It’s becoming quite popular to cover Billy Idol’s “Eyes Without A Face” these days, and I’m quite OK with that. The Irish duo Electro Sensitive Behavior have given this track the synthpop treatment. While it sounds true to the original recording, the additional synths combined with a Lou Reed meets Peter Murphy vocal make this cover a keeper.
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This is a great uptempo new wave/dreampop track which provides a modern twist on a sound harkening back to the mid-1980s. This track appears to have been around in demo form since at least 2011, and we’re very glad that they included it on their new album which came out last month. The chiming guitars evoke both the nighttime fun and the bygone ’80s, while Rände Rännäli’s sparkling vocals fit the mood perfectly.
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This New York band’s post-punk / new wave song is a great contrast in light and dark, and should appeal to a wide spectrum of music fans. Starting with a jangly, memorable, and very chipper reverb’d guitar riff, the mood turns darker when the deep, slightly melancholic vocals begin, with a chorus that sounds like…
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Well, now this is a surprise! Beach House, known for it’s dreamy, languid tunes apparently picked up some feedback pedals at the flea market. Their new single, Sparks, opens with some MBV-esque distortion before a squelch of guitar that wouldn’t be out of place on Smashing Pumpkins’ debut LP, Gish. When the dust settles, and…
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Yesterday, 80’s icons a-Ha released the first single called ‘Under The Make-up’ off of their forthcoming album ‘Cast In Steel’. A tour is expected to accompany the new album. Singer Morten Harket’s voice is as good as ever on this melancholy track that reminds us a little of ‘Lifelines’. The synths and orchestration on this track are movie soundtrack beautiful and leave us anticipating what the rest of the album might sound like.
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The track Cranekiss owes an obvious nod to Cocteau Twins but the driving beat also reminds me of Dream About Me for the now defunct Pains of Being Pure at Heart side project, The Depreciation Guild.
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This is a nice retro trip, and although that is maybe becoming a cliche notion, this is NOT a look back at 80’s Synth. We are talking about the hazy, dreamy world New Wave/Goth vibe of Cocteau Twins, Bel Canto and The Cure. There are also more ethereal vocal vibes reminiscent of Julee Cruise, Tamaryn…
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Our recent mix of “Do You Remember – A Modern Day John Hughes Soundtrack” has taken off like gangbusters this week. Since everyone has been enjoying this theme, we decided to take it to Spotify for you. The playlist below contains songs from the first two mix volumes (note that not all of the songs from the mixes were available on Spotify).
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One of my favorite albums of the mid 90s was Jamboreebop by State Of Grace featuring the songs Hello, And Love Will Fall and Smile. This was a band that I truly missed, until today. I was listening to some playlists on Spotify and heard this beautiful voice that immediate caught my attention…and it sounded oh so familiar. The band was Fatal Charm, a band that I had never heard of. I continued to listen to a few songs and after a while the sounds started to sound familiar. They were State Of Grace songs! I did some quick googling and was surprised to find out that Fatal Charm was the early incarnation of State Of Grace.
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This is Volume 2 in the mix series of songs that sound like they would be included in a modern day John Hughes Soundtrack. I used a few different approaches in picking songs. Some of these songs might perfectly fit in one of his 80s masterpieces while others are guess how the sounds that he covets might have evolved over the years.
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Apparently, this is the summer of infectious female-led synthpop jams. You know what? I’m quite ok with this. Meanwhile, the video is all sorts of Retro invoking the look of Deee-Lite and Austin Powers at the same time.
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Strong Hearts is just the latest in a string of infectious synthpop jams from the Orlando duo, Priest. From the debut self-titled LP, the track will have you singing along in no time and it’s not going to leave your head any time soon.
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