Song title: Veronica
Artist: Elvis Costello
Year: 1989
Why I like this song:
It's the meeting of minds: Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney joining forces to write a song together. And what do they come up with? The most cheerful-sounding very written concerning dementia.
It's certainly a strange combination but that's what make it so appealing
Song title: Make Me Lose Control
Artist: Eric Carmen
Year: 1988
Why I like this song:
I remember this song fondly as I recall it being played a lot on radio at the time. It may be easy to dismiss this being part of the 'cliche' interpretation of eighties pop with the 'big' production sound and the nods to 60s music. But to me, this song represents living in late eighties suburbia like nothing else
Also those harmonies are fantastic.
Song title: Crockett's Theme
Artist: Jan Hammer
Year: 1984
Why I like this song:
Can't get more eighties with this - what with it's use of synthesizers, the guitar part and it's association with one of the most defining TV shows of the era.
Personally I like this song as it gives off a vibe of 'make-out' music. Yes whilst the seventies had Barry White and Marvin Gaye, the eighties had this XD
Song title: Kickstart My Heart
Artist: Motley Crue
Year: 1989
Why I like this song:
Yes i will admit this song is a product of it's time and the me of today may dismiss it as cheesy but somewhere inside me there is a seven old boy who thinks this is the greatest thing ever. And in this case he won out.
I guess it goes to show that a chorus with a lot of "WHOA!" and "YEAH!" can do gangbusters.
Song title: The Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun
Artist: Julie Brown
Year: 1985
Why I like this song:
And now, an exercise in black humour - my preferred brand of humour.
Granted this song hasn't aged well in the post-Columbine world we live in but I still find it funny because a) Julie's performance as a valley girl and b) some of the lines here are gold.
e.g.: "An hour later the cops arrived / By then the entire glee club had died (no big loss)"
Song title: 99 LuftBalloons
Artist: Nena
Year: 1983
Why I like this song:
When I think of eighties music, it is defined by synthesizers, simple but effective guitar, prominent bass and pounding drums. I will certainly admit that perception may be cliche but this songs delivers such elements in spades. And it gets even more eighties by throwing in a narrative involving Cold War paranoia.
Original video located here. Accessed 19th September 2022
Song title: Found That Soul
Artist: Manic Street Preachers
Year: 2001
Why I like this song:
Following on from hearing Smashing Pumpkins Machina album(s) in a new light could the same be said for the Manics?
I did purchase the Know Your Enemy album when it first came out but I found it quite the perplexing listen - it was long and very scattershot, as if it was a double album trimmed down into one (much like Machina).
With retrospect I can understand the problem facing the Manics at the time: do they keep going with the new audience they found through Everything Must Go and This is My Truth Tell Me Yours? Or do they fall back on the original audience they may have alienated with recent success? In which case, such intentions would have worked as a double album with both targets being satisfied but it didn't turn out that way.
Which now brings me to the recent release of the remastered version of Know Your Enemy: It has been remade into the double album it should've been all along. With this in mind, if we redo the track list of Know Your Enemy in accordance to this new track list what do we get?
A more cohesive listen that's for sure. And the original intention with Know Your Enemy becomes so clear. Guess it is possible to appeal to two audiences at once.