ABC isn’t one of the better-known New Wave bands (at least not to me) but they are one of the most critically-acclaimed. Their 1982 debut album, The Lexicon of Love, received heaps of praise and a spot on many publications’ year-end lists.
‘The Look of Love’ was the album’s biggest hit, reaching the top five in the U.K. and the top 20 in the U.S. Though I’m hard-pressed to name any songs by ABC, this one sounds instantly familiar. And wonderful.
I think of Depeche Mode as a quintessential 80s band. But oddly enough, it took them the whole decade to arrive at their pinnacle achievement, 1990’s Violator. That record featured two of their biggest hits, ‘Personal Jesus‘ and ‘Enjoy the Silence.’ And they released as many albums after Violator as they did before it.
The band spent the 80s tweaking their New Wave sound, which met with more commercial success in their native England than on this side of the pond.
Continuing my look at acclaimed albums released in 1982, we arrive at Peter Gabriel’s self-titled fourth solo album. Not to be confused with his self-titled first, second and third solo albums.
Gabriel is an imaginative fellow, but that imagination didn’t extend to his album titles. Those first four albums, all officially titled Peter Gabriel, have come to be known by a word derived from the album covers: Car, Scratch, Melt and Security.
Today’s Random Weekend selection is the second track from Rihanna’s second studio album, A Girl Like Me.
‘Kisses Don’t Lie’ is a neat track, blending electric guitars, reggae rhythms and an R&B bass line in the service of a standard issue “should we or shouldn’t we” love song.
If somebody asked me to recommend a musical artist they’d never heard of, my first answer would be Tift Merritt. She’s the best.
This assumes, by the way, that people have heard of Ben Folds and Belle and Sebastian.
My second answer might be Josh Rouse or Ron Sexsmith. Or it could well be Dar Williams, the writer and singer of today’s random iTunes selection. She’d be in the top five, no question.
