New Wave music reviews

I can remember taking guitar lessons from Danny back in 1980 and hearing him play at the Bierstube in Grand Rapids. His music and style has been inspirational to me and continues to be influental in my own personal guitar style. Aqua Touch is a great album and I recomend it for both avid music and jazz enthusiests and novice listeners who can enjoy Mr. Heines fresh and inspirational style.

Another live hit collection! "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" it's a blast! Good sound quality!

I was expecting this to be a disc collectors would only be interested in, however the versions on this disc are amazing! This disc puts much more electro into the more produced versions that appeared on their debut disc. I actually prefer these versions to the album versions. The last (audio) cut, "Where was Your Heart.." is a radical reworking of the version that appeared on their (then) last studio album. The two video tracks from the Old Grey Whistle Test are also quite good. This is more then a collectors item. This is essential! I'd love to hear any other versions they did with this type of treatment!

1. Atomic (Diddy's Remix Edit) 4:04
2. Atomic (Original Single Version) 3:50
3. Atomic (Diddy's 12'' Mix) 6:52
4. Atomic (Armand's Atomizer Mix) 9:04
5. Atomic (Explosive Ecstacy Mix) 5:52
6. Atomic (Beautiful Drum & Bass Mix) 8:15
7. Atomic (New Disco Mix) 7:40
8. Slow Motion (Stripped Down Motown Mix) 3:35

Okay, I'm bald now, but in the 80's I sported the coolest and biggest hair imaginable. Think Robert Smith (The Cure). This CD set blew me away. All the quintessential hits of the 80's are here. I recommend this one. You can also try another CD called "High School Reunion - a tribute to those great 80's films!" I bought that one last month with this one and High School Reunion does a great job capturing the important moments of those 80's teens films by having cool rockers like Frank Black (Pixies), Matthew Sweet, Kristin Hersh (Throwing Muses), Lori McKenna, etc. covering their favorite 80's songs. Buy them both - you won't be disappointed. Please forgive my spelling. x smile x

This is an excellent collection of some of the best of the techno-pop new wave songs of the 80's. The sound quality is high and your favorite songs sound the way you want them to on this CD. The only oddball is a "New York 12 mix" of Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood" which is a disco instrumental version.

Aside from the many unforgettable songs such as Atomic, Look of Love, Tainted Love, Sweet Dreams, Shout, etc. there are some lesser known great songs that will rekindle your pleasure for 80's music such as Yazoo - Don't Go, Erasure - Sometimes, Visage - Fade to Gray, Teardrop Explodes - Treason, and Split Enz - I Got You.

12" singles and long album versions from the 80s don't come this easy on CD. And it has the ULTRA RARE extended ALBUM version of Rapture by Blondie...not the 10 minute disco mix, but the mix from the album with the lost verse added back in!!! I would review volume one, but I can't find a listing here on amazon. But hunt that one down too, you won't be disappointed! Track times:

Disc: 1
1. Radio Ga Ga - Queen (5:43)
2. In the Air Tonight - Phil Collins (5:29)
3. Smalltown Boy [12" Mix] - Bronski Beat (9:00)
4. You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) [Performance Mix] - Dead or Alive (7:25)
5. Miami Vice Theme [12" Disco Mix] - Jan Hammer (6:52)
6. State of Independence - Jon & Vangelis (7:55)
7. Axel F. [12" Disco Version] - Harold Faltermeyer (6:55)
8. Tinsel Town in the Rain - The Blue Nile (5:53)
9. Jeff Wayne's "The Eve of War" [Deepspace Mix] - Ben Liebrand (7:07)
10. Always the Sun [Hot Mix] - The Stranglers (5:58)
11. Why Can't I Be You? [12" Mix] - The Cure (8:07)
Disc: 2
1. Gold [12" Version] - Spandau Ballet (7:14)
2. Crazy [12" Mix] - Icehouse (7:19)
3. You Came [12" Version] - Kim Wilde (7:32)
4. Talking in Your Sleep - The Romantics (5:33)
5. 19 - Paul Hardcastle (5:13)
6. Midnight Man [Extended Remix Version] - Flash and the Pan (6:59)
7. Love Games - Level 42 (7:26)
8. On the Beach (Summer '88) - Chris Rea (6:48)
9. Tears Run Rings [12" Mix] - Marc Almond (5:17)
10. Wot [Maxi Version] - Captain Sensible (5:38)
11. Rage Hard [12" Version] - Frankie Goes to Hollywood (12:08)
Disc: 3
1. What Is Love? [Extended Mix] - Howard Jones (6:35)
2. Play It Cool [Extended Mix] - Freiheit (5:55)
3. My Favourite Waste of Time [Jumbo Remix] - Owen Paul (7:45)
4. Everything She Wants - Wham! (6:29)
5. Wordy Rappinghood - Tom Tom Club(6:28)
6. Rapture [12" Mix] - Blondie (7:11)
7. Mushanga - Toto (5:35)
8. I Scare Myself - Thomas Dolby (5:40)
9. All Cried Out - Alison Moyet (6:50)
10. Hang on to Your Love [US Remix] - Sade (5:29)
11. Jericho - Simply Red (6:01)
12. Broken/Head Over Heels/Broken [Live] - Tears for Fears (7:34)
Disc: 4
1. Poison Arrow [Jazz Remix] -ABC (6:56)
2. Voice - The Moody Blues (5:15)
3. Stay on These Roads [12" Version] - a-ha (6:10)
4. Silent Running - Mike + the Mechanics (6:13)
5. My Ever Changing Moods [12" Version] - The Style Council (5:43)
6. Surrender [Stuff Gun Mix] - Swing Out Sister (6:39)
7. I.G.Y. - Donald Fagen (6:03)
8. Age of Reason - John Farnham (5:05)
9. Nothing Has Been Proved [Dance Mix] - Pet Shop Boys (5:56)
10. On My Way to L.A. - Phil Carmen (6:57)
11. Macho City - Steve Miller (16:24)

I spent most of the eighties collecting 12" singles, and most of the nineties (and beyond) struggling to replace them on compact disc. Sadly, many of the great extended versions have yet to see the light of day on CD; it is likely that some never will.

I was absolutely THRILLED to find this 4-disc import from Sony Music in Holland. FINALLY: The full seven-minute version of Harold Faltermayer's "Axel F" theme from the film Beverly Hills Cop. FINALLY: The full seven-minute version of Jan Hammer's theme from TV's Miami Vice. FINALLY: The 5:33 mix of the Romantics' "Talking In Your Sleep," the 6:35 mix of Howard Jones' "What Is Love?" and the 7:32 mix of Kim Wilde's "You Came." Sure, many of these mixes are readily available on other compilations: Queen, Phil Collins, Dead Or Alive, Spandau Ballet, Icehouse, and Paul Hardcastle are all duplicated elsewhere in my collection. But kudos to Sony for including the full 8:07 "Why Can't I Be You" mix from the Cure, all 12:08 of "Rage Hard" from Frankie Goes To Hollywood, the 9:00 "Smalltown Boy" mix from Bronski Beat, the 5:38 "Wot" mix from Captain Sensible, the full 6:28 version of Wordy Rappinghood" from Tom Tom Club, the 7:11 "Rapture" from Blondie, and the 6:56 of heaven that is "Poison Arrow" from ABC. Other highlights include Wham, A-Ha, Marc Almond, Mike & the Mechanics, and a cool Ben Liebrand reinterpretation of Jeff Wayne's "The Eve of the War" which I had never heard before. All in all, YOU MUST OWN THIS COMPILATION NOW. DON'T THINK ABOUT IT, JUST BUY IT!!!

One of the strangest things about the music business is the time it takes to issue stuff.This comes along nearly 20 years after being recorded,the members widely scattered and not even thinking of reforming.
Brian Nevill,who played percussion on the last 2 tracks, and was a member at the time of "Lend An Ear",is today a jobbing musician who plays a lot of sessions and writes sleeve notes for Elvis CDs. He also has his own website on http://yahoo.groups.com/group/briannevill which keeps track of all his activities

"Before X" is probably the best title that could possibly have been used for this collection of college radio gems from the mid-to-late '80's before Nirvana exploded onto the scene and Perry Farrell started mass-marketing "alternative" music with the Lollapalooza festival tours in 1991.

Pretty much all the "hits" that made their way across the underground threshold for college mainstay bands are represented here (although could Eurythmics have STILL been considered "alternative" by the time "Missionary Man" came out? Ditto Elvis Costello), songs that anyone currently in the mid-to-late '30's (assuming they had any musical taste whatsoever at the time) as well as some of the 20-somethings now catching up on the "fauxstalgia" trend perpetuated by '80's wanna-be bands like Franz Ferdinand and the Killers should know by heart.

We have both ex-Bauhaus camps represented with Love & Rockets' Top 20 score "So Alive" as well as Peter Murphy's "Cuts You Up", the Church's crossover classic "Under The Milky Way" in all its neuvo-psychedelic glory, the best opening track to arguably the best album (debut or otherwise) of all time with the Stone Roses' "I Wanna Be Adored" and perhaps the poster child of alternative music well-represented with Camper van Beethoven's "Eye of Fatima". For the sake of argument (see the previous Eurythmics reference) David & David's ode to '80's success/excess "Welcome to the Boomtown" also shows up (I hadn't heard this song in at least 15 years...does anyone around here even REMEMBER the Porsche 944 these days?) is also included and a Siouxsie track that probably would've been better subbed with a bigger crossover hit "Kiss Them For Me", but that may have been a bit too late for the timeframe represented by the rest of the music here.

This is a very good collection of tunes that is out-of-print but readily available at ridiculously cut-rate prices if you know where to look. About the only thing keeping it from a five-star rating is the inclusion of Eurythmics and Elvis Costello (may as well have included a Pretenders track) and the exclusion of Michael Penn's "No Myth", arguably the finest song by any artist of that era. For a single disc compilation that captures a particular era's spirit, this one IS awfully hard to beat, though.

This is one of the greatest "various artists" albums a person could ever own. I'm always cautious when buying one, since many times two or three songs on an album will stand out, and the other tracks are just bland fillers (and the ones that stand out have usually been overplayed on the radio). But this disc is just packed with some of the greatest alternative music ever, that you can listen to over and over, and never get sick of. If you've ever sat down and spaced out on music that's just so interesting sounding that it just takes you away, this is the perfect disc. All of the songs are just so marvelous. If the music isn't enough, it's got a pretty great cover as well, sort of X-Files-ish.

After enjoying their first two albums, I picked this one up the second I saw it at a local CD store. I gave the album the best possible listening experience, headphones, eyes closed, not being distracted by the phone or anything else. I found the album agonizing to listen to all the way through. I love early-synthesized electronic music, so it came as a surprise that I found this album to be such displeasure. The writing mainly focuses around the grittier side of life, drunk bullies ("Forever The Same"), drugged house wives lusting over the paper boy ("Kitchen Sink Drama"), strippers ("Baby Doll"), and a child growing up to be a murderer ("Martin"). The lyrics sound bohemian and immature, like reading through the journal of an angstful 15 year old that hates everybody. The duo's lead singer Marc Almond mentions in the included liner notes that they wanted to create a dirtier sound with this album. The previous "Non Stop Erotic Cabaret", featured some rather seedy writing at times, but on this album it's used to excess. "Martin" is especially difficult to listen to clocking in at arround 10 minutes; the song is little more than a few keyboard noises with the lead singer saying "Martin" repetitively. The Hendrix melody is about as awful as you may imagine it to be. In `82/'83, there were so many more interesting albums coming out. If you want dark synthesized music, why not check out the first 2 albums by The Human league, "Reproduction" is especially good. Or OMD's first 3 albums, they have all been remastered recently with interesting bonus material. You can do a lot better than this album, if you insist on owning a Soft Cell album; why not check out "Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing".

Why 3rd time effort? Some people forget about "Non-Stop Esctatic Dancing" which was their 2nd effort and judging from the quality of said album compared to this and the first one, I'm not surprised. This remastered version, however, sounds a lot better than my lp version of this good grown up effort by the band except that some tracks still seem to be too bottom heavy and the highs not quite there.

About the tracks though what I mean about growing up is that the quality of the music and the lyrics is a far cry from what's on their freshman effort. That's not to say that "Non-Stop...Cabaret" isn't good; on the contrary it's one of my favourite albums of all time but the subject matter and the choice of lyrics for this album are much more complex and serious and show a band that's developing and growing.

Other than the not so great apparently "remastered" sound, the reason this only got 4 stars from me is the fact that the bonus tracks other than the brilliant "It's a Mug's Game" actually detract from and spoils the enjoyment of the cd. The Jimi Hendrix medley was really awful and did nothing to enhance the disc and really should never have been added. This was just pure filler material to make up the space.

Otherwise, there are many great tracks here like my favourite, "Numbers", "Kitchen Sink Drama" as well as "Where the Heart Is" and "Loving You, Hating Me."

This and their first album are by far the best work Soft Cell have ever done.

Beautifully remastered, this is arguably the best album they've made. Includes bonus tracks "Martin" "Hendrix Medley" "Barriers" and "It's a Mugs Game", the first two ONLY available on this cd! Totally indispensable.

This is butchery, plain and simple. These remixes are already terribly dated, and they do nothing to enhance the originals. File under "if it ain't broke don't fix it."

this is a fantastic remix album.top of my cd collection, this was an album that i was looking for....for ages....Now i've managed to get my claws on it. Recommend.