ABP: Something To Believe In (Link Records/1985)

Aberdeen, Scotland's APB was a fairly obscure band until their second single “Shoot You Down” began getting significant airplay on Long Island, NY's WLIR-FM. Their story is the kind of thing that generally speaking, just doesn't happen anymore. The bands' brand of danceable Gang Of Four- inflected funk was hugely popular in dance clubs in the early 1980's, so it's not that big of a shock that they'd appeal to an audience. Only according to the band, it was completely shocked when a major station in the US started playing the bands song, unprompted by anyone, simply because they liked it.

College radio had been generally more open to this sort of thing. Yet major stations with Alternative formats which embraced New Wave were becoming more and more influential. In short, this basically gave APB a career and their largest following was in the New York tri-state area.

The band issued eight singles from 1981 to 1985. They're all compiled on this 1985 compilation album on Link Records Something To Believe In. The tracks are “Shoot You Down” (and its' B-Side “Talk To Me”), “Palace Filled With Love”, “Rainy Day”, “One Day”, “What Kind Of Girl”, “Danceability”, “Summer Love”, “Something To Believe In” and its' B-Side “So Many Broken Hearts”. In my opinion, half of the album is great and holds up well. The other half, less-so.

The album was reissued on Young American Recordings as a double disk set in 2005 with many other unreleased tracks. Recommended if you see it in a used bin for $5 or under.   

Here's the video review:

Special thanks to: WLIR-FM.