In the late 70s and early 80s, radio changed from the same ol' boring 1970s classic rock and disco to music that was a reaction to punk. New Wave was born and we should be thankful it was. But the term New Wave has now become mistermed and lost its original meaning.
In the early 1960s, Americans were listening to people like Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly. Both artists were fine in their own right, but Americans were also missing out on a groundswell of great music in England. When the Beatles played the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, everything changed. Soon there would be lots of bands from the UK being played on American radio and topping the charts. This was the first wave of English music to most Americans.
New Wave from the last 1970s and early 1980s was termed that because music had lost its way a bit. There was a lot of bad music from the 1970s (disco was and is bad music, sorry) and radio had become more Americanized once again. But then suddenly we had a lot of good music beginning from overseas in the late 1970s and hence, the second wave - or New Wave - of new UK bands arrived.
The five New Wave albums you must go out and buy today
I bring all this up because the bands I have on the list that follows will not include performers such as The Talking Heads, or The Cars, or Blondie. The reason is that those bands weren't English so while they were making some fine music themselves, they weren't part of an English wave. I see these bands show up on a lot of best-of New Wave albums and I think grouping them in with the subgenre is just wrong. Just because they were making music in the early '80s shouldn't make them New Wave.
I also don't have artists like Elvis Costello, or The Police, or The Clash on here either. They are all English, but they were making their bones before New Wave and listing them all in a best-of New Wave does a disservice to their earlier music (especially The Clash who weren't anywhere close to New Wave).
New Wave is almost by definition, rock bands that were synth-driven. So which five New Wave albums should you own? The five that follow.
Number 5: The Fixx, Reach the Beach
Reach the Beach was The Fixx' second album and was released on May 13th, 1983. The album produced three singles, "One Things Leads to Another," "Saved by Zero," and "The Sign of Fire." The first song listed there is probably The Fixx' most well-known song, and while it is quite good it is also not their best song.
The Fixx were a bit different. While they did have a synthesizer, the were much more driven by a guitar and their songs were often full of space and slightly eerie sounds. "Saved by Zero" would never make it onto the radio today, but somehow did in 1983. It's has a very basic sound on first listen but is deceptively complex, especially lyrically. The song is about reflecting on oneself when one has nothing else to do lose.
Like many of the bands in New Wave, The Fixx were reactionary to the fear that the Cold War era held. Most of their parents had lived through World War II, yet there almost seemed to be the threat of nuclear war breaking out between Russia and the West. This is one reason Reach the Beach sounds so bleak at times.
Still, there is something about The Fixx's sound that sounded different from other bands then and still seems unique. While the albums that followed for The Fixx weren't bad, they did sound a bit more metallic and the songs were not as consistently tight. Reach the Beach may not be one that you blare at the beach itself, but it is a must-play on a cool night while driving to the ocean to look out over the water.
Number 4: ABC, Lexicon of Love
ABC was always pop music, but they also sounded different in 1982 when they released Lexicon. Everything past that for them sounded a lot more aimed for chart position - "Millionaire," for example, is OK but a bit too plastic to be good - while Lexicon was exaggerated kitsch that was simply too good not to listen to. Heck, that doesn't go for just 1982 or 1983, but for 2023 and 2024 and beyond.
The album has nine proper songs (there is a tenth song on the original release called "Look of Love, Part Four" which serves more as a coda), and five of them were released as singles. This wasn't a reach to oversell the album, but because the songs are worthy of standing alone on their own. Even the songs that weren't singles could have been.
"Look of Love, Part Two" was the third single released but might just be one of the ten most perfect songs ever created. It's a sermon on anything but about be happy in love. What exactly is the look of love? Ihave no idea and neither does the band in this song, and that's the point.
It's odd for an album such a mixture of glam and cabaret to have lyrics that are so angry at times. This is the epitome of what that albums should be, however. Plus, even now, the production is so crisp that you could listen to the album all the way through, feel like you missed something good on it, and listen to it immediately after finishing the first listen.
Number 3: Rio, Duran Duran
How good was Duran Duran in the early 1980s? So good that while many of their albums since have basically existed simply to produce a random single or two they are a band still worthy of getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (inducted in 2022). And that last part isn't meant to be a diss towards Duran Duran. My intent is to show light on just how good their first three albums are.
This was a band that did not lack in confidence. Six of the nine songs on the album are 4 minutes and 21 seconds long or longer. This means the band did not going into the recording studio thinking they need to get songs out quickly in fear no one would like them. Remember, in the early 1980s a person could not just skip through songs as easily as they can now. It was safer for a band to go with shorter songs that weren't good but wouldn't completely tune out the listener.
The great thing about Rio is that there isn't one song that needs to be skipped. "Rio" and "Hungry Like the Wolf" were radio staples and easy to sing along with, but "New Religion" might just be the best song on the album. While Duran Duran did use synths, they were basically a guitar-driven band and "New Religion" could have done completely without any synth. It was aggressive but had verses that slowly built to the chorus of near-orgasmic release.
Rio was followed by Seven and the Ragged Tiger which was also an excellent album. But Seven also seemed like the songs that were not good enough to make the tracklist on Rio. You can enjoy both, but Rio is better.
Number 2: Speak and Spell, Depeche Mode
I write this as a huge DM fan. While I would in no way consider the sensibilities of Depeche Mode's music to be New Wave by design, the first album is the only time they would come close to the genre. This is DM's debut album and the only one where Vince Clarke would do most of the writing duties. Mind you, I respect Clarke to a degree, but Depeche Mode became a better artist without him.
Still, Speak and Spell is synth-driven and is a relatively happy album. Many songs are about relationships and love in a way that later DM albums would have smirked at. "New Life" and "Just Can't Get Enough" are ridiculously poppy and positive and would never make it on later DM albums, but that doesn't mean they aren't good songs.
In fact, if you are unlucky enough to hear either songs, I should warn you. The first time you hear them they may become earworms for the next several days (or decades). But the rest of the album is worth listening to as well, just don't expect Black Celebration-type songs.
That said, even with the first album nothing sounds exactly like DM. Maybe it's Dave Gahan's voice. He does sound a bit more open on the vocals on this album instead of the textured menace of some later songs. But it's still wonderous and a harbinger of things to come.
Number 1: Mirror Moves, Psychedelic Furs
The Furs had made their bones before this album came out in 1984. The original version of "Pretty in Pink" came out on 1981's Talk Talk Talk album. "Love My Way" was released off Forever Now in 1982 and remains one of the Furs most well-known songs. But while those singles were excellent in their own right, no album by the band had yet reached a linear stream from front to end.
Mirror Moves is a mixture of beauty, dance music, and scary sounds. "Alice's House" lyrics read like the end of The Shining. One is not truly sure what is going on, but one also likely knows they don't want to find out.
There are differences between this Furs albums and the ones that came before it. A big difference is the amount of space most of the songs have leaving room for the sometimes eerie sounds. Plus, Richard Butler's voice stands out even more due to the amount of air within the songs.
Every song on the album is good, though "The Ghost in You" and "Heaven" are likely the most well-known songs. Both songs charted either in the UK or on Billboard. But this album is best left to multiple listens to it the first time you sit down and put the needle down on the record.