Moving away from the guitar histrionics of
Beauty Stab,
Martin Fry reduced
ABC to a duo of himself and
Mark White for 1985's danceable
How to Be a...Zillionaire! Incorporating light hip-hop rhythms,
ABC made sure
Zillionaire sounded contemporary for mid-'80s dance clubs, and as a result, some of the record sounds stiff and dated. Still, when
Fry's sense of melody is on, as on the catchy single "Be Near Me," or when he works in his vicious, cynical wit, as on "How to Be a Millionaire" and "So Hip It Hurts," the record rivals the peaks of
Lexicon of Love. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine