Track Listing

1. Sixteen Seconds To Choose
2. The Very First Time
3. Ride
4. Love Is Strong
5. Caroline
6. Life Shapes You
7. One Way Traffic
8. Way Back When
9. Validation
10. Lose Yourself
11. Fugitives
12. Minus Love

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #62654 in Music
• Released on: 2008-04-28
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .10 pounds

Album Description
ABC, one of the most original and enduring bands of the last three decades, are back with a brand new album. Following the re-release of a Special Edition of the iconic album `Lexicon of Love' in 2004, lead singer Martin Fry is delighted with the new material. "TRAFFIC is 12 brand new songs, and in 2008 it's a real privilege to be able to compete after 25 years of making music," he says. "These days there has to be a good reason to release an ABC record. It's a real labour of love. There's no point in writing a song unless you are inspired."

`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."

Customer Reviews

The Hero's Return !
I remember the revered pop-journalist Paul Lester remarking in 1990 how he was often mocked by his peers for suggesting that ABC (and the Pet Shop Boys) were the future of pop. I never think for a moment Paul was referring to sales or suggesting they would ever recreate the impact they had in 82, however I do believe he was recognising Martin Fry's ability to pen great, classic pop material - and this should be a blueprint, perhaps a Platonic "Form" by which all future pop should model itself against.

Traffic is an exceptional album and for my money Martin Fry's most mature work - long gone is the melodrama of Lexicon or eccentricity of Zillionaire. Traffic is tempered by the priceless wisdom of age, and is all the more uplifting for it. "Caroline" is playing in the background as I write, and I can't help but salute Martin's renaissance. The melody blossoms from nowhere, sounds so organic, sophisticated and is the very antithesis of much of the contrived radio fodder we're fed with these days!

Martin was always a closet rocker - and as he did with "Rolling Sevens" and "Love Is It's Own Reward" on Skyscraping, he shows us once again he can hold his own with this genre with the opening track "16 Seconds To Choose". If the fates had been kinder to Beauty Stab, there's no doubting ABC would've have been packing arenas with guitar bombast. Martin is an extremely versatile writer, but the public have shallow perceptions - the lamé suit, for all it's benefits has been as much a shackle too.

In my opinion, Martin excels himself with "Validation" and "Lose Yourself". Perfect radio material - and as a fledgling music publisher myself, I can assure you these tracks can be perfectly placed for licensing to ad agencies! There's little profit to be made from sales, but if we want to hear more ABC in the future Martin must exploit these avenues. This by no means denigrates the tracks, they're "fantastic compositions" (nod) - but to ensure we don't have to wait another 11 years, PLEASE make the most of these 2 wonderful tunes. I notice Martin has no publisher attached to the album either...not for long I suspect!

Love Is Strong appears to be a fan favourite in the early feedback, and rightly so - the song embraces the cinematic elements of ABC earlier material and has an emotional power that resonates. Not a single, but certainly an album defining tune.

"Minus Love" reminds me of "One Day"(Alphabet City) with it's romantic 80's R&B styling, "Life Shapes You" - exhilarating, life affirming. The combined production skills of Fry, Kentis and Palmer must also be congratulated - it's a very accomplished sound, a high quality recording that will sound gorgeous through your Wharfedales! (I must say how nice it is to hear Dave Palmer's signature "closed-hat" rolls throughout the album...)

Martin, this is a brilliant work. I wish you all the recognition and success you deserve - now take the album out live, and leave behind everything pre-1990. You've done the cabaret circuit, now let's see the real ABC...That Was Then, This is NOW!

M.

Highly Recommended!
It's incredibly frustrating being an ABC fan to say the least -having to wait 11 years for a new album is a long time- but unsurprisingly,the wait has certainly been well worth it.
Traffic has a little bit of everything from ABC's past but also a lot of new avenues are explored especially on the funk track "one way traffic" which reminds me of Duran Duran's skin Trade.
Opening song "16 seconds to choose" wouldn't sound out of place on ABC's second album Beauty Stab and radio hit "The Very First Time" is right up there with The Look of Love,Poison Arrow and When Smokey Sings in the catchiness stakes.
"Love is strong" and "Way back when" are reminiscent of How to be a Zillionaire's 'Be near me', while stand out track "Life shapes you" is surely a future hit?
Summing up ,Martin Fry's voice is as pure and strong as ever before and a major plus point sees a welcome return for Lexicon of Love drummer David Palmer (probably the best drummer on this or any other planet),co writing/producing.
Traffic is easily ABC's best album since Alphabet City ,every song has a perfect little hook that keeps you going back for more and more ,all wrapped up in a very stylish white digipack.
Welcome back Mr Fry- just don't leave it another 11 years 'til the next album.

It's up there with the best ABC***
Having been an avid ABC fan since the beginning, new ABC has been something that I have come to expect with little real hope and the nervous wondering of whether the wait will be worth it. The albums Up and Abracadabra never really did it for me. Then came skyscraping in 1997 (yay -a return to form) and apart from the odd track here or there, that's been it.

With the news Traffic was in the post I became worried. What if it was another "Up"...phew! It's not. It's a pearler with twelve diverse and entertaining vignettes that I have been loving since the first spin.

Martin is singing better than ever and the band are really cracking. The songwriting is as strong as anything out there today, the musicianship is superb and the production is crisp yet maintains a real warmth.

As much as I am a one-eyed ABC fan, I can acknowledge that there are some dodgy moments along the way. Traffic is not one of them.

I am truly happy to be able to say thet this is a fine album and will be getting lots of spins until the next ABC album, at this rate, due in 2019!