ABC★★★: Look Good Tonight – UK – 7″ [2022]

1. Look Good Tonight
2. Sixty Seconds Later

It’s hard to believe that only eleven days ago we wrote about the desirable new 7″ by ABC★★★ that was bundled with the latest issue of Electronic Sound magazine in the UK. I was surprised to see it in my mailbox last Friday afternoon after a week had just passed. The last two ABC★★★ songs to previously trickle out as DLs were not the band proffering their normal A-list material. Would this B-side to the somewhat tragic “Look Good Tonite” on the A-side fare better?

Gimme a “Hell, yeah!”

While the other two songs sounded like cut-rate EDM laptop productions, “Sixty Seconds Later” was obviously an outtake from the last ABC★★★ opus, “The Lexicon of Love II.” The very real Anne Dudley arranged strings in the intro were a dead giveaway. Then the track began a crisply paced Disco vibe, abetted by the deft bass work of Vinzenz Benjamin [Go West] that gave our ears a lot to chew on.

The song struck just the right stance between a late 70s Chic groove that met Martin Fry’s penchant for Tin Pan Alley classicism head on. Fry’s co-writers here were Marcus Vere [Go West] and Charlie Mole; each of them up to their necks in the “Lexicon Of Love II” album. The big joy of this song was the fact that having been recorded during those sessions, the full band sound here gave ABC★★★ all the production value that Fry’s songs thrive best with.

The shimmery wah-wah guitar licks here were tantalizingly to the point in their brevity; actually making my ears crave even more. There were twin guitars here, and I could not tell if I was hearing either Richard Barrett [Go West] or producer Gary Stevenson. Only that I was hearing the best wah-wah this band has employed since the heady days of “How To Be A Zillionaire.” Yet the instrumental middle eight had plenty of Rock crunch on the dirtier lead guitar that kept it to the wild side of any Love Unlimited Orchestra comparisons.

At the end of the day, it was down to the light-as-air orchestra to carry the melody across the finish line in the winsome coda. Hearing this tune has me wondering how many other tracks this good were juggled for LOLII and ultimately discarded to leave us with a tight neoclassic ABC★★★ album six years ago? Hard to believe that it was that long ago, but Martin Fry is not known to rush things, so let’s be thankful that this minor gem has been doled out to Electronic Sound for their latest issue.

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