Absolutely

Go to the back of the class anyone who thought that Abba would be followed by Adam and the Ants. First, we have ABC  

I think that they are one of the forgotten bands of the New Romantic era. Probably deservedly.

I never really got into them in the Eighties. I sort of liked them in that undiscriminating adolescent way of liking anything in the Charts now, that isn't actually crud or uncool.

I suppose the difficult thing about ABC is Martin Fry. Let's not beat about the bush. I really don't like his voice. It's too strident, almost to the point of aggression, which is not really appropriate for what are, effectively, bland mushy love songs. And I doubt he was on many walls of teenage girls back in the early-to mid Eighties. I certainly don't recall any of my contemporaries fancying him. Although one of my classmate's Mum went to cookery classes with his Dad. Oh yes, we were well connected to the pop world back then.

I'm playing this album, but I'm not especially enjoying it. It's not making me run round in a state of agitation or anything like that, but I can't help thinking: mediocre songs, over-produced, with unconvincing faux emotion, crooned by someone who can sing, sort of, but has an ugly voice, and backing vocals of the 'phone-it-in' school. The worst thing about this sort of 'Greatest Hits' retrospective of Never-Weres is the concept of 'Added Value'. The true fans will already have all the singles, and, in any case, the paltry array of hit singles is insufficient to fill a CD past the crucial 45 minute mark. So they put on additional bonus tracks, which are remixes of the garbage that has gone before, but with extra stuttering - because that 'scratching' was so cutting edge in the years before 1990, the date of this release.

Still, I shouldn't be too negative. I did, after all, buy it, and almost certainly for more real cash money than it is available now.