FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD Pleasuredome US 1984 2 LP SET

This is their underrated 1984 debut double album on USA Island with gatefold cover & 2 custom innersleeves (even an order form for their wearable goods! & I think that's Claudia Brucken from Propaganda in some of the pictures) has pink/green green/brown labels on the records, this is the second USA issue with color labels like the other issue but a lot lighter (pastel like) colors used this time (Island 90232-I-H). AMG REVIEW: Strip away all the hype, controversy, and attendant craziness surrounding Frankie — most of which never reached American shores, though the equally bombastic "Relax" and "Two Tribes" both charted well — and Welcome to the Pleasuredome holds up as an outrageously over-the-top, bizarre but fun release. Less well-known but worthwhile cuts include by-definition-camp "Krisco Kisses" and "The Only Star in Heaven," while U.K. smash "The Power of Love" is a gloriously insincere but still great hyperballad with strings from Anne Dudley. In truth, the album's more a testament to Trevor Horn's production skills than anything else. To help out, he roped in a slew of Ian Dury's backing musicians to provide the music, along with a guest appearance from his fellow Yes veteran Steve Howe on acoustic guitar that probably had prog rock fanatics collapsing in apoplexy. The end result was catchy, consciously modern — almost to a fault — arena-level synth rock of the early '80s that holds up just fine today, as much an endlessly listenable product of its times as the Chinn/Chapman string of glam rock hits from the early '70s. Certainly the endless series of pronouncements from a Ronald Reagan impersonator throughout automatically date the album while lending it a giddy extra layer of appeal. Even the series of covers on the album at once make no sense and plenty of it all at once. While Edwin Starr's "War" didn't need redoing, Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" becomes a ridiculously over the top explosion that even out rocks the Boss. As the only member of the band actually doing anything the whole time (Rutherford pipes up on backing vocals and t, Johnson needs to make a mark and does so with appropriately leering passion. He didn't quite turn out to be the new Freddie Mercury, but he makes a much better claim than most, combining a punk sneer with an ear for hyper-dramatic yelps. — Ned Raggett SONGS: A1 Well... A2 The World Is My Oyster A3 Snatch Of Fury (Stay) A4 Welcome To The Pleasuredome B1 Relax B2 War B3 Two Tribes C1 Ferry (Go) C2 Born To Run C3 San Jose C4 Wish (The Lads Were D1 Krisco Kisses D2 Black Night White Light D3 The Only Star In Heaven D4 The Power Of Love D5 ...Bang CONDITION: The records are near mint condition, innersleeves are VG+ with seam splits, cover is excellent with aging/dirtyness on the spine & other very light overall wear over the past 25 years. THANKS FOR CHECKING OUT MY ITEM ON EBAY BUT PLEASE READ ALL INFO ABOVE & BELOW BEFORE ASKING QUESTIONS, ABOUT 90% OF QUESTIONS I’M GETTING FROM EBAY CUSTOMERS ARE ALREADY ANSWERED EITHER ABOVE OR BELOW OR ON MY SHIPPING RATES PAGE, THANK YOU. I DO NOT ACCEPT BEST OFFER & PRICES ARE FIRM ON EVERYTHING I SELL ON EBAY. GRADING: I pretty much use the Goldmine & Record Collector magazines standards for grading, I can send you a link for details in depth about record/cover grading. I've been selling records & CD's professionally for over 20 years now & I try to be accurate in my grading (read my feedbacks on that, records are always VISUALLY graded only unless stated). LP SHIPPING + PACKING & VARIOUS INFO: I use real coated cardboard LP mailers when I ship vinyl & these are very durable. I usually take the records with the inner sleeves out of the covers (unless factory sealed of course) so they don't split the seams of the cover in shipment. Then I put them in a 2 or 3 mil plastic sleeve & then wrap a plastic bag or two around them to keep them from flopping around in the mailer, this method seems to work best since it adds air & almost works like bubble wra... read more