Spandau Ballet
Journeys to Glory

THE REVIEW

"To Cut A Long Story Short": the opening single, which was released a few months before the album, synthesizes in 3 minutes and 20 seconds the musical line of the entire work, sharp and minimal but rich in great imagination and elegance. The sound has evident references to Post-punk which prevailed in those early '80s days, but on the whole, it is revisited in a decidedly Pop-rock key, which, with a few too many synthesizers, comes to define a new fresh and immediate sound, labeled as "New Romantic." The explosion of this phenomenon was made famous, besides Spandau, also by the mythical success of the fake-rivals Duran Duran, who at the same time were releasing their self-titled album on the market.

"Journeys to glory" still presents a simple musicality and a somewhat minimal taste for arrangements, especially in the guitar parts, as evidenced by the catchy "Reformation", followed closely by the minimal Post-punk of "Mandolin". "Muscle Bound" is a sort of marching whine, with our guys' choruses defining a fairly convincing refrain, even if made disorienting by the particular musicality of the track. The course of the album then seems to be descending, but here the instrumental "Age Of Blows" (a wonderful demonstration of epic melodies) and "The Freeze" bring the sound back to satisfying levels, suspended between minimalism, romanticism, and freshness. In my opinion, the best tracks of this sharp debut are the last two: "Confused" and "Toys". The first is a melodic rock laden with synths and dominated by the theatrical (and underrated) voice of Tony Hadley, while the second immediately starts with an epic tone, with a chorus performed without a voice and replaced by a fantastic guitar riff, which gives the track a strong triumphant component, made explicit in the finale dominated by choruses and synthesizer.

A record that I liked instantly, and which in my opinion is much more original than it seems at first glance. Certainly, it won't touch the perfection (in terms of production and writing) of colleagues like Duran Duran, Japan, and Talk Talk, but still proves to be an important piece for the explosion of a new subgenre that influenced dozens of artists in the years to come.