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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.