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"We Are the 80s" CD Reviews RCA/Legacy/VH-1 Classics
This ambitious We Are the 80s series is off to a sluggish start because only a handful of 80s acts seem to be available to date - a few with a long roster of hits, but others just one-to-three-hit wonders. Our sampling of Eddie Money, Scandal, Rick Springfield, The Bangles, and A Flock of Seagulls was definitely a mixed bag. Overall, the packaging for the series is very retro 80s-fun. It includes a free flash Space Invaders game. But we missed the necessary chart information to orient myself to the song lineup. The quality of the liner notes overall was uneven, some essays spending an inordinate amount of time on one major hit to the expense of educating the listener about the remainder of the collection. The Bangles CD liner notes even had a factual error, mentioning the band had three #1 hits when they only had two.
Scandal
You are better served to buy the Columbia version of Patty Smyth's Greatest Hits Featuring Scandal which includes her solo fare: "Sometimes Love Just Aint Enough," "Isn't It Enough" and other should-have-been hits like "The River Cried," "Heartache Around the World" and her version of Tom Waits' "Downtown Train." There are also two songs on the Columbia release co-written by Smyth's now-hubby, tennis star John McEnroe.which aren't as bad as you might expect. -- ML
Rick Springfield
Ironically, I find his collection the most fun to listen to these days, starting with the spartan and stretched "Jesse's Girl" which classically exemplifies what the clean and simple early 80s song was all about. "Jesse's Girl," Sammy Hagar's "I've Done Everything For You" (which my older brother was highly offended by when the poppy Springfield version out-performed the Red Rocker's version), and "Love is Alright Tonight" form a strong and bold start to the set. They still hold up for stripped-down pop-rock fun. Next follows some of the kids' stuff, the tracks that little girls went all aflutter about. They seem slightly gimmicky today: "Don't Talk To Strangers," "What Kind of Fool Am I," "I Get Excited," "Affair of the Heart," and "Love Somebody." They all sound so very 80s. And I cannot even deal with "Bop Til You Drop." I must tune it out or die. A big guilty pleasure, "Human Touch" comes in the middle of the CD. This is probably Springfield 's last chart-topper, and it's already 1985. What follows are single releases that didn't quite take off: "State of the Heart," (the only Rick Springfield single I ever purchased because I believed at the time it was full of 80s pathos), "Celebrate Youth" and "Rock of Life." The last two are solid 80s tunes, but his star had already faded. But from the simplicity of the first track ("Jesse's Girl) to the ambitiousness of last track ("Rock of Life") there lies an excellent from-here-to-there trajectory of how the 80s decade progressed. No matter how his rock-lite image has suffered over the years (being a teen idol is like a death sentence for rock star longevity) - objectively, ironically, this is the only CD in the We Are the 80s series I wanted to keep. --ML
Eddie Money
Because the 70s tunes are missing, the Ronnie Spector duet "Take Me Home Tonight (Be my Baby)" is the anchor hit that starts things off. But regrettably, this 80s anthem doesn't do it for me anymore. The rest of the album's hits are repetitive and stupefyingly simple. All of it is so much 80s filler: "Walk on Water," "I Think I'm In Love," "I Wanna Go Back," "Shakin'," "Endless Nights," "We Should Be Sleeping" and "The Love in Your Eyes." Only the final track touched me in any way, the anti-prophetic "Peace in Our Time," mostly because it brought to mind a poignant memory of watching the video which included scenes from the public destruction of the Berlin Wall. How hopeful we all felt then that indeed we were due to find peace in our time because we were enlightened folk. Now, two decades later, we have found instead the dark horror of Middle Eastern conflict that was sitting in wait for us around the corner of the last century. For this reflective moment alone, "Peace in Our Time" is worth a melancholy listen. --ML
The Bangles
I'm now ready to let go and reexamine the group, and I have to say this is one of the most entertaining collections in this VH1 series and a definite keeper. First off, The Bangles have more than one or two hits. This collection contains their two #1 hits, "Eternal Flame" which was great for slow dancing in high school but now can put one in a diabetic coma, and the sizzling cover "Hazy Shade of Winter." It also features the aforementioned "Walk Like an Egyptian", the ubiquitous "Manic Monday" (which hit #2), the sexy "In Your Room", and the hummable "If She Knew What She Wants." Even the "filler" songs are catchy. I love the early song "Going Down to Liverpool" and the catchy "Be With You." I always thought pouty Susanna Hoffs was the star of the band, but this collection shows the other gals also capably handled lead vocal duties. The very listenable harmonies were accentuated by a driving guitar sound and tough rock edge to create a sound worth reviving. --JW
A Flock of Seagulls
The highlight of the CD for me is "Space Age Love Song." I had forgotten about this track and it captured me again with its haunting melody. The other big hit is "I Ran", and I'm very, very tired of it. The third minor hit is "Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You)", a catchy tune that would have worked well in any John Hughes film of the era. The rest of the CD is full of the kind of silly synth pop you would expect to hear after reading the liner notes and finding out the band was composed of hairdressers who just up and decided to form a band. Many songs drone on for 4 or 5 minutes. There is a song called "Telecommunication" that basically repeats that word over and over for 2:33 - were they stoned out of their minds from huffing Aqua Net? The lyrics show little imagination, i.e., the oh-so-fresh titular simile "Heartbeat Like a Drum". Their lack of musical training and formal training in hairdressing explain why the band's singular contribution to the era is a haircut. --JW
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