ABC moved to the EMI label, where they recorded the album Abracadabra, a tightly produced fusion of early 1990s techno sounds and 1970s dance grooves which was met with muted critical approval and appreciation from the band's fan base.

"[3] In a 2004 appearance on VH1's Bands Reunited, Fry said of White's departure: "We signed this big record deal with EMI in Europe and the level of expectation was so high.

"[6] Upon its release, Betty Page of NME noted the album finds ABC "on the mellow tip, producing the sort of smooth, liquid sound that they'd have killed for in those early, faltering days".

"[9] Paul Lester of Melody Maker felt the album "exposes an even deeper love for black American funk and soul" than ABC's previous work, with many of the songs either "borrow[ing] liberally from, or are faithful reconstructions of, essential late Seventies/early Eighties dancehall memories".

He warned that some may find Fry's "occasionally hackneyed lyrical devices hard to take" and added, "Certainly the LP's more drippy moon-June couplets and corny elemental imagery rankle, not least because this was the crooner who once subverted every known cliché in The Lexicon Of Love.

Although he felt that most of the album's songs had "little individuality", and probably used the "same drum machine" and "keyboard arrangement", he noted the "simple, slightly danceable" rhythms and praised the "crisp" production.

[14] Peter Buckley, writing in his 2003 book The Rough Guide to Rock, felt that the album was a "half-hearted attempt to reheat the tried and tested formula created and perfected a decade earlier".

[15] In the 2003 book The Rough Guide to Cult Pop, author Paul Simpson stated, "Abracadabra probably won't reach out and grab ya".