FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD
Welcome To The Pleasuredome (ZTT)
When a group has stamped its sound and style so thoroughly on a year as Frankie did on 1984, there can be a problem moving on. A short time later the same style and sound that took you to the top can sound dated.
The Escape Act: where Frankie try to become a long-term chart-topping group, a Duran Duran.
At first this appeared a strange way of attempting that feat. Releasing a fourth single off the album looked like going back rather than forwards.
But it now seems to me that ‘Welcome’ is in fact saying goodbye, heralding the end of this particular Frankie type of song. On the B-side may lie the future.
’Happy Hi’ sees Frankie in a new mood. Quirky, whimsical, it is genuinely different. On the evidence of it I’ll put my head on the chopping block to predict that Frankie won’t be a one year wonder after all.
Play Frankie, play on.