Pure 80’s Hits
Various Artists
UTV
In the age of Napster, I have to wonder if compilations like this aren’t obsolete. I mean, surely you can make a compilation like this with a cable modem hookup, a CD burner, and a couple hours time. What’s more, you can make sure your comp has only ’80s songs you like, rather that the hit-or-miss nature of most store-bought ’80s collections. It’s easy to forget that the era of Simple Minds, Duran Duran, and Tears For Fears was also the era of Asia, Rick Springfield, and John Waite, yet compilations like this still always seem to throw the sublime (the former bands) together with the ridiculous (the latter). Compilations like this are the reason the record industry wants to crush Napster – they throw these things together on the cheap (especially since they don’t have to pay the bands much), so they’re almost pure profit. They’re afraid with Napster, people won’t buy this kind of stuff anymore. But there will always be people who don’t have the time or inclination to put one of these things together themselves, and just want a quick fix from Universal’s catalog of ’80s hits. So even with Napster, these things aren’t obsolete. Even if you do have to suffer through the likes of best-forgotten schlubs like Glass Tiger (“Don’t Forget Me When I’m Gone,” which was only a hit because it had Bryan Adams on backing “vocals”) and Dan Hartman (“I Can Dream About You”) alongside the delights of the likes of Swing Out Sister (“Breakout”), The Plimsouls (“A Million Miles Away”), and The Power Station (“Some Like It Hot”). Everything you loved and hated about ’80s music, all on one convenient disc.
UTV/Universal, 2220 Colorado Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90404
