Love Conquers All (ABC song) explained

Love Conquers All
Cover:ABC Love Conquers All.jpg
Type:single
Artist:ABC
Album:Abracadabra
B-Side:What's Good About Goodbye?
Released:15 July 1991
Recorded:1991
Genre:Synth-pop
Label:EMI, Parlophone
Producer:Martin Fry, Mark White
Prev Title:The Look of Love '90
Prev Year:1990
Next Title:Say It
Next Year:1991

"Love Conquers All" is a single by new wave group ABC, released as the lead single from their sixth studio album Abracadabra in July 1991.

The song's music video, shot mostly in black-and-white, features scenes of various people doing random actions, intercut with footage of Martin Fry and Mark White performing the song and the seahorse from the Abracadabra album cover.

Critical reception

Upon its release, Paul Lester of Melody Maker praised the song as a "sparkling addition to the ABC oeuvre" and described it as "disco as in 'Southern Freeez' or an old Whispers love-thing". He noted the band "continue to face tomorrow with their best foot dancefloorward" and added that the B-side, "What's Good About Goodbye?", "makes me long for that pre-Pixies/Roses, pre-postantirockist time when bands yearned to sound modern and technologically advanced".[1] Sally Margaret Joy of Melody Maker was less enthusiastic in her review, calling the song "merely vapid", with the "only clue to a former glory [being] the upward bubbling of a watery whistle during the verses". She also noted the "pick 'n' mix chocolate box lyrics" that "passed muster" on The Lexicon of Love, but "sound all wrong now".[2] Andrew Collins of NME commented that the song "sounds like ABC would've sounded in 1982 if it had been 1991, if you see what I mean". He added, "It's so slick it just slid off my turntable and then slimed off down the road. No great loss, really."[3]

Charts

Chart (1991)Peak
position
German Singles Chart[4] 36
Swiss Singles Chart[5] 22
UK Singles Chart[6] 47

Notes and References

  1. Lester . Paul . 6 July 1991 . Singles . . 29.
  2. Joy . Sally Margaret . 20 July 1991 . Singles . . 32.
  3. Collins . Andrew . 27 July 1991 . Singles . . 22.
  4. Web site: charts.de . https://web.archive.org/web/20140717120423/http://www.officialcharts.de/song.asp?artist=ABC&title=Love+Conquers+All&country=de . dead . 17 July 2014 . charts.de . 2012-06-23.
  5. Web site: Steffen Hung . ABC - Love Conquers All . hitparade.ch . 2012-06-23.
  6. Web site: The Official Charts Company - Love Conquers All by ABC Search . 6 May 2013. The Official Charts Company.