Spandau Ballet True Blue (180g vinyl LP )

Release date: 10-08-2015(originally released in 1983)

2015 EU reissue ( 180g vinyl LP )

True made British New Wave heroes Spandau Ballet worldwide stars.  Singles from the album include the title track, "Gold" (a no. 2 UK hit and a Top 30 hit in the U.S.), "Lifeline", "Communication", and "Pleasure".

Tracks:
A1 Pleasure
A2 Communication
A3 Code Of Love
A4 Gold

B1 Lifeline
B2 Heaven Is A Secret
B3 Foundation
B4 True

True is the third studio album by British New Wave heroes Spandau Ballet, one of the most successful groups to emerge during the New Romantic era. It was released in March 1983. While Spandau Ballet's first two albums earned them European popularity, True made them worldwide stars.

Leaving behind the then-fading New Romantic era, the band adapted a new sound on True: essentially a slick sheen over a set of Pop-R&B oriented tunes. This approach paid off: the album topped the UK charts and entered the Top 20 in the United States, all the while charting in numerous countries around the world. The title track spent four weeks at number 1 on the UK singles charts and went to number 4 in the United States.

Other singles from the album included "Gold" (a no. 2 UK hit and a Top 30 hit in the U.S.), "Lifeline", "Communication", and "Pleasure".

180 gram audiophile vinyl
Insert

 By 1983, with the new romantic movement they'd sprung from a rapidly fading memory, the members of Spandau Ballet showed they had no intention of traveling the same path. Always ambitious, the British quintet really got down to business: Gone were the kilts, frilly shirts, and makeup -- as well as the sometimes chilly electronics of their first two albums. Instead, after recording at Compass Point Studios in the sun-soaked Bahamas, the group turned up in smartly tailored suits, with a sleek and mainstream sound to match. That came courtesy of producers Steve Jolley and Tony Swain, who gave Spandau the sort of pop-R&B sheen that had produced hits for clients like Imagination. And it also reflected the growing skill of guitarist Gary Kemp, the band's primary songwriter, who crafted a set of tunes aimed squarely at the charts. The one that succeeded most spectacularly, of course, was the title cut, a glossily-updated Motown-style ballad that became one of the decade's biggest hits -- aided by a video that cast singer Tony Hadley as a young Frank Sinatra, crooning about the sound of his soul. But Kemp had more arrows in his quiver, as well; the catchy soft disco of "Communication" and "Lifeline" coyly suggests, rather than demands, listeners' presence on the dancefloor, while the suave, spy flick-inspired "Gold" finally gives Hadley an appropriately rich setting for his dramatic warble. Some listeners at the time called the album an MOR sellout, but its slick surfaces remain tough to resist, and while none of the cuts generate the excitement of past singles like "To Cut a Long Story Short" or "Chant No. 1," True remains Spandau Ballet's most consistent and best all-around album.allmusic