Customer Reviews

Welcome to the Pleasuredome

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an interesting album, full of energy and style. Anyone who grew up in the 80's will remember the hit, "Relax," but this album has much more to offer than a little 80's nostalgia. The music presentation is experimental and diverse, an attempt to mix pop music of the era with new styles and techniques.

There are remakes of older songs in "Ferry," "War," and Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run," as well as original compositions ranging from the 80's pop style "Relax" and "Two Tribes" to the melodic epic "Welcome to the Pleasure Dome."

The recording quality is excellent as is the production. And speaking of the production, that is where this album truly excells. There is a spacial depth to the melodies and instruments that was not common to the minimalist production of most 80's pop music. The credit here lies with the album's producer, Trevor Horn.

Horn was responsible for the recording's depth and structure, giving it his signature spatiality. His other credits include: Performing/composing/producing with Yes on "Drama," forming his own band, The Buggles, with Geoff Downes with the hit "Video Killed the Radio Star," Producing the Yes album "90125," and more recently producing two hit albums with the artist, Seal.

Overall, this is an excellent album, one that can be listened to over and again, offering the listener something new every time.

I agree with the first two reviewers- this is first-rate stuff.

Welcome to the Pleasuredome, FGTH's (Frankie Goes to Hollywood) first effort, is a genre-spanning, sometimes wacky, kinda weird, highly original but very musical epic CD. It was available on vinyl, too (hey, it was the 80's), but who would buy it that way when it was also available in a very high quality CD recording as well? In fact, the sonic quality of this recording is so high that it would make an excellent CD sampler for high-end audio equipment.

Back to the music: FGTH was highly original in their efforts to produce 'dance' music with more of an edge, using substantial electric guitar work and aggressive rhythms. This is even more impressive when one takes the time to listen to the *very* interesting ways that they intertwine and phase in-and-out similar rhythms, syncopate,etc. (esp. on the track, 'War'), keeping things far from the monotony that plagues much modern dance music.

'Welcome to the Pleasuredome', the second track, is by far the best. Over 11 minutes of rambling, evolving rhythms, well-timed sounds and sheer madness and beauty, this epic number is a classic among those who know FGTH beyond 'Relax'.

Since I listen to it often, this CD does not bring to mind an 80's reunion; rather, it compares very favorably to 'dance' music being produced now, and it deserves to be considered an estimable body of serious music.

The year 1985 marked the middle of my mid-life crisis. It was the time I tuned out Reaganomics, starwars and the dawn of downsizing and turned on to MTV's 24/7 wall-to-wall music videos without a drop of reality TV or rap.

Frankie and Welcome To The Pleasuredome were a couple of my discoveries from this period. Ok, I admit the music was a mixture of overproduced techno-pop as well as every other musical style from the previous twenty years. But the sound caught my attention then, and it still does. I never did figure out what the whole "Frankie Say" mystique was all about; I guess I was too old. But what the heck, the band didn't last that long anyway.

Amazingly, the recording holds up 18-years later. Guess that makes it a classic -- at least the originals like PLEASUREDOME, RELAX and TWO TRIBES. The covers on the albums were all better done by the people who created them.

So, if you've never experienced Frankie, RELAX and give Welcome To The Pleasuredome a try. It has my recommendation.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood was the It Group of 1984, best known for its signature hits "Relax" and "Two Tribes." While the songs were catchy and memorable, what really made FGTH stand out was their brash attitude. Their debut, "Welcome to the Pleasuredome," is truly a landmark album of 1980s British pop: this isn't about content, but rather concept. In addition, the boys do an interesting rendition of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" and they deliver a decent ballad "The Power of Love." Casual listeners should probably get their greatest hits set instead, but for music collectors and 80s completists, this CD should be high on your list to buy.

Are you ready to take the ultimate journey through one of music's most creative endeavors? FGTH combines the funk, the edge, and the harmonic perfection rarely found in pop music. These guys really had something special. This release has always been and always will be a highly treasured item in my collection. Highly recommended, you won't be disappointed, you'll only want MORE...

I must have listened to this record a hundred times. This album epitomizes the 1980's. Holly and the boys were a great rock and roll swindle. I wish they had made more recordings. Now all we get of Frankie is endless dull remixes of Relax released on CD. Enough already!

The four cover tunes on the album are ok. But the album should have been pure Frankie originals. A few more hard rocker tunes would have been appreciated too. The cover tunes should have been released on a Frankie album of cover tunes. Like Guns 'N Roses did with The Spaghetti Incident?

For some reason early pressings of this CD had a weak Frankie original called Happy Hi and not the cover of Do You Know The Way To San Jose? They might have just gone whole hog and give us San Jose and Happy Hi on this CD. As well as Frankie's cover version of T. Rex's Get It On. It's a weak a cover version Get It On but Frankie completists would have appreciated it. The Power Station did the best version of Get It On though. Even topping T. Rex himself.

Frankie was all about style over substance. There are much better musical groups out there, but these guys just had panche and style. And talk about excess! They did, what? Four videos for their song Relax? How great it that? They were all about excess, just like the decade they came from.

The final song Bang is a beautiful number. But I wanted it to be about two minutes longer and I wanted them to lose the Ronald Reagan impersonator heard on the track. The Bang synthesizer riff is just painfully beautiful.

Frankie Say...A Lot More. Well, I wish they did. Time for a new album Holly and Trevor!

"Welcome to the Pleasure Dome" is as good as albums can get. An extremely smart album with a clear concept which could be summarized as "make love not war", the "love" songs being "Welcome to the Pleasure Dome" and "Relax", the "not war" ones being "Two Tribes" and "War (What is it good for?)", its production was one of the musical highs of the eighties.

Nowadays we'd need a "Two Tribes" version in arabic or hebrew, maybe that would open their eyes...

This album is and always will be absolutely brilliant! "Welcome..." is the ultimate art-rock album of the '80s! The first two tracks on here, "The World Is My Oyster-snatch of fury (stay)" and "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" is beyond music, it's art! These two songs send chills down your spine EVERYTIME YOU LISTEN!!! Almost 16 minutes of pure bliss! The third track is called "Relax (come fighting)" and this the signature song of the 1980's! It rocks my world (sidenote: if anyone has an official XL or XXL shirt that says "Frankie Say RELAX Don't Do It", I want to buy it in a BIG BAD WAY and my email address is above!!!). Tracks 4 and 5 are Frankie's answer to the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R.; these are intense antiwar tunes. As a matter of fact, track 4, "War (and hide)" is their cover of Edwin Starr's classic track while track 5, "Two Tribes" is a brilliant statement on the possible result of The Cold War turning hot. Track 6, "(Tag)" is a commentary on orgasms that I found very interesting. Track 7, "Fury" is actually a nicely done cover of "Ferry 'Cross The Mersey" by Gerry And The Pacemakers while track 8 is their cover of Springsteen's "Born To Run" and they more than do it justice. Tracks 9 is another good cover, Burt Bacharach's "Do You Know The Way To San Jose, simply titled here, "San Jose". Track 10, "Wish The Lads Were Here", is just a great pop tune while track 11, "The Ballad Of 32" is a soft, intense, erotic instrumental. Tracks 12,13 and 14("Krisco Kisses", "Black Night White Light" and "The Only Star In Heaven") are perfect enought for a Bowie album. Track 15, "The Power Of Love" is a beautiful and moving ballad while track 16, "Bang" perfectly sums up the whole recording. I highly recommend this album to anyone and everyone!... thank you.

"Welcome of the Pleasuredome" is certainly one of those decade-defining classics. It is an updated, 80's style version of the greatest of great concept albums. The bizarre, intriguing mix of sound-poems like "the world is my oyster" or "welcome to the pleasure dome" and very unusual cover versions of songs like "the way to san Jose" and even "born to run" is all wrapped into one enormous, engulfing sound experience. The mixing and orchestration of the album is absolutely amazing and Frankie's lead voice Holly Johnson was at the peak of his power, forget his later efforts, this is the real thing. Since its transfer from album to CD format the music is a seamless flow, and the quality of the digital mastering is outstanding. No collection of 80s music is complete without this.

I first had the double album and then the cd, I was absolutely gob smacked when I heard an impression of Prince Charles talking about orgasm`s!. When I got the cd this was missing and also Ferry Across The Mersey. But what a brill album, this was certainley something else. It certainley grows on you.