Ultravox - Vienna - 1980

Ultravox - Vienna - 1980

And some fan mixes that are alright....

Peter Gabriel - Self-Titled - 1980

So, we still have house guests, and we are making plans for tonight, so I will get today's post out a little early, so I don't miss it.

Still working through PG's awesome self-titled albums, trying to name them so you can differentiate between the three.  I love his covers for his singles, which is why I continue to use them as the actual covers for the albums.  On this one in particular, I tried to leave the wear rings from the vinyl on the sleeves, so it looks more authentic and retro.  I think they are pretty cool this way, they look like records.

I was able to find three more tracks to add to this particular set. But, still no remixes of the singles.  I think a Dreamtime remix or McDoC remix of I Don't Remember or Games Without Frontiers would be spectacular.  But, just wishful thinking.

Tonight we are going to go roller skating with the kids.  I haven't been roller skating in ten years at least, which will be exciting for everyone else but me.  Imagine a middle-aged fat man trying to roll his fat ass around on eight little wheels.  Can anyone say busted hip?

Peter Gabriel - Self-Titled - 1980 

Graduate - Acting My Age - 1980

Alright, all who like Tears For Fears, raise your hands....  Great!  I love to see that many hands in the air!

I didn't find out about Graduate until I discovered Discogs.  Even then, I didn't hear the album until about 2005 or 2006.  It's funny listening to the album, knowing they were just kids at the time, and hearing Roland's deep voice, even then, singing out loud and strong.

Listening to this one, you can hear Roland's definitive style already in full bloom, sounding a lot like TFF first album, with a Power Pop/Ska edge.  I've always wondered, though, why they drifted from that specific look and sound, and shifted to their obviously more well known personas.  Was it because the niche for Power Pop/Ska was limited and very small, and only lasted until the late 70s/early 80s before fading to obscurity?  That would be the obvious answer.  Was it a commercial switch to do so, or was it an artistic change?  That is what I want to know, more.

If your a fan of TFF, than consider this TFF lite, minus the New Wave and add the Power Pop & Ska.  If you are a Power Pop or Ska fan, than be prepared to hear those styles of music played in a whole new way, packed with a lot of pop hooks and talent.  This is a MUST HAVE for any true TFF fan.

As for my version, it's not my version.  This is as it was, released on CD in 2001 in the UK.  But, long out of print and hard to come by, I felt it was necessary to bring it out for all to see.  The only problem is that it's missing their very first single, Mad One with the b-side Somebody Put Out The Fire.  I should have included it, but time constraints on the "disc" prohibited me from doing that.  Also, it sounds like total shit.  Really really really.  I've included it as an additional upload, and you can include it in your "one of 7-inch records" folder that you might have, as I do.

Graduate - Acting My Age - 1980

The shitty Mad One single 

Visage - Visage - 1980

As I became more involved with music blogs and torrents and the beloved Discogs.com, I discovered an entire slew of bands and artists that I had never heard before, and that's if I had even heard OF them at all.  Visage was one of those bands.

I heard Visage for the first time probably in the late aughts as I began to rapidly explore the music landscape in detail.  My favorite bands were waning.  The time between albums, which used to be a year, suddenly became two years, three years or more.  And, I was getting old and having trouble getting into the "new" music being released.  I had to hearken back to my past.  There, I found thousands of releases, just waiting to be relished by the likes of me.

When compared to Classix Nouveaux or Ultravox, I always found Visage to be the sinister one of the three.  I would put them more in a category with darker bands like the Associates and the like.  Their style is different than their contemporaries, bordering on experimental, but they've still got that New Wave edge that hooks in a lot of their tracks.

I'm not a fan of all of their albums, but this one is one that I still listen to a lot, and keep as a regular for my New Wave moods that I slip into a couple times a year. (I hate to admit it, but right now I'm in an Exotica/Latin/Lounge mood.  Lots of Les Baxter and Esquivel playing at my house right now.)  And, in my highlights of 80s essential albums, you'll find this as well.

Pretty much a cut and dry cover, nothing extraordinary, and I added the remixes and b-sides, as usual.  I'll see you tomorrow...

Visage - Visage - 1980

Roxy Music - Flesh+Blood - 1980

My second favorite Roxy album, Flesh+Blood.  I think I like it almost as much as Avalon, but not quite.  The cover songs sort of ruin it for me.  Anyway, by this time, they were well out of their previous incarnation, and firmly in the post-Disco New Wave catagory.  A touch more Disco than I prefer, but not nearly as much as Manifesto.

I know that a lot of reviews said this one was a tired, lack-luster and unimpressive album, but I have to disagree.  They weren't the proto-Punk of their previous incarnation in the early 70s, but they had a lot of talent and ideas still in them, and I think their sound, especially from this album, helped establish a style for all artists and bands that stretched well into the mid to late 80s.  And the album sold like fuckin' hotcakes even with the poor reviews, anyway.

As all of their single sleeves were ugly, I didn't want to use one for the cover, and the existing Seville cover is fantastic enough, so I left it alone.  There were two b-sides and two remixes, but then also the wonderful Dreamtime mixes, as well.  Favorite tracks are Oh Yeah, Same Old Scene, Flesh+Blood and Over You.

Roxy Music - Flesh+Blood - 1980

Japan - Gentlemen Take Polaroids - 1980

The first song I ever heard by Japan was Gentlemen Take Polaroids.  It was the first time that I realized that D2 weren't the pioneers, they were the rip-off artists (I still loved them most, despite that fact.)

But, I've been through my thoughts on Japan in my previous post of them.  My feelings haven't changed, I just wanted to tell you this was the first for me.  Its a great album, I have all the extra tracks, and some great single sleeve graphics...

Anyway...

I'm not going to say much more tonight.  I've got a lot on my mind.

Remember when I was bitching about my job last Friday?  I really wanted to quit.  Well, my wife lost her job yesterday, cutting our family's income in half, along with our healthcare.  So, now I am the sole income, and I get an extra 900 a month deducted from my check that I can't afford at all now, for insurance.  And that's the high deductible plan.  That being said, my family will now be down about 3700 a month in net income.  How the fuck are we supposed to make up for that?

I'd like to get political here, about the fallacy of affordable healthcare, and a good economy and about job growth, because all of that is a bunch of political bullshit that's used to prop up a corrupt system of ideological extremes...  But, I'm not going to go there, right?  I'm a fucking conservative, and I have a feeling that I might piss a bunch of people off...

All I can say is hold on to what you have.  Because, it doesn't matter who wins, I have a feeling that 2017 is going to be a fucking nightmare economically, and it's going to be a struggle just to survive.

Wow, quite the optimist.

Japan - Gentlemen Take Polaroids - 1980 

Lambrettas - Beat Boys In the Jet Age - 1980

I discovered the Lambrettas about the same time I discovered the Merton Parkas and Nine Below Zero.  I had a tough time categorizing these bands as, at the time, I had no idea what Power Pop was.  Hadn't really heard of it before.  I mean, it wasn't New Wave, it wasn't Classic Rock, it sounded a little like Garage Rock (whatever the hell that's supposed to be).  So, when I heard someone classify them as Power Pop, it hit me as to how perfectly accurate it is.

Great bands like the Lambrettas really seemed like bands out of time.  I think the whole Power Pop movement got smothered with New Wave, Disco, and the Rock that we now call Classic Rock.  I know that they are something of a revival from the 60s, but I think given the time and exposure, we could have heard a hell of a lot more and better from them and a lot of the Power Pop acts out there.

I don't want to say the Lambrettas were the best of the best, but they were pretty damn good.  This is an active, sing-a-long, toe-tapping set of tracks that are in a style similar to New Wave, but minus the keyboards.  All of the tracks from this album, including the b-sides, have already been compiled previously, with the exception of one track.  SO, essentially, I made this set for one more track.

Have fun listening to this one.  It may surprise you, just as it did me.

Lambrettas - Beat Boys In the Jet Age - 1980

Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark - The Extended Versions - 1979-88

So, several months ago, I posted my "Singles Collection" of every OMD single, b-side and remix up through Dreaming.  I know, though, that listening to 6 discs straight through can be a daunting task.  I know because it's tough for me, even on a road trip.  So, I also made myself an extended/remix collection with one mix from each of their singles, if a mix exists.

It's hard to say which disc I prefer, as I have favorites on both of them.  Regardless, it's a good set, and playing through a 2-disc set doesn't take long.  Favorite tracks would include Never Turn Away, So In Love,
Messages, Souvenir, and of course the Martin Hannett mix of Electricity.

I've said before that I don't care for greatest hits collections.  I don't.  But, when it comes to OMD, and Art of Noise, a lot of times, that's the only way you can listen to them.  Don't know why.  But, as far as albums go, neither of them can really pull together a cohesive group of songs that I can like.  I guess I'm too picky.

Anyway, I thought the font and cover graphic was fitting for this collection.  I hadn't made the cover for myself before, but once I got these two, I printed them off.  Looks good on my CD wall.

Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark - The Extended Versions - 1979-88 - Disc One

Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark - The Extended Versions - 1979-88 - Disc Two 

Vapors - New Clear Days - 1980

This album is my next entry in my "Pleasantly Surprised" posts.  I'm a big fan of the website "Oldies.com" because they reissue old and out-of-print music, similar to what I do, with mixes and b-sides.  Sometimes they back 2 albums up on one disc.  In 2004 they released both of the Vapors albums on one disc.  Of course, I said "What the Heck" and ordered it, not expecting much for 11.99.  At least I'd have one good song on there, Turning Japanese.

For those that don't know anything about the Vapors, they had two albums and six singles.  I would place them firmly in the New Wave category, but could also strongly be considered Power Pop, the first album moreso.  And, according to Discogs, they do have a link to the Jam, so would that also put a hint of Punk in there?

I put all the b-sides and remixes from their first album on this disc, and I clearly preferred the Japanese cover of Turning Japanese to the actual album cover.

Vapors - New Clear Days - 1980

New Musik - From A to B - 1980

Before you skip past this one, I am considering this to be my first post in a segment called "Pleasantly Surprised".  This is an album that happened to be lumped in with a bunch of New Wave 80s Pop that I was downloading in mass quantities back in 2006-2009.  I had never heard of them before, didn't know what they were.  Before I move an album from my main hard drive to my back up music storage drive, I always listen to a little of it to make sure it's even worth keeping.  Usually I can tell within a few seconds if I want to keep something or pitch it.  This one, I started, and I let the first whole song play through.  Then I let the second play on.  Then the third, fourth, fifth, before I knew it, the album was done, and I loved nearly every song on it.  I was "pleasantly surprised."

Amazon review - "New Musik's first album From A to B is the best of their 3 albums and pioneered the New Wave synthpop sound. Every song on the album is great. Too bad the band didn't do so well in the USA. Tony Mansfield went on to do studio work with various groups. When Naked Eyes released their hit single "Always Something There to Remind Me", I thought some of the keyboard work sounded familiar. It was Tony Mansfield, of course. The second album by New Musik was good, also, but none of its singles charted in the UK. I find "From A to B" one of the best New Wave albums of the period, not only because of Mansfield's top-notch composing, but also because of the use of synthesizers. Gary Numan had a flashier image, of course, but as good as Numan's first 4 albums were, for me, this album by New Musik is a greater achievement."

Album, b-sides, no mixes....

New Musik - From A to B - 1980