Naked Eyes’ 1983 Debut Delivers Sincerity in an Ironic World
Naked Eyes’ 1983 debut, Burning Bridges, is a good album for reflecting on our ironic modern world, as it can’t help but wax nostalgic for the sincerity of the past.
new wave
‘Extended Stimulation’ Remixes Will Blow Out Speakers in Style
The epic Extended Stimulation set collects remixes of often overlooked 1980s songs, and you’ve never heard them this way before.
Baxter Dury’s ‘Allbarone’ Is His Very Best Album
Baxter Dury has created a rare album that continually reveals hidden depths, both lyrically and musically. Allbarone is a richly observed record.
Culture/All Things Reconsidered/Feature Sub Head/Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/Music/Music Features
Louisville Punk’s Defiance of Violent Conformity
Punk’s rooted, regional, and defiantly local identities made scenes like Louisville punk essential and life-affirming during the violently conformist Reagan years.
Jonathan Richman Finds the Sky Is Frozen
New wave veteran Jonathan Richman isn’t looking back, so why should we? He finds the future is frozen. Things don’t change; they just change form.
The Pale Fountains Practically Invented Twee Pop
For the Pale Fountains, The Complete Virgin Years is evidence of a group that had more ideas than two studio albums would allow. A few of those ideas were sublime.
Music/Feature Sub Head/Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/Music Features/Music Reviews/PopMatters Picks/Reviews
The B-52’s Created Some of the Finest Queer Pop Music
The B-52’s often get relegated as a “party-pop” outfit, but their subversive legacy runs deeper and stranger than any casual fan would know.
20 of the Best New Wave Albums by Rock/Pop Artists
As the 1980s dawned and punk began to morph into new wave, many established artists altered their style to reach new audiences. We look at 20 of them.
JoBoxers Pull No Punches in This Retrospective Interview
British new wave/ progressive soul band JoBoxers talk with PopMatters about cracking whips at lions and tigers and pulling no punches with their new box set of lost albums.
40 Years of the Cure’s First True Surrealist Pop Album
Forty-year-old The Head on the Door propelled the Cure toward arena stature with its musical cohesion and a collection of hallucinatory yet accessible songs.
Arthur Russell’s Underground Genius
Arthur Russell biography Travels Over Feeling is an elegy for a generation of underground artists that died too soon and a requiem for a vanished New York.
Talk Talk Brought Fire and Negative Space to ‘It’s My Life’
When Talk Talk released It’s My Life in 1984, they shook the new wave establishment with great songs and a new approach, while refusing any genre boxification.