Heaven 17 - The Luxury Gap

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.

Review by Dan LeRoy

Review by Didier BECU

In Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange, Heaven Seventeen is the band that scores a hit with “Inside”. In real life, Ian Craig Marsh, Martyn Ware and Glenn Gregory scored hits as well, even monster hits.

When Ian and Martyn left the original line-up of The Human League, they not only were involved in the production company that B.E.F. (British Electric Foundation) was, but they also founded a band which has the right to claim that they are one of the most groundbreaking bands in the early synthpop area. While their formers partners became the ultimate hit machine, who sang about waitresses who worked in cocktail bars, the Heaven 17 story was a much more complicated one.

“Penthouse and Pavement” might be one of the finest synthpop albums ever, but back in 1981 they were facing a radio boycott as some stupid DJ refused to play “We Don’t Need This Fascist Groove Thang”. “The Luxury Gap” had a very difficult start as the first single taken from this album “Let Me Go” didn’t succeed in entering the UK-charts. A bit impossible to believe as now it’s one of the classics of the 80’s, but luckily enough a dance floor banger “Temptation” reached number two.

Album opener “Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry” still has the echo from their schizophrenic synthpop that marked their debut, but on this album their synthpop embraced the 80’s funk pop and becomes a perfect example from how good pop albums used to be back then. Perhaps, songs like “Key To The World” or “Lady Ice And Mr Hex” are a bit dated, but for the rest there’s only one name for these songs: classics!

Ripped from the 2006 CD to MP3

1 - Crushed by the Wheels of Industry

2 - Who'll Stop the Rain

3 - Let Me Go

4 - Key to the World

5 - Temptation

6 - Come Live With Me

7 - Lady Ice and Mr Hex

8 - We Live So Fast

9 - The Best Kept Secret

10 - Let Me Go (Extended Mix)

11 - Who'll Stop the Rain (Dub)

12 - Crushed by the Wheels of Industry (Part 1 and 2)

13 - Come Live With Me (12" Version)