1980's New Wave Hits, Part 2

Well, picking up where we left off before, we have a few more discs of the great, semi-great, and not so great new-wave singles of the 1980's..... a few have pointed out that some of these are actually from the late 1970's, as a member of the class of 1979 I am quite aware of this, I think they were pretty much capturing a moment, in particular with how all over the map this set has been, style and quality wise.

Disc 7 is, of the set, perhaps the most esoteric set of stuff, dragged down only by Trio's awful "Da Da Da".... Josie Cotton makes a welcome return, The Blasters, Fleshtones, Joe "King" Carrasco and the Crowns, and Bill Nelson are all acts that, it seems to me, don't come up on these type comps too often.

Disc 8 returns to more layup material, not that some of it isn't really good..... Dexy's Midnight Runners' "Come On Eileen" is a great one-shot, "Mexican Radio" from Wall of Voodoo is a great one, and The Fixx' "Red Skies" is one I hadn't heard in a while. There are a few dogs, however, from the WAY-past-their-peak Tubes ("She's a Beauty"), Thomas Dolby ("She Blinded Me With Science"), and the wretched "Goodbye to You" from Scandal......not to be too critical, though, as any set which includes the wonderful Rachel Sweet ("Voo Doo") can't be all bad.

Next up the ninth volume of the set leads off with Duran Duran's great "Rio", also great stuff from Psychedelic Furs, Killer Pussy ("Teenage Enema Nurses in Bondage"), Single Bullet Theory, and Echo & the Bunnymen's great "The Cutter".... I suppose "Too Shy" by Kajagoogoo had to turn up here somewhere, so here it is.

By the time we get to Volume 10, in my opinion, the quality (overall) is beginning to decline..... the Adam Ant track is not a good one, Taco's awful "Puttin' on thte Ritz" and really nondescript material from Flock of Seagulls, Bow Wow Wow and others, the main saving grace of the set is "China" from the Red Rockers.

The Fixx ("One Thing Leads to Another") and Nena ("99 Luftballoons") are my personal faves on disc 11, and there is also less-common tracks from Joboxers, the Flirts, and Fun Boy Three..... pretty good set of some of the more esoteric material comped here.

We'll wrap this up with Disc 12 for today, leading off with Culture Club ("Karma Chameleon", ugh) gives kind of a picture of what we're in for here.....pretty  nondescript set, the saving grace being The Alarm's "Sixty Eight Guns", on of the very few selections in the set that venture over into more "punk" type material.

OK, that is all for today, I'll get the rest up tomorrow or so. Hopefully it's 20 below zero in Minnesota Sunday, sorry, if you live there, but I think a tortuously cold game is the only way I see the Vikings being able to even remain in a game with the Seahawks........ prediction: Seattle 28, Minnesota 10...... also prediction: Vikings in 2016 kick serious ass!

VOLUME 7- 1. Haircut One Hundred - Boy Meets Girl (3:05)/2. Josie Cotton - He Could Be The One (2:49)/3. Blasters - I'm Shakin' (2:26)/4. Split Enz - Six Months In A Leaky Boat (3:11)/5. Paul Carrack - I Need You (2:49)/6. Animal Nightlife - Love Is Just The Great Pretender (4:02)
/7. Fleshtones - Ride Your Pony (3:20)/8. X - Blue Spark (2:11)/9. Musical Youth - Pass The Dutchie (3:27)/10. Bad Manners - Samson And Delilah (2:57)/11. Wide Boy Awake - Chicken Outlaw (5:19)/12. Trio - Da Da Da (3:27)/13. Joe Carrasco & The Crowns - Party Weekend (3:10)/14. Fashion - Love Shadow (3:43)/15. Bill Nelson - Flaming Desire (4:50)/16. Laurie Anderson - O Superman (8:24)

VOLUME 8-1. Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen (4:16)/2. The Fixx - Red Skies (3:33)/3. Missing Persons - Walking In L.A. (3:40)/4. Greg Kihn Band - Jeopardy (3:50)/5. The Tubes - She's A Beauty (3:32)/6. The Bluebells - Cath (3:16)/7. Rachel Sweet - Voo Doo (3:42)/8. Mental As Anything - If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too? (3:15)/9. Thomas Dolby - She Blinded Me With Science (3:43)/10. Wall Of Voodoo - Mexican Radio (4:00)/11. The Thompson Twins - Lies (3:14)/12. Oxxo - Whirly Girl (3:00)/13. Tin Tin - Kiss Me (7:32)/14. Heaven 17 - (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang (4:22)/15. Robert Hazard - Escalator Of Life (3:38)/16. Scandal - Goodbye To You (3:48)


VOLUME 9-1. Duran Duran - Rio (4:02)/2. Modern English - I Melt With You (3:51)/3. Sparks & Jane Wiedlin - Cool Places (3:26)/4. Psychedelic Furs - Love My Way (3:41)/5. English Beat - Save It For Later (3:38)/6. Marshall Crenshaw - Whenever You're On My Mind (3:20)/7. Single Bullet Theory - Keep It Tight (2:42)/8. Violent Femmes - Blister In The Sun (2:26) 9. Echo & The Bunnymen - The Cutter (3:57)/10. Belle Stars - Sign Of The Times (2:55)/11. ABC - Poison Arrow (3:28)/12. Kajagoogoo - Too Shy (3:39)/13. Heaven 17 - Let Me Go (4:16)/14. Q-Feel - Dancing In Heaven (Oribital Be-Bop) (3:08)/15. Killer Pussy - Teenage Enema Nurses In Bondage (4:13)/16. Total Coelo - I Eat Cannibals (3:33)

VOLUME 10-1. Adam Ant - Desperate But Not Serious (3:57)/2. Bow Wow Wow - Do You Wanna Hold Me (3:14)/3. Red Rockers - China (4:02)/4. Human League - (Keep Feeling) Fascination (3:46)/5. Jam - Beat Surrender (3:31)/6. Call - The Walls Came Down (3:47)/7. Rank & File - Amanda Ruth (3:12)/8. Plimsouls - A Million Miles Away (3:34)/9. Madness - Our House (3:26)/10. Bananarama - Shy Boy (3:17)/11. A Flock Of Seagulls - Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You) (4:14)/12. Naked Eyes - Promises- Promises (3:48)/13. Roman Holiday - Stand By (2:49)/14. Nick Heyward - Whistle Down The Wind (3:44)/15. Little Girls - Earthquake Song (2:40)/16. Taco - Puttin' On The Ritz (3:25)

VOLUME 11-1. Big Country - In A Big Country (3:56)/2. Nena - 99 Luftballons (3:55)/3. Joboxers - Just Got Lucky (3:44)/4. Flirts - Jukebox (Don't Put Another Dime) (3:45)/5. Tears For Fears - Change (4:00)/6. Romantics - Talking In Your Sleep (3:57)/7. Dfx2 - Emotion (4:57)/8. Slow Children - President Am I (2:50)/9. Fixx - One Thing Leads To Another (3:25)/10. Felony - The Fanatic (3:36)/11. Haysi Fantayzee - Shiny Shiny (3:46)/12. Dollar - Mirror Mirror (Mon Amour) (3:22)/13. Fun Boy Three - The Lunatics (Have Taken Over The Asylum) (3:14)/14. Squeeze - Black Coffee In Bed (4:18)/15. Real Life - Send Me An Angel (3:56)/16. Spandau Ballet - True (5:35)

VOLUME 12-1. Culture Club - Karma Chameleon (4:08)/2. Madness - It Must Be Love (3:26)/3. Spandau Ballet - Gold (3:55)/4. Paul Young - Come Back And Stay (3:35)/5. Aztec Camera - Oblivious (3:13)/6. Tracey Ullman - They Don't Know (3:02)/7. The Rave-Ups - Positively Lost Me (5:09)/8. Big Country - Fields Of Fire (3:32)/9. Stray Cats - (She's) Sexy + 17 (3:15)/10. The Alarm - Sixty Eight Guns (3:19)/11. The Fun Boy Three - Our Lips Are Sealed (2:53)/12. Yazoo - Only You (3:13)/13. Re-Flex - The Politics Of Dancing (3:58)/14. Marilyn - Calling Your Name (4:06)/15. Cabaret Voltaire - Sensoria (3:58)/16. Peter Godwin - Images Of Heaven (5:01)