FEATURE:
Vinyl Corner
Heaven 17 - The Luxury Gap
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AN album that people should…
check out on vinyl, I wanted to spotlight Heaven 17’s The Luxury Gap ahead of its fortieth anniversary. There is debate as to its release date. There are sources that say 25th April, 1983, whereas others date it earlier. I will take 25th April as the fortieth anniversary so, ahead of that, go and grab a copy of this classic on vinyl. The Sheffield trio of Glenn Gregory, Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh delivered a hugely impressive follow-up to their acclaimed 1981 debut, Penthouse and Pavement. You can get a copy of The Luxury Gap here. It is an album that demands repeated listens. One of the finest releases of 1983, it was the middle of three terrific albums where Heaven 17 were among the coolest acts on the planet. They released How Men Are in 1984. After that, the material was mixed in terms of quality. I think that The Luxury Gap is the best album from the trio. Released by Virgin Records – which seems appropriate given the title and the album cover somehow when you consider Richard Branson today -, It is the band's best-selling studio album, as it peaked at number four on the U.K. chart. Even though Penthouse and Pavement was a terrific album, singles such as (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang struggled. That song was actually banned by the BBC, as it concerned a denunciation of fascism and racism, seeming to apply to the political regimes of Margaret Thatcher in the U.K. and Ronald Reagan in the U.S. Perhaps the best-known single from The Luxury Gap is the epic Temptation. That reached number two in the U.K. Come Live with Me was also a big success,
Before rounding things up, I want to bring together a couple of really positive reviews for 1983’s The Luxury Gap. I am not sure whether there is a fortieth anniversary edition of the album planned. The first review that I want to come to is from AllMusic. Even if one might feel a group like Heaven 17 would not translate to U.S. audiences and critics, it did pick up some good reviews there. It reached seventy-two in the country and, in retrospective assessments, it has got a lot of love:
“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 Heaven 17, 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 naïve. 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.]”.
Regularly compared with another Synth-Pop group from Sheffield, The Human League, it is great that Heaven 17 released their debut in the same year (1981) as The Human League released the classic Dare. The Human League released Hysteria in 1984, but I that The Luxury Gap from the year before is a stronger album. Classic Pop reviewed the catalogue of Heaven 17 last year and had this to offer when they came to the group’s second studio album:
“After the maelstrom of creativity that birthed Penthouse And Pavement subsided, its follow-up two years later – recorded under the working title of Ashes And Diamonds – was more considered, increasingly refined, but no less passionate.
The Luxury Gap’s sonic boundaries expand upon the debut; Ware and Marsh’s production skills have clearly become more sophisticated as multiple influences are weaved into Heaven 17’s sound.
Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry is the common link between albums one and two; a tough, clanging industrial rhythm underpins the track, a call to arms to reject conformist 9-5 lifestyles (“It is time for a party/ Liberation for the nation now!”). John Wilson returns and his funky guitar provides nuance for a strong nigh-on six-minute opening statement of intent.
The Luxury Gap finds Heaven 17 beginning to lean more heavily on contemporary soul music for inspiration.
It’s clear, though, that the trio’s songwriting chops are evolving in other ways, too. This album includes two of their finest ballads – Let Me Go, which became H17’s biggest Stateside hit, and the 20-year age gap love affair tale of Come Live With Me (“Kiss the boys goodbye”).
Always conceived of as a studio-based project, Heaven 17 ploughed the money they would have spent in taking a live show out on the road on a string of ambitious videos, highlighting Gregory’s dashing blond good looks in the process: “Glenn was a bit of a big head and incredibly charismatic – perfect frontman material,” Ware once ruefully admitted when reminiscing about his first meeting with the singer at Sheffield experimental art project, Meat Whistle.
Political and ethical beliefs once more force their way to the surface on the brass-infused Key To The World, a stark warning about credit card culture that remains as pertinent now as it was almost 40 years ago (“My key to the world/ Buying items on your wish list/ It’s easier than you think”). The kicker, though, is the emotional distress it brings those of the ‘grab it now, pay later’ mindset (“Trying to fill the luxury gap has pushed me to the brink”).
Nick Plytas adds jazzy inflections to the almost Broadway showtune bounce of Lady Ice And Mr Hex – it’s a world away from the icy minimalism and harshness of Ware and Marsh’s Human League work. Equally theatrical is the dramatic closer The Best Kept Secret, conductor John Barker’s arrangement gives it an impressive orchestral swell. Who knew that Gregory could be so convincing as a torch singer?
Elevating the album to classic status is, in this writer’s eyes at least, a contender for best dance track of the 80s; the imperious, grandiose Temptation. Almost operatic in its ambition, Gregory’s duet with Carol Kenyon – this is so much more than a backing vocalist contribution – remains a rock-you-back-on-your-heels stand-out moment.
Arguably Heaven 17’s most rounded and expansive album, The Luxury Gap would be the biggest seller of their career. A Platinum success on home soil, it also made waves throughout Europe. Ware and Marsh had proved former manager Bob Last wrong, they could conjure up expansive electronic music that could slug it out with the big boys in the charts”.
If you do not own a copy of the remarkable The Luxury Gap, then do go and get a copy f it on vinyl. It is a wonderful album that you will want to listen to again and again. Starting with Crushed by the Wheels of Industry, Temptation opens the album’s second side. There is not a weak moment on Heaven 17’s…
REMARKABLE 1983 album.