Beauty Stab by ABC

Remembering the surprising second album by the pop act

I went to the University of Sheffield, home of ABC, who were in the process of breaking up just as I arrived in 1990. Even as someone who consciously avoided chart music at the time, I was well aware of the band and their brilliant early 80s singles: The Look of Love, Poison Arrow and All of my Heart. What I was not aware of at the time, was their fascinating attempt at reinvention on their second album: Beauty Stab.

With a desire to “go in a totally different direction” the band moved away from the brittle pop sheen of The Lexicon of Love, cranking up Mark White’s guitar to produce a rock album, albeit one that still has a patina of pop magic throughout it. I think it’s excellent, and is certainly deserving of reappraisal, given that it was an album that quickly dropped out of the charts at the time.

Side one

The album opens with lead single, That …