The Lexicon of Love II

After the 2009 performance of the debut with Dudley and an orchestra, Fry felt it was time for a proper follow-up. He wrote over 40 songs with guest writers, among them Rob Fusari, and began production in October 2015. Trevor Horn was not available, so Fry and Gary Stevenson produced. Viva Love had been knocking around for years, and versions of it and Kiss Me Goodbye had appeared on a 2005 download version of Abracadabra. Fry told the Guardian that it was a kind of Godfather Part II, asking what had happened to the characters of the first record, and that he wanted to make a sequel with himself as he was now, a 57-year-old man. Dudley provided orchestrations. Julien Temple directed the video for Viva Love, which refers back to the Poison Arrow video.

It entered the UK chart at five, ABC's first top 10 album in 26 years. At Metacritic it averaged 70 from eight reviews. The Guardian called it the sound of an old master falling not far short of a standard his youthful self set very high indeed. AllMusic's Tim Sendra said it holds together unexpectedly well.