The Luxury Gap in Bloomington, MN

After creating a marvelous electronic debut,
Glenn Gregory
,
Ian Marsh
, and
Martyn Ware
decided to tamper with their winning formula a bit on
Heaven 17
's 1983 follow-up to
Penthouse and Pavement
. The result, which added piano, strings, and
Earth, Wind, & Fire
's horn section to the band's cool synthesizer pulse, was even better, and
The Luxury Gap
became one of the seminal albums of the
British new wave
. The best-known track remains
"Let Me Go,"
a club hit that features
Gregory
's moody, dramatic lead above a percolating vocal and synth arrangement. But even better is the mechanized
Motown
of
"Temptation,"
a deservedly huge British smash that got a shot of genuine
soul
from
R&B
singer
Carol Kenyon
. Nearly every song ends up a winner, though, as the album displays undreamed-of range. If beat-heavy
techno
anthems like
"Crushed By the Wheels of Industry"
were expected of
, the melodic sophistication of
"The Best Kept Secret"
and
"Lady Ice and Mr. Hex"
-- both of which sound almost like
show tunes
-- wasn't. If there's a flaw, it's that while the band's leftist messages were more subtle and humorous than most of their time, they still seem rather naive. But the music, which showed just how warm
electro-pop
's usually chilly grooves could be, is another matter entirely. [Note to collectors: there were differences in the original British and American pressings of the album. The 1997 reissue by
Caroline
follows the order of the British pressing, adding some extended remixes.] ~ Dan LeRoy