Title:  18 Modern Rock Classics From The 80's
Label:  JCI, A Division of Essex Entertainment,Inc. by Warner Special Products
TTime:	67:45
Notes:	None (a disappointment for a collection this good), but it lists
        individual songwriting credits, which is always of interest to me.
Paid:   $13
Rank: 	4 out of 5

Track Listing
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Title                                  Artist
-=-=-                                  -=-=-=-=-
What You Need                          INXS
Things Can Only Get Better             Howard Jones
One Thing Leads To Another             The Fixx
Our House                              Madness
Hold Me Now                            Thompson Twins
I Melt With You                        Modern English
Situation                              Yaz
You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)      Dead Or Alive
Cars                                   Gary Numan
Peter Gunn                             Art Of Noise (featuring Duane Eddy)
I Want Candy                           Bow Wow Wow
Perfect Way                            Scritti Politti
The Look Of Love (Part I)              ABC
Smalltown Boy                          Bronski Beat
Love Plus One                          Haircut One Hundred
If You Leave                           Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
True Faith                             New Order
Two Tribes                             Frankie Goes To Hollywood

Comments:

The most frustrating thing about collecting 80's compilations is that the
same songs get repeated on so many of them, and you soon find yourself
pondering whether or not to buy a disc that has seven or eight songs you've
already collected just to get three that you haven't.  Or worse yet,
whether or not to buy one that has ten obscure new wave bands you've never
heard of just to get "Major Tom" by Peter Schilling.  This disc does
contain a couple of the more repeated numbers ("One Thing Leads To
Another", "The Look Of Love"), and a few you may have missed (I'd never
heard "Smalltown Boy", and my life isn't any more fulfilled now that I
have), but it also contains a lot of very memorable songs from the decade
that for some reason haven't appeared on any other worthy compilations.
Any self-respecting 80's music fan would want to have "I Melt With You",
"You Spin Me Round", "True Faith" and "If You Leave" in their collection.
"Situation" by Yaz is one of those where you don't recognize the title, but
put it on and it all comes back to you.  "Perfect Way", "Hold Me Now", "Our
House" and "Love Plus One" represent some of the most memorable singles of
the era, one often maligned for its constant overkill of synthesized music,
but these songs ("Cars" notwithstanding) truly have enough soul and emotion
to argue the case otherwise.  It also wisely chooses Frankie Goes To
Hollywood's forgotten "Two Tribes" instead of forcing "Relax" on us for the
umpteenth time.

One of the few comprehensive compilations that you could put on at your
80's party start to finish and probably only hit the skip button twice
(once for "Peter Gunn", once for "Smalltown Boy" - unless your crowd was
really into the more eclectic stuff from the 80's, in which case this
probably too much of a pop album for them).

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