section to the band's synth and Linndrum sound. The writing improved as well. Allmusic.com calls this "one of the seminal albums of the British new wave." As with the group's first album, there were different UK & US versions of this album with two different songs and a different sequencing. This CD is true to the British version, but it's easy enough these days to recreate the sequencing I remember from my youth. This music is just fun Synthpop meets Britfunk.

Press of the time:

• Rolling Stone (★★★½ ): "Humanity, of all things, is the critical advantage that British synth-pop trio Heaven 17 enjoys over most of its technopeers."
• Smash Hits (8½ out of 10): "by turns entertaining, irritating, danceable, thoughtful and downright daft"
• Stereo Review: "makes it possible to dance to some of today's most pressing social issues"
• Trouser Press: "one hell of a band"
• Robert Christgau (B+): "Nowhere else in music or sociology will you learn so much about the would-be hedonists who live the technopop/Anglodisco life."

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #72
Peak on CashBox album chart: #97

Tracks: This album contains my two favorite H17 tunes: Temptation and Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry. The latter of those two may have a spot on my list of Top 10 '80s tunes. It's just a great dance tune. Other top tracks are Let Me Go (even though I didn't like it at first listen) and We Live So Fast. There are some not-so-good tracks here, like Key To The World and Come Live With Me, that I should probably skip but I still listen to them because I know them so well, I still remember the lyrics. I always skipped the final ballad, The Best Kept Secret, and have the desire to do so now.

Bonus tracks: this disc adds extended mixes of Let Me Go, Temptation, and Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry. By adding 15 minutes of additional music, that's simply more of a good thing. I'm biased towards Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry, but you knew that already.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Released in '83, this is a "senior year" album for me. I listened a lot to Heaven 17 back then, but couldn't get any of my friends to enjoy their music. Then again, the band was never big in the US. I could very well have been the only person to own any Heaven 17 recordings in my small town.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Before After (2005)
Retox/Detox (1998)
Bigger Than America (1996)
Endless (1986)
Penthouse and Pavement (1981)
B.E.F. - Music for Listening To (1981)