Give 'Em Enough Rope, for all of its many attributes, was essentially a holding pattern for the Clash, but the double-album London Calling is a remarkable leap forward, incorporating the punk aesthetic into rock & roll mythology and roots music. Before, the Clash had experimented with reggae, but that was no preparation for the dizzying array of ...
Twenty years since their pop music debut, Duran Duran issued another greatest-hits collection. As if 1989's Decade wasn't stellar enough, this select package was much more solid. Greatest showcased the band's early days of glam rock décor and new romanticism to the alluring sophistication Duran Duran exuded throughout the '90s. The typical synth ...
Expanding the latent arena rock sensibilities that peppered Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me by slowing them down and stretching them to the breaking point, the Cure reached the peak of their popularity with the crawling, darkly seductive Disintegration. It's a hypnotic, mesmerizing record, comprised almost entirely of epics like the soaring, icy ...
ZZ Top had reached the top of the charts before, but that didn't make their sudden popularity in 1983 any more predictable. It wasn't that they were just popular -- they were hip , for God's sake, since they were one of the only AOR favorites to figure out to harness the stylish, synthesized grooves of new wave, and then figure out how to sell it ...
By deleting the 1986 hits collection Every Breath You Take: The Singles and replacing it nearly ten years later with Every Breath You Take: The Classics, A&M improved the original set -- but only slightly. Instead of finally adding the missing hits that were mysteriously absent the first time around ("Synchronicity II," "Demolition Man," "So ...
With Dirty Mind, Prince had established a wild fusion of funk, rock, new wave, and soul that signaled he was an original, maverick talent, but it failed to win him a large audience. After delivering the sound-alike album, Controversy, Prince revamped his sound and delivered the double album 1999. Where his earlier albums had been a fusion of ...
Six years after the commencement of a major Elvis Costello reissue campaign at Rhino, his catalog transferred over to Universal, which had been releasing new Elvis music since 1998's Painted from Memory. Like every one of his previous two big catalog shifts -- a campaign with Rykodisc/Demon in 1994, a jump to Rhino in 2001 -- the 2007 series is ...
There's one thing wrong with The Very Best of Daryl Hall & John Oates, and it's minor -- the promotional 12" mix of "Adult Education" is included in favor of the 7" version. This isn't a big deal and it doesn't mar what is the best overview of Hall & Oates' RCA years, the era when they became the biggest-selling duo in the history of rock. If the ...
Controversy continues in the same vein of new wave-tinged funk on Dirty Mind, emphasizing Prince's fascination with synthesizers and synthesizing disparate pop music genres. It is also more ambitious than its predecessor, attempting to tackle social protest ("Controversy," "Ronnie, Talk to Russia," "Annie Christian") along with sex songs ("Jack U ...
Giorgio Moroder's score for this dance fantasy album turned into a blockbuster (five million copies and counting) due to the title track, sung by Irene Cara, Michael Sembello's "Maniac," and a bunch of other modern dance tracks. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
The Cars were responsible for some of rock's most recognizable radio hits by the mid-'80s, so when the band took an extended break after their successful tour for Heartbeat City, 1985's Greatest Hits was assembled. Mixed in with the familiar selections was a brand-new track, the playful "Tonight She Comes" (which became a Top Ten hit), as well as ...
The musical transition that seemed to have just begun with Fear of Music came to fruition on Talking Heads' fourth album, Remain in Light. "I Zimbra" and "Life During Wartime" from the earlier album served as the blueprints for a disc on which the group explored African polyrhythms on a series of driving groove tracks, over which David Byrne ...
'80s Pop Hits is a three-disc set from Sony with a heavy emphasis on ballads, many of which continue to be played on adult contemporary radio stations across the U.S. The relatively upbeat material -- like Wham!'s "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go," Toto's "Rosanna," Luther Vandross' "Stop for Love," and Deniece Williams' "Let's Hear It for the Boy" -- ...
Although there's nothing particularly out of the ordinary of Pure 80's, it nevertheless is a good, basic collection of 20 new wave hits, highlighted by such classics as "Hungry Like the Wolf," "Our House," "Relax," "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)," "Video Killed the Radio Star," "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," and Soft Cell's timeless ...
Time Capsule is an excellent, 18-track collection that offers a comprehensive overview of the B-52's' career, from their kitschy post-punk beginnings to their unexpected chart success in the early '90s. Along the way, all the big songs -- "Planet Claire," "Rock Lobster," "Private Idaho," "Quiche Lorraine," "Summer of Love" (in its original mix), ...
Talking Heads found a way to open up the dense textures of the music they had developed with Brian Eno on their two previous studio albums for Speaking in Tongues, and were rewarded with their most popular album yet. Ten backup singers and musicians accompanied the original quartet, but somehow the sound was more spacious, and the music admitted ...
By titling their third album Fear of Music and opening it with the African rhythmic experiment "I Zimbra," complete with nonsense lyrics by poet Hugo Ball, Talking Heads make the record seem more of a departure than it is. Though Fear of Music is musically distinct from its predecessors, it's mostly because of the use of minor keys that give the ...
The Best of Howard Jones compiles all the necessary material ever put forth by this pop synthesizer master and is overabundant with a hearty 18 tracks. Jones had a remarkable eight Top 40 singles throughout the course of the mid-1980s, churning out keyboard laden dance/pop songs that were bright and lively. His debut album, Human's Lib, was a ...
All of Belinda Carlisle's late-'80s pop hits, including "Heaven is a Place on Earth," "Mad About You," and "I Get Weak," available on one disc. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
The first of two soundtracks to director Mark Christopher's ill-advised 54 is the stronger of the pair, with classics including Chic's "Dance Dance Dance (Yowsah Yowsah Yowsah)," Sylvester's "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" and Amii Stewart's "Knock on Wood." Still, much like the film itself, the soundtrack fails to paint an accurate portrait of ...
Though they were the most highly touted new wave band to emerge from the CBGB's scene in New York, it was not clear at first whether Talking Heads' Lower East Side art rock approach could make the subway ride to the midtown pop mainstream successfully. The leadoff track of the debut album, Talking Heads: 77, "Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town," was a pop ...
Competing nicely with the earlier Time After Time: The Best of Cyndi Lauper, Columbia/Legacy's The Essential Cyndi Lauper features most of the '80s icon's big hits as well as lesser-known album tracks. Considering the inconsistent nature of Lauper's albums, it is nice to find tracks like "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and "True Colors" packaged ...
In the summer of 1997, Puff Daddy took "I'll Be Missing You," a sappy reworking of "Every Breath You Take," to the top of the charts across the world; it became the biggest rap single in history. The success of "I'll Be Missing You" had the bizarre by-product of making the Police hip again among both rock and rap artists. So, what better to ...
When the soundtrack for the classic Talking Heads movie Stop Making Sense was originally issued in 1984, it was only nine tracks in length, even though a total of 16 were performed on film. So when the film was re-released in theaters and on home video in 1999, a new version of the soundtrack was issued as well, including all 16 songs and sporting ...
Preceding the elaborate 2005 reissues of Eurythmics' eight proper albums by a month, The Ultimate Collection narrowly trumps 1991's Greatest Hits since it features remastered sound and a more extensive track list. While it does not contain "Don't Ask Me Again," opting to instead select a couple merely decent highlights from 1999's Peace, two new ...
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