Released September 1981 Penthouse and Pavement
(1981) The Luxury Gap
(1983) Release date September 1981 Genre Electropop | Length 50:32 ¹ Artist Heaven 17 Label Virgin Records | |
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Recorded Sheffield, Maison Rouge Producer British Electric Foundation Similar Heaven 17 albums, Electropop albums | ||
Heaven 17 penthouse and pavement 1981 full album
Penthouse and Pavement is the debut studio album by the English synthpop band Heaven 17. It was originally released in September 1981, on the label Virgin.
Contents
- Heaven 17 penthouse and pavement 1981 full album
- Heaven 17 we don t need this fascist groove thang
- Reception
- Track listing
- Personnel
- Chart performance
- Songs
- References
"(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" was released as a single, but did not achieve chart success partly due to a ban by the BBC. The album sold reasonably well, but was not a great commercial success on release. It has since been regarded as "an important outing", is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, and was re-released in 2010 in a three-disc special edition. The title track was included on the soundtrack of the 1993 erotic thriller film Sliver.
Heaven 17 we don t need this fascist groove thang
Reception
Whilst the singles charted poorly, the album charted at No. 14 and remained in the Top 100 for 77 weeks. It was certified gold (100,000 copies sold) by the BPI in October 1982.
Dan LeRoy in a retrospective review for AllMusic felt that the album combined electropop with good melodies, and that Glenn Gregory was able to handle the "overtly left-wing political" lyrics without sounding "pretentious".
The album is included in the musical reference book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Track listing
All tracks written by Martyn Ware, Ian Craig Marsh, and Glenn Gregory.
The album was reproduced live in its entirety in a series of concerts the band held throughout 2010, one of which (in Sheffield) was filmed and shown on BBC Two on 16 May 2010. The following night a documentary about the making of the album was screened; this was later included on a new three-disc special edition of the album released in November 2010.
Personnel
Chart performance
Album
Singles
† Released as a 12" single only.
Songs
1(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang4:16
2Penthouse and Pavement6:20
3Play To Win3:33