![]() All Mod Cons, the Jam’s third album, was fraught with uncertainty, despite the fact that its young wunderkind was already earning kudos as the once and future Modfather. “Metal” and “M.E.” buzz with paranoia as synths swell throughout, and the rock-solid rhythm-section of drummer Cedric Sharpley and bassist Paul Gardiner give the songs a welcome rawness and human element.- Mark LoreĪt the tender age of 20, Paul Weller was already burned out. Like many New Wave artists of the time, Numan often gets unfairly lumped into one-hit wonder status, as his single “Cars” became a Top 10 hit in the U.S. Groundbreaking in its use of the Polymoog synthesizer, Gary Numan’s debut, The Pleasure Principle, still sounds like the dystopian future, almost four decades later. Gary Numan: The Pleasure Principle (1979) So while their record label touted them as The Next Big Thing, their inability to transcend the hype relegated them to a momentary phenomenon that sadly fell out of favor.- Lee Zimmermanģ8. A blend of school boy naughtiness and inside humor-offered up with a wink and a nod-their attitude hinted at the fact that they never took things quite as seriously as their critics would believe. In retrospect, it’s easy to demean and even dismiss the Knack’s highly hyped debut, but there’s still a certain guilty pleasure associated with the one-two punch of the album’s mega hit singles, “My Sharona” and its equally compelling follow-up, “Good Girls Don’t.” Built on ricochet rhythms, heavy-handed hooks and leader Doug Feiger’s obvious infatuation with the Beatles (they’d later attempt to emulate the Fabs’ evolution into more adventurous terrain), the band’s sound helped spearhead rock’s resurgence following disco’s demise, a take on pure pop with charmingly devilish designs. Echo & the Bunnymen did the same thing with “Bring On the Dancing Horses.” The soundtrack manages to fit perfectly with the themes of the movie, the tastes of its characters and the musical era during which it was compiled.- Bonnie Stiernberg (The movie even takes its name from the Psychedelic Furs track it opens with.) It’s weird to think that there was a time when people would make out to stuff other than Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’s “If You Leave” at prom, but the band actually wrote the song specifically for the movie. And out of all his soundtracks, Pretty in Pink is perhaps the John Hughes-iest, full of New Wave classics worthy of its record store-clerk heroine. John Hughes’ use of music was so distinct and masterful that to this day, lazy music writers can describe something as sounding “like it belongs in a John Hughes movie” and you know exactly what they mean. Here are the 50 best New Wave albums of all time: The college-radio boom of the ’80s and indie rock of the 21st Century both owe a lot to the New Wave bands on this list. In many ways, New Wave gave hope to independent bands playing in burgeoning local scenes. Shaw also noted that “artist-owned labels, once meaningful only as demos or vanities are now commercially viable thanks to new wave marketing systems.” “In fact, it’s now widely recognized that the new wave represents a full spectrum of musical styles with the common factor being a fresh, honest approach and a sense of cultural involvement between artists and audience.” ![]() “One of the first misconceptions to fall by the wayside will be the notion that new wave/punk rock is raw, offensive, noncommercial music,” wrote Greg Shaw in a 1978 issue of Billboard. While “New Wave” and “post-punk” were pretty much interchangeable terms in 1977, by the early ’80s, the more avant-garde, harder-edged bands divided off into post-punk, and New Wave was the realm of synth-driven pop. There was power-pop, neo-psychedelia, acid-punk, art rock and lots and lots of keyboards. It encompassed pretty much everything that followed the punk movement that still served as an alternative to mainstream pop and rock. New Wave music meant a lot of things in the late 1970s. The following albums were collectively chosen by Paste music writers and editors. As we look at the best New Wave albums of the ’70s and ’80s, we’re focused both on the early records which overlap with our 50 Best Post-Punk Albums list through the New Romantics, left-of-center power-pop and synth rock of the ’80s.
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