Key
Note: The Beat was billed in America as "The English Beat," and Yazoo as "Yaz." I've restored their real names throughout. |
|
|
|
Compilations are listed in order from most favorite to least favorite. This list is selective: it doesn't have anything on it that I wouldn't recommend (with the caveats mentioned). If you want to find out about more compilations, take a look at the New Wave Outpost's more comprehensive list.
![[More]](../icons/expand.gif){kind=icon}
(Oglio Records)
100%
Oglio Records was created to reissue new wave music on CD. Flashback! is their first release, and it's a winner. The 12 tracks on this album are probably the most concise representative sample of the new wave as you'll find anywhere. It's all here, from the genius of Thomas Dolby to the poppishness of Altered Images, plus a few inevitable one-hit wonders. The liner notes are brief, but interesting.
(MTV/Rhino)100%
(Cover)
If you ask me, 1982 was the true watershed year for new wave music, but it was certainly still going strong in 1983. This album is a primo selection of songs from those two years.
MTV was not a big part of my formative years in the new wave scene, for the simple reason that if I'd had a television during the Reagan years, I wouldn't have survived with my sanity intact. On a few occasions, though, I managed to see some of those great early new wave videos which were just as amateurish, quirky, and fun as the music itself.
It wasn't long after 1983, alas, that bands found themselves relying on the deeper pockets of bigger record companies in order to be able to afford to make videos. And with the big labels came the more "professional" sound. You can hear inklings of this Class of 1983, with a few singles from artists whose earlier efforts weren't quite as glossy -- plus a few rock & roll artists who were jumping onto the new wave bandwagon.
None of this hinders the enjoyment of this album, though. It's an indispensible document of the airwaves of 1983, full of enjoyable cuts and absolutely no filler.
(Razor & Tie)100%
(Cover)
The early, mostly pre-synth days of the new wave are collected here. Greil Marcus described this particular flavor of music as "sparked by a tension, humor, and sense of paradox plainly unique in present-day pop music." These artists tended to keep their distance from a pop vibe, but they've got a vibe of their own, and it's all the more lively for its originality.
Unlike the other compilations reviewed here, most of the songs on this one never made it onto the charts, though some were college radio hits. Many of these arists were on small independent labels, and the music didn't fit in with the formats of most commercial American radio stations. Yet these songs and sounds are an integral part of the new wave explosion, making this compilation an excellent and essential part of any new wave music collection.
This compilation has the additional virtue of collecting overlooked works from woman-led bands -- on fully half of the selections! With a generous 18 tracks on the disc and informative liner notes, this album is a winner all around!
:
12 tracks, 100%
(Cover):
12 tracks, 83%
(Cover):
12 tracks, 
75%
(Cover):
12 tracks, 100%
(Cover):
12 tracks, 83%
(Cover):
12 tracks, 92%
(Cover)
This is a followup series of "flashback" albums from Oglio Records.
Los Angeles DJ Richard Blade put together these collections of mostly-danceable new wave tracks with as many hard-to-find extended remix versions as he could get his hands on. There are long-lost songs on each of these collections, and Blade has written some extensive and informative liner notes as well.
12 tracks per CD is a good amount, particularly when many cuts are extended remixes. A few cuts are real clunkers, but sometimes that's the price you pay for an imaginative disc. I heartily recommend all of these CDs; this is the best new wave series I've come across.
Don't confuse these with Oglio's Flashback Cafe discs, which isn't a new wave series. (Speaking of confusion, does anyone else find it strange that the word "flashback" is being applied to 1980s music?)
(2-Tone)80%
The ska revival is one of my favorite facets of the new wave. "A Message To You, Rudy" was the song that changed everything for me! The record label most responsible for this ska revival was 2-Tone.
Most ska revival bands started off at 2-Tone and, I daresay, often did their best work at that label: The Specials (a.k.a. Special A.K.A.), The Selecter, The Beat, The Bodysnatchers (who later became the Belle Stars), and Madness were all 2-Tone artists.
This is a two-disc set, and the first disc chronicles the label's early days, when every release was a hit. This disc is absolutely indispensible, with 23 of the greatest ska revival tracks ever recorded (plus 2 weaker but quirkily enjoyable tracks from The Swinging Cats).
With the exception of two Elvis Costello tunes, A Checkered Past chronicles every 2-Tone A-side, and most of the B-sides. Many artists went on to bigger labels, and the newer artists weren't as strong, so the second disc is rather uneven. The Specials stuck with the label, though (they had to, since Specials frontman Jerry Dammers owned the label!), and some of their best songs are on this second disc.
The liner notes provide a definitive history of the label.
There are other 2-Tone compilations, including a "best of" release that is less complete but doesn't have the weaker tracks. Various 2-Tone artists also have "best of" compilations that are still in print, including The Specials, whose compilation is especially recommended.
:
16 tracks, 100%:
16 tracks, 100%:
16 tracks, 100%:
16 tracks.:
16 tracks, 81%
The call themselves "The Right Stuff," and that's exactly what they put on these discs. There are 16 tracks per album and almost every one of them is a winner!
The series' namesake is The Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated" (Track #1 on Volume 1), and the series does present more punk- and rock-oriented material than the others. There are a handful of tracks from the late 1980s, but they don't veer too far from punk and new wave influence.
Volume 4 is the oddest of the series, consisting of rare cuts, instrumentals and B-sides. It's not the toe-tapper that the first three volumes are, but it's a valuable disc to have.
:
9 tracks, 100%
(Cover):
9 tracks, 100%
(Cover)
Another primo series from Oglio. This one collects extended mixes of some excellent dance-oriented new wave tracks and some excellent new wave-oriented dance tracks. Some of them are really rare. All of them are really great.
The low track count is misleading: each album has nine cuts, but these are long versions and remixes, so you get your money's worth. They're great party discs, too: each song segues into the next, just like on the dance floor.
(Rhino)94%
(Cover)
This compilation of top songs by new wave women is an an adjunct to Rhino Records' many-volumed Just Can't Get Enough series, and it's better than any volume in that series!
Holly George-Warren's historical liner notes are top-notch. The selection contains hard-to-find early releases of work by the Go-Go's and Lene Lovich (from way back in her Stiff Records days).
A few cuts are puzzling. The unlistenable one really has nothing to do with new wave, and the Pandoras and Divinyls tunes are from a later era (1986 and 1991, to be precise). They would have done better to include cuts from the artists featured on Totally Wired. Still, this is an excellent collection as it is.
(Rhino)93%
(Cover)
This is another spinoff from the Just Can't Get Enough series that's better than the series itself. These are mostly extended dance remixes, so you get more music in these 14 tracks than on some of the 16-track volumes. The liner notes are very good, too.
The album starts off great, with 9 excellent dance cuts, most of them extended remixes and most from the early 1980s. Then you need to rush to the CD player and make sure you avoid the horrible 10th cut. The remaining 4 cuts are enjoyable rarities of what the liner notes refer to as a "new wave dance genre that can best be described as lower East Side funk rock."
:
18 tracks, 100%
This is a good economy collection: no liner notes, good price, and 18 good tracks. The selection is very good, and while it's not all that daring, the disc does include songs that other collections have missed.
Now, if only I could find Volume 1 ...
(Hip-O)100%
"Alternative music" is a phrase with no useful meaning ever since the the mass-marketers got their hands on it. One look at the cuts on this album, though, shows that this collection has nothing whatsoever to do with marketing buzzwords of the 90s.
The cover promises "14 classic new wave hits." It actually provides about 11, plus three tracks from a later era with some new wave influences. Bonus points for having the old version of "She Blinded Me With Science."
:
12 tracks, 96%:
12 tracks, 100%
Alterno-Daze: Origin Of The Species is a primo collection of early new wave tunes, plus a handful of earlier tunes that might be thought of as pre-new wave. Alterno-Daze: Survival Of The Fittest is a primo collection of 1980s tunes. Both of them pick up some tracks that other collections overlooked.
(Rebound Records has also put out some primo collections of 1990s music under the name "Alterno-Daze," so don't confuse those with these.)
:
13 tracks, 85%:
12 tracks, 100%
These are soundtracks to a movie in which a DJ is waxing nostalgic and playing songs from the 1980s. The DJ tosses in healthy doses of The Clash and The Specials, including cuts not found on the other compilations reviewed here. It's a good premise for spinning off a fine soundtrack or two.
The only drawback is that a few of the songs on the first album were used as incidental music in the movie, and don't quite fit in with the rest of them. One of them is particularly heinous.
There are some cuts from later in the decade, but they were chosen well, fit right in, and help make these collections unique.
:
16 tracks, 87%
(Cover):
16 tracks, 84%
(Cover):
16 tracks, 75%
(Cover):
16 tracks, 69%
(Cover):
16 tracks, 87%
(Cover):
16 tracks, 94%
(Cover):
16 tracks, 
65%
(Cover):
16 tracks, 83%
(Cover):
16 tracks, 94%
(Cover):
16 tracks, 87%:
16 tracks, 94%
(Cover):
16 tracks, 94%
(Cover)
Rhino specializes in reissues and compilations of music from the past. Just Can't Get Enough is their flagship series of new wave compilations, with Volume 1 starting in the late 1970s. Many excellent and indispensible new wave songs are to be found in this series.
The liner notes for this series are some of the best you'll find: generally informative and often amusing. The cover art, a series of photos of new wave jackets, shirts, buttons, and the occasional skinny tie, is also quite clever.
One drawback of this series is that there's just a bit too much unlistenable filler. It's an ambitious project, trying to balance a comprehensive restrospective with licensing issues, but even so, I find some of the choices puzzling. For example, volumes 6 through 11 cover the same era as Rhino's own Class of 1983 compilation, yet they miss a full third of the fine tracks on Class of 1983 and instead give us about as much filler.
Fortunately, the filler problem is salvaged somewhat by the fact that each disc has 16 tracks on it.
As I mentioned above, there are two spinoff "Just Can't Get Enough" CDs that are better than the Just Can't Get Enough series itself!
(Sire)100%
Sire Records has always carried a variety of interesting artists, of which Tvlking Hevds are one of the most notable. In the mid-1980s they released a CD compilation entitled Just Say Yes, which was followed by similarly-titled compilations each year thereafter. Just Say Yesterday is the VIth in the series, "a CD with all those great old Sire hits that came out before there were CDs . . . ."
I like all these tracks, but only about half of them are what I'd call new wave.
(Arista)100%
This is a great party/dance disc: 18 solid new wave tunes, all segued together. A crowd-pleasing selection of earlier tunes, mostly from the golden years of 1982 and 1983, plus two popular cuts from a few years later. This isn't a very daring album -- everything's a "new wave hit" -- but the selections are plentiful and are segued together well.
(Hard Rock/Rhino)100%
(Cover)
The Hard Rock Cafe franchise has teamed up with Rhino to make some CDs. All of thes songs on this disc were pop hits, and this collection veers into the mainstream a bit more than the others listed here. I like them all, nonetheless.
:
18 tracks, 89%:
19 tracks, 84%:
19 tracks, 65%:
19 tracks, 81%
First let me get this off my chest: What the heck is so hard about using apostrophes correctly? "The 80's [sic] Greatest Hits?" Didn't anyone at EMI learn grade-school English? Yeesh!!!
Okay, I feel better now.
As the title suggests, this is a "greatest hits" series of songs from the 1980s. That means that these aren't really new wave compilations; the scope is a bit wider than that.
Unfortunately this means that some of the selections are uninspired pop hits and weaker spinoff efforts from new wave artists. Indeed, some of these cuts are such formulaic studio dreck that to call them "unlistenable" would be much too kind. These tracks are mercifully few on the first two volumes, but they certainly stand out. Yecch.
On the bright side, a few of these "greatest hits" are club hits, so the collection includes a number of dance gems that didn't get much airplay. The liner notes are enjoyable, and since most of these discs have 19 tracks on them, you've got a decent number of good songs per disc once you navigate your way past the unlistenable ones. If you're economizing, though, you might just want to stick to the first two volumes.
(Rebound Records)100%
A solid collection of new wave dance tracks. No risks were taken with the selections, though some are extended-play dance versions. A good disc to play when you want to move a bit, but not as good as the dance collections mentioned above.
(Rebound Records)100%
Another collection of 12 good tracks from Rebound. Again, not many risks here; half of the tracks are also on World of Dance!
:
10 tracks, 100%
Despite the title, this isn't a rock collection, it's actually collection of dance-oriented new wave tunes!
I like Volume 2 because it's an offbeat selection of songs with an emphasis on dancing. A few of them are from later in the decade and aren't quite what I'd call new wave, but I'm not complaining.
:
10 tracks, 100%:
9 tracks, 100%
Yep, this series has the same name as the CEMA series, except that the CEMA series doesn't use random apostrophes in the title Also, as with the CEMA series, the word "rock" in the title is misleading: this is a basic collection of new wave tunes.
By "basic" I mean there are no frills: no oddities or liner notes, only 9 or 10 tracks per album, and really chintzy cover art! Even so, every song is worth listening to, and that's what counts the most.
Priority has issued many additional volumes in this series, but I don't recommend them. Volume 3 is the most acceptable with only one filler track, but since there are only nine tracks total, it's not really worth buying. The filler increases with each volume and the cover art gets even worse.
:
12 tracks, 100%!:
12 tracks, 75%:
12 tracks, 75%:
12 tracks, 75%
There are a bunch of compilations put out under the "Risky Business" label. This label seems to be something of a fly-by-night operation (despite being part of Sony), churning out collections of songs from the 1970s and 1980s in packages with cheap graphics and no liner notes.
Most "Risky Business" offerings suffer from a poor selection overall, but the four listed here contain a lot of new wave gems, including some that appear nowhere else. This Ain't No Disco managed a solid 100 on my listenability scale! (On the other hand, I'd be interested in knowing how to annihilate the last track on my copy of Oldies But 80's!)
(Rhino)80%
(Cover)
This is an interesting compilation; a collection of punkish and ska tunes, intended to show the influence of ska rhythms on other artists. As interesting as this collection of songs is, I don't think it really succeeds at what it sets out to do! I know of a few dozen punk and new wave songs in which the ska rhythms are more apparent than in this album's punkish tunes.
The strongest cuts on this album are the ska songs, almost all of which are available on the aforementioned The 2-Tone Collection: A Checkered Past.
(CEMA)85%
What I like about this compilation is that it focuses on the earlier days of the new wave. What I don't like is that it has too few tracks, some ill-chosen. It gets a few extra points for including the title track, though.
(Scotti Bros.)96%
A nice collection that you can dance to, but lots of overlap with much of the above.
:
10 tracks, 100%
(Cover):
10 tracks, 90%
(Cover):
10 tracks, 100%
(Cover)
These albums started out as a "special project" of Rhino, basically a budget spinoff of the Just Can't Get Enough series, with fewer tracks, no liner notes, and no surprises: only the well-established new wave hits are here, and you can find all of them in the other collections.
Later on they were repackaged under the name "Flashback Records," which was apparently an attempt to associate them with the various Oglio series. They added some vaguely interesting liner notes, with amusing prefab comments about the new wave genre and mention of only 4 of the 10 tracks on each CD.
I recommend buying these discs only if, like me, you have lots of new wave collection CDs, listen to them a lot, and could use a bit of variety in the song order.
(K-Tel)90%
Wow, a K-Tel collection that's just as listenable and just as much of a bargain as the "Rhino Special Projects" CDs just mentioned. As with those, I recommend buying this one if you need another CD to get some variety in the song order.
Lots of new wave and new-wave-influenced songs were quite successful, making it onto the "top ten" and "top forty" charts, disrupting the usual bland formulaic uniformity of hit radio. You'd think there might be a Billboard collection from this period that was reasonably listenable, but I haven't found one yet (though the K-Tel collections have been decent).
British hit radio is rather more eclectic than what you find in the US, and has yielded the following compilations, which are reasonably listenable, or at least more listenable than their American counterparts. For some reason they're all associated with TV.
(Global
Television)90%
Most of these made it into the British top ten. Americans will recognize a lot of the hits on here (most of which are worthwhile), and discover some British hits that somehow never made much of a splash on our side of the pond. Indeed, you'll find that some American 1-hit wonders are actually 2-hit wonders!
It's a nice glimpse of the hits, though there are a few clunkers here, too. Most of the clunkers are from the later 1980s, plus a 1991 cut from The Pretenders that isn't much like what they did in the 1980s. Go figure.
(Global
Television)100%
A great compilation, all enjoyable, all listenable, and all segued together to make a great dance record. The only surprise is no surprises: all of the songs are familiar to American ears.
(Warner ESP TV)86%
This one is a lot like Into The Eighties, and unfortunately that means it contains some of the very same clunkers (and adds a few more). Again, most of the clunkers are from the later 1980s. The "Spitting Image" cover art is wonderful, though.
(Polygram TV)65%
This compilation is even more mainstream. These are all top ten hits on the British charts, and most of them were on American charts as well. Unfortunately, I find a full third of these tracks unlistenable.
Nonetheless, this is a good compilation to round out your collection with. The influence of new wave had a profound and positive influence on the rock, pop, and dance genres, lasting even into the late 1980s, and that influence is evident in this selection.
:
23 tracks (2 CDs), 95%
A German compilation with a good selection, including songs not usually found on the American or British compilations. Too bad there aren't more songs overall, though.
I think it's pretty amusing that Oglio and Rhino, the two main chroniclers of new wave music on CD, have also each released Christmas CDs featuring new wave (or at least 1980s) artists.
Rhino also has a new wave Hallowe'en compilation, but it's really awful.
(Oglio Records)100%
(Cover)
(Rhino)74%
(Cover)
Some readers have asked me to explain what I mean when I distinguish "new wave" from "pop" and "pop" from "hit radio" and "hit radio" from "greatest hits." Fair enough.
New wave is a musical genre. As genres goes, this one covers a lot of diverse territory. It's not like heavy metal, which you can detect instantly from the guitar sounds. A bouncy synthesizer line doesn't guarantee a new wave song, nor does one require bouncy synthesizers. If there's anything that unites various new wave artists, it's something along the lines of spunk shining through, often due to the lack of dense studio production -- though sometimes in spite of it.
Pop is not a genre. Pop will accept anything that comes along that (1) sells a lot of records and (2) is deemed acceptable for broadcast to a largely white, middle-class audience. There is nothing unifying pop except a tendency towards melodic songs with memorable hooks and studio gloss. An even more pronounced tendency is formulaic studio musicianship and songwriting designed to replicate previous hits. Neither of these are rules carved in stone, though: a novelty accordion polka song could become pop if it sells well enough.
New wave features many melodic songs with memorable hooks, which is why many of these songs crossed over to pop. Some of them had a bit of studio gloss and even some formulaic predictability to them, and those are the ones I refer to as poppish.
"Hit radio" is basically highly-distilled pop. There is largely a bland formulaic sameness to it; only rarely does a creative individualistic sound stand out. Take a peek at the songs collected in the various Billboard compilations for the new wave years, and you'll see exactly what I mean.
"Hits" and "greatest hits" are relative terms; they can mean popularity within an unpopular genre. Many "new wave greatest hits" did make it to hit radio, and many others have not. Likewise for "club hits." Most "college radio greatest hits" have never made their way to hit radio.
 Jym's Home Page
>
80s Music Page
<
New Wave | jym©econet.org |