I Want My New Wave

Performer: Various Artists
Producer: Sandi Hemmerlein; Michael Anderson
Distributor: BMG (distributor)

Notes: Illustrator: Dan Levine . When Razor & Tie sells I Want My New Wave on late-night television, it's as a 32-track, two-disc set. This retail version pares that down to one disc, and features 18 of the decade's standard bearing tracks. Bow Wow Wow ("I Want Candy"), Duran Duran ("Girls on Film"), the B-52's "Rock Lobster" ("There goes a narwhale!"), Blondie ("One Way or Another") -- even the casual '80s fan has a lot of the material here, whether on other comps or nostalgic soundtracks. Of course, that also makes for considerably less filler. Split Enz' "I Got You" will always have one of the best choruses of the decade; Berlin's "Metro" is a masterful cocktail of pulsing synth and cold emotions; and Adam Ant's "Goody Two Shoes" is pure skinny tie, flailing elbows kitsch. I Want My New Wave also mixes in a few deep cuts -- or at least songs that more often appear on Left of the Dial-style collections -- including the Smiths' "This Charming Man," "Boys Don't Cry," from the Cure, and Echo & the Bunnymen's "Killing Moon." It's difficult for any '80s compilation to stand out in 2005, but I Want My New Wave isn't really trying to. It's more of a cursory survey, and in that it succeeds capably. ~ Johnny Loftus

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