More Pure 80's

You can't go wrong with this purchase. Many tunes with a great selection that is reasonably priced. It helps me to stay focused and puts a smile on my face. This may be my happy place when the music is playing.

Great Cd. It has a lot of hits I love from that decade. A must for 80s music fans

One of the best '80s albums I have ever listened to. Fast service, too! Thank you so much!

The first volume of the Pure 80s series, a multi-label project like the Now discs, focused on the early part of the decade, the birth of MTV and the Second British Invasion which followed. Sixteen of its eighteen tracks were British acts and almost all of them were synth-pop. The second volume, pure 80’s hits explored more of the decade in a similar way. Synth-pop and heavily electronic production is still the focus of More Pure 80s as those sounds have come to represent the decade more than any other. The songs are mostly from ‘82 to ‘85 so we’re still in that first big rush of 80s music, MTV, cable, VCRs and the feeling that everything was new. The mood is positive and optimistic. Everybody was walking on sunshine.The Eurythmics took a big leap into R&B with Would I Lie To You, and Annie Lennox proved herself up to it with a powerful, electrifying performance, with a great brass section backing her. There’s nothing dated about this song; it could have been recorded last week. The next two songs are pure fun. Walk Like an Egyptian was promoted with a very funny video where everybody was trying to do the walk, and it ended up the #1 song of the year on the Billboard charts. From the early summer of ‘85,you can still hear Walking On Sunshine being used frequently in advertising and promotions. It’s pure energy. It became one of EMI’s biggest moneymakers and the band, though no longer together, still collect royalties. Although written by guitarist Kimberley Rew, the band unusually decided to share the publishing rights, a choice I’m sure they feel quite good about.Hall & Oates had had a few hits in the 70s then seemed to fade away but came back in the 80s to become one of the super-groups of the decade. The Philadelphia duo had a real knack in adapting new sounds in their personal fusion of rock and R&B. Their electronically up to date production yielded seven platinum albums and five #1 singles. Maneater was one of their biggest, with its hypnotic saxophone.Next up is a trio of more traditional rock bands. Huey Lewis’ sound had an old rock’n’roll feeling and it was mixed with a band backing for The Power of Love. It’s mix of ‘50s style and ‘80s production made it perfect for Back To the Future.. Greg Kihn’s band like Lewis’ was based in the Bay Area. The popular video for Jeopardy was a mini movie in itself, a wedding on bad acid where everything and everyone becomes menacing and he finally runs away - but the bride joins him as he hops in his car. Rick Springfield had traditional guitar rock sound and played power pop songs. I’ve Done Everything For You is in the same vein as some of Loverboy’s hits.. He took the General Hospital job before Working Class Dog was released because he didn’t think it would do well and he had to eat. He’d been hanging around the music business since Speak To the Sky had gone top 20 in 1972, and was surprised by his newfound success.A trio of women follows with Anni-Frid Lyngstad singing a song too dark for ABBA, full of electronic production and a much harder rock sound than usual. Pat Benatar, like Joan Jett, was a real take no prisoners rocker, though Love Is a Battlefield was more synth and electronics than guitars. It’s dark sound went well in November-December ‘83 period when it was a hit. It had a strange video where she runs away from home. At first you think she’ll either end up coming back or else becoming a big star. But no, she becomes a taxi dancer in some kind of sleazy bar. In this bar, if a guy gets rude, the women will dance him into a corner while Pat throws a drink in his face - it’s one weird scene. Belinda Carlisle has a full power pop backing for Heaven is a Place On Earth, her biggest song.Rio was actually an earlier song than Hungry Like the Wolf but was reissued in the spring of ‘83 after Wolf’s success. This explains the much simpler video (than Hungry Like the Wolf’s Indiana Jones Sri Lankan fantasy). Here the band is all dressed up and sailing the Caribbean. Scottish group Big Country was a rock band rather than a synth group and could get a guitar to imitate the sound of bagpipes. I wish this band, with its power and energy had had bigger success but they had only the one hit. ABC lasted longer and had several hits that included one of the more unique songs of the 80s, When Smokey Sings. The Look of Love has all the elements of Second British Invasion synth-pop from its first wave in 1982.Two unusual numbers follow and they are neither from the U.S. or the U.K. Falco was Austrian and so it was appropriate for him to write a tribute to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It took 200 years, but Mozart was finally getting the recognition he deserved after a long time being thought of as a lightweight composer from a lightweight era. The movie, Amadeus, sealed the deal. I love Mozart’s music but I don’t like Rock Me Amadeus; the idea of it is okay but I don’t enjoy hearing it. And did he really have to name himself and his recording along with facts about Mozart?Men Without Hats was a Canadian New Wave band whose lead singer, Ivan Doroschuk, had the perfect vocal style, sort of disconnected and ironic and a powerful lot of electronica going on behind him in this recording. It was one of the big hits of the summer of ‘83. It came with a medieval-fantasy video with lots of morris-dancing and maypoles which was like the complete opposite of anything suggested by the music.Three more British groups end the album after the two non-UK entries. Tears for Fears was one of the most creative and interesting bands of the 80s. Their second #1 hit, Shout, began on the seashore and ended in the studio with friends and family joining in. Roland sang it with great sincerity, one of his virtues as a singer-songwriter. You knew he really felt what he was singing about in a way many other singers never conveyed. Do You Really Want To Hurt Me introduced Boy George to an international audience. In an imaginary courtroom he wore a shirt that had Culture Club printed in Hebrew on its front. Breathe sends the album floating off in a synth-and-sax dream, a perfect ending for this remembrance of a great time.

You can read the titles and know if you like the songs or not. The main thing is, these versions, editions, or recordings sound great. There's nothing odd, or rough so far.

THEY DON'T MAKE MUSIC LIKE THIS ANYMORE

This disc contained some of my favorites. I'm really pleased'

If you do, get this disc! All the faves. Can’t you just remember the video to “Walk Like an Egyptian”?