| Envy | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Ambitious Lovers |
| Cover: | envious_ambition.jpg |
| Recorded: | BC Studio, Brooklyn, NY |
| Genre: | New wave |
| Length: | 32:46 |
| Label: | E.G. |
| Producer: | Arto Lindsay, M. E. Miller and Peter Scherer |
| Next Title: | Greed |
| Next Year: | 1988 |
Envy is the debut album by Ambitious Lovers.[1] [2] It was released in 1984 through E.G. Records. The album marked the first entry in what, at one point, was supposed to be a seven-album series on the seven deadly sins.
Arto Lindsay, who grew up in Brazil, incorporates on the album many elements of that country's heritage.[3] Most of the music was written by keyboardist Peter Scherer.[4]
Trouser Press wrote that "Lindsay’s words are tantalizingly oblique, but there’s nothing oblique about his record’s lusty cry for recognition."[5] Maximum Rocknroll called the album "slick and subdued," writing that Lindsey is "one of the few improv dudes who can make you laugh."[6] MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide called it "shocking in its juxtapositions."[7]
John Leland of Spin called it, "the most generous and appealing work Lindsay has ever done. He brings his formerly anti-pop trademarks — demented, chicken-scratch guitar, fragmented lyrics, idiosyncratic compositions, choppy rhythms — intact into a contemporary pop format."[8]
The hook in "Let's Be Adult" is also in the song "Song 4 Mutya (Out of Control)" by Groove Armada.