Alternative Rock Compilations music reviews

Modern rock has many diffrent albums with diffrent 80s hits on them and this is one of the better ones. Its 2 disks and includes lots of memorable hits from the 80s. Some of the highlights from the first disk are tainted love by soft cell, the safety dance by men without hats and der komisser's after the fire. On the second disk some of the best songs are if you leave by orchestral manoeuvres in the dark, shout by tears for fears and you spin me round by dead or alive. Overall a really good collection of hits. Recomended.

Let me start this review with a warning. If you run across this disc in a store and it says the Soft Cell song is the "Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go" hit version of the song, it's NOT. I picked this up almost SOLELY for that version (which is somewhat difficult to find on CD), only to get burned. Thank you, Amazon, for listing it as "Tainted Love" only.

Now, with that out of the way--this two disc set is far from definitive but, if you're looking for a quick overview of some of the quintessential modern rock/dance hits of the the early Eighties, this set is for you. Opening with Blondie's "Call Me" (from 'American Gigolo'--1980's #1 song), it's chock full of songs with almost as much cultural impact as that classic.

The usual suspects are here: Nena, Stray Cats, ABC, Men Without Hats, Dead Or Alive and Wang Chung. You'll also find some big hits from artists that had bigger hits. For example, The Romantic's "What I Like About You" (another iconic song--arguably their best), is here, but they hit bigger with "Talking In Your Sleep". The Thompson Twins mega-smash "Hold Me Now" takes a backseat to the smaller hit "Lies". Cyndi Lauper's "She Bop" and Berlin's "Sex (I'm A...) are included, though both artists scored bigger hits, as well ("Time After Time" and "No More Words", respectively, among others). This isn't a complaint. I'm glad to see the obvious choices weren't made--some, if not all were BETTER choices.

In a collection of this sort, of course, there are others that you wish weren't included. Wham's "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", Toni Basil's "Mickey" and Yello's "Oh Yeah" are on every collection, it seems and, frankly, they're definitely clinkers. Wham! had much better songs ("Everthing She Wants" comes to mind)--Basil and Yello should just go away.

But, as mentioned above, usual suspects abound. No Eighties collection of this genre would be complete without Modern English's "I Melt With You" or Eddy Grant's "Electric Avenue" or "Der Kommissar" from After The Fire. These hits are also on nearly every collection, but deservedly so. They define the era, as does most of this set.

The included booklet has pics of the artists (looking appropriately Eighties-cheesy) with notes from noted rock journalist Arion Berger. The track listing inside also posts each songs highest chart position (amazingly "I Melt With You" only hit #78 in the U.S.!).

The songs sound great and, though pricey, you could do much worse than this package. Perfect for the casual fan or as an introduction to some decent-to-great artists and a very influential era.

A Lot of songs on this one but the reasons for picking it up were nailed by the Los Angeles Times who noted standouts like Mark Helm (a criminally over-looked songwriting phenom at the forefront of what the American power-pop crowd is calling 'orch-pop'--short for orchestral pop...check out his solo effort 'everything's ok', much of it recorded in Denmark with producer Henrik Krogh Christensen....word has it Helm is now working with top danish producer Nikolaj Norlund and DK-grammy nominated singer-songwriter Lise Westzynthius....BUY her off-the-charts-amazing record, Heavy Dream ... AND, ODF COURSE the awesome al jardine who, after the passing of carl wilson, is touring wioth the best beach boys outfit this side of brian wilson, jeff foskett and his wonderminty friends.

This album is cool,except for track 8 which is sung by lead singer- James Hedstrom. He seems to be struggling in this album. However, his drum solo was great. The rest of the album was really good and definitely worth buying

I originally wanted a copy of the song entitled " One Night in Bangkok." However, I couldn't find the "Chess" soundtrack from which the song originally appears, so I bought this compilation instead. It has been a pleasure to stroll down memory lane while listening to the funky tunes of that born-again decade of geometrical haircuts and fuschia colored anything. On the whole, I feel the disc set is solid. I would reccommend it to anyone who grew up in the eighties and fondly remembers the styles that were churned out then.

Enjoy!

This is an excellant compilation to buy for fans of the ska-punk variety of ska music. Many of the bands on this album are straight up ska punk, but a vast number of the bands are also plain weird varities of ska. Bands such as the Aquabats and Sprawl bring ska-punk into new territories, while the Peacocks mix ska and rockabilly. This really is an interesting and great album to buy.

I like to listen to this type of music once in awhile. During
my military stay in Germany, I developed a taste for this kind of music. It's nice to see that it's still available today...

The latest British challenger to the Now series is Music - Today's definitive hits collection Volume 2 and this title isn't exactly true as it is far from definitive - featuring only 3 number ones - two of which appeared on Now 48 so you're only getting one new number one in Destiny's Child's Survivor. In addition to this however, you have some huge hits from Dido, 3LW, OutKast, O Town, BBMak, Jennifer Lopez and M.O.P.'s wondeful cover of Cold As Ice. There is also some great rock tracks from Ash, Feeder, Manic Street Preachers and Depeche Mode but the rest of the CD tends to be filled with some minor hits and other not so great songs. At the import price it isn't really worth buying as there isn't enough good songs to make you listen again and again and my advice would be to buy Now 48 or wait for Now 49 which is out at the end of July anyway. Decent but far from definitive.

DISC 1:
Iggy Pop -- Lust for Life
The Teardrop Explodes -- Reward
The Smiths -- What Difference Does It Make?
The Jam -- Going Underground
XTC -- Senses Working Overtime
The Pretenders -- Brass in Pocket
Elvis Costello & The Attractions -- Pump It Up
Buzzcocks -- Ever Fallen in Love
The Undertones -- My Perfect Cousin
Stiff Little Fingers -- Alternative Ulster
Joy Division -- Love Will Tear Us Apart
Echo & The Bunnymen -- The Cutter
Psychedelic Furs -- Pretty in Pink (Movie Version)
Orange Juice -- Rip It Up
Aztec Camera -- Oblivious
The Specials -- Ghost Town
Killing Joke -- Love Like Blood
New Order -- Confusion
The Icicle Works -- Love Is a Wonderful Colour
The Mighty Wah! -- The Story of the Blues (Part 1)
DISC 2:
Martha and The Muffins -- Echo Beach
Blondie -- Atomic
Squeeze -- Cool for Cats
Dexy's Midnight Runners -- Geno
Pigbag -- Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag
Ian Dury & The Blockheads -- Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick
Thomas Dolby -- She Blinded Me with Science
The Flying Lizards -- Money
The Bluebells -- Young at Heart
Altered Images -- Happy Birthday
Fun Boy Three and Bananarama -- It Ain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It)
Joe Jackson -- It's Different for Girls
The Jags -- Back of My Hand
The Vapors -- Turning Japanese
The Boomtown Rats -- Rat Trap
Adam and The Ants -- Dog Eat Dog
Bow Wow Wow -- C30, C60, C90
Tenpole Tudor -- Swords of a Thousand Men
Spandau Ballet -- To Cut a Long Story Short
Jona Lewie -- You'll Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties

this albums is the kind of album that you just cant get out of your cd player...or tape player. with its diverse mixture of bands(fyp, allister, a new found glory) itll have you blowing milk out of your nose one second and crying the next, its definatly worth the money..

Incredible power pop from down under makes me long for my highschool days listening to Paul Collins Beat, the Romantics, Stiv bators and the Groovies. The Dm3 cut is alone worth the price of admission. Where can I get all the Stems albums?