Pete Shelley – XL-1

This is the result of Pete Shelley (keyboard programming, guitar, voice), Barry Adamson ex Visage and Magazine (bass), Jim Russell ex The Inmates (drums) and sir Martin Rushent (keyboards, programming) having a go at being an up to date (1983) pop music outfit, as opposed to the minimal guitar, drum machine, synthesizer instrumentation on Homosapien. Shelley had experimented with electronic music before he even discovered punk, so this whole-hearted embrace of electropop was not out of character. He’d formed Buzzcocks in a similar spirit of spontaneity and was once again gripped by the where-it’s-at immediacy of a new type of music. While the result on XL-1 isn't quite as bracing as its predecessor, Shelley integrates layers of guitar into the electronic synth-pop; it sounds edgier, making the record fairly captivating. The vibe is heavier and while tracks like lead single "Telephone Operator", “Many A Time” and “If You Ask Me (I Won’t Say No)” are excellent, it’s a little bogged down by the production. If we agree on the fact that you just can't make the same record more than once, this is a more than reasonable continuation of its predecessor.

Ripped from the 1999 CD reissue to MP3

Pete Shelley; XL-1

1.      Telephone Operator

2.      If You Ask Me (I Won’t Say No)

3.      What Was Heaven?

4.      You Know Better Than I Know

5.      Twilight

6.      (Millions Of People) No One Like You

7.      Many A Time

8.      I Just Wanna Touch

9.      You And I

10.   XL1

11.   If You Ask Me/No One Like You (Dub)

12.   Telephone Operator/Many A Time (Dub)