High fidelity

You can always count on the Go-Betweens to deliver graceful pop moments that make you feel both adolescent-longing and adult-civilized at once. A song about the dizziness and doubt before marriage seems to fit that skill perfectly. Listening to them makes me want to set standards most other bands would never meet.

The Go-Betweens — Bachelor Kisses

The international language

is a sugary pop song. As long as the hooks are juicy, I'm happy to enjoy English as a very distant second language. I love that these rare Italo gems keep coming across my earspace. Hopefully, you do too.

Clio — Eyes

Un cafe au lait, garçon

There you are living your adult life with adult concerns at the bus stop on a frigid morning when Nina Hagen careens across your headphones. Suddenly, it's an '80s musical foodfight, or three and a half minutes with the class clown doing her best impression of French culture cribbed from National Lampoon's European Vacation. Rivaling only Screamin' Jay Hawkins's geopolitical antics, Hagen collides the insipid with the infectious. More and more, I'm convinced that those heroic choruses only work when the singer is slapping herself in the face with a wet towel. Which is when my idiot heart melts.

Nina Hagen — Springtime In Paris

Majestic dreams of session men

I'm sure you're wondering what a early-'80s California New Age supergroup might have to say for themselves. Turns out it's not as cheesy as you might think. Maybe that's more a comment on what I consider cheesy these days. Hearing a tune like this, I can't help but envision evening shadows cast across vast LA parking lots. Which is a form of sublime contemplation.

Group 87 — The Mask Maker

Weird smiles

Hey Can fans — ever wonder what Damo Suzuki would've sounded like fronting an '80s pop band? It kinda happened. Here's proof.

Dunkelziffer — I See Your Smile

I do, I don't

That stare, once reserved for zoning out before TV screens, now annexes a feeling somewhere at the intersection of waiting and not waiting. When will the baby cries come? How hard will it press on my nerves? Should I move or not move a muscle? That effort of fortification, knowing that you have to pass through storms to get back to the blinding sun. That feeling, transmuted into a lovely pop song.

Anna Domino — Everyday, I Don't

Back to the sunshine

A belated hats-off to the recently-deceased George Duke. Apparently, he was not only the cuddly, well-Afroed keyboardist in Frank Zappa's most musically acrobatic band, but also made a string of mid-'80s albums that I have just recently discovered and am now totally addicted too. Here's a delicious summertime groove. And if you think old Fusion dogs can't learn new tricks, dig the keytar solo at 3:15.

George Duke — Got To Get Back To Love

Tangerine fire

Going deeper into Tangerine Dream's soundtracking heyday and finding more and more to love. I remember being disturbed by Firestarter as a kid, and yet the musical cues made no lasting impression. Funny how serene, gauzy, and un-fiery these themes are. And yet, they do capture the spookiness of a kid with destructive supernatural powers.

Tangerine Dream - Crystal Voice

Tangerine Dream - Testlab

No give up

Feelin' the sting of the NYC real estate hustle. The best medicine is a tune like this. Sends me to the imaginary world of $50-a-month lofts and a city that would keep finding reasons for me to see very little of home.

Claudia - Don't Give Up (Your Love)

Old tears

Having gone down a Cocteau Twins rabbithole, I guess it was inevitable that I'd find my way to the heart of the old 4AD cosmos (or at least the musical output of label boss Ivo Watt-Russell). This may be the end of line when it comes to maudlin teen angst. But then I've found a disturbing ability to stare too long into the most embarrassing of my high school memories and come away with a charmed laugh. Also, I do still dig the bass part in this one. Old sap, I am.

This Mortal Coil - A Single Wish

Right on

Do you ever need an excuse to get the imaginary dance party going in your head? I've got a ton of pretexts, but none are worth more than my most child-like desire to be a dumb bounce of flesh all down the avenue.

Plaza - Fire Eyes

In need of black strap

Enjoying a fun book about searching out all the ex-members of The Fall. Probably an attempt to gain indirect insight into that wonderful and frightening world. I'm happy that I'm still totally entertained by the antics of Mark E Smith. And I'm happy to share one of his more poppy numbers.

The Fall - No Bulbs

He who hesitates is lost

Happy post-Txgiving. Hopefully, you're sated, not-quite stuffed, and well caught up with family and friends whom you want to enjoy good cheer with. Seems like a good enough moment to offer up a tale of adulterous desire in nautical surroundings. I've always loved the image of seagulls taunting the song's poor hesitant sap. This one may be a minor Andy Partridge winner, but it shows the level his craft is working on.

XTC - Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her, Kiss Her

Getting old (and young)

Jesus Christ, I'm 35 today! I wouldn't consider that to be old, except that I continue to picture myself being perpetually 13. Meanwhile, what better way to celebrate a birthday than to go see Morrissey perform (though I'm not sure if this will make me feel young or old). And I'm going to indulge myself even more here with some Smiths favorites, albeit with '60s star Sandie Shaw standing in place of our familiar Charming Man.

It's a testament to how much I've listened to this band that Morrissey's voice sounds completely normal—almost unremarkable—to me now. And so it takes the vocal flamboyance of these Shaw versions to startle me into remembering how unique and compelling his voice seemed way back, and why I was drawn to it at the tender age of 13.

The Smiths with Sandie Shaw - Jeanne

The Smiths with Sandie Shaw - I Don't Owe You Anything

Moonbob

Another day, another Bob. A much less throaty one today though. I'll bet most people don't know who Bob James is, but I doubt you could listen to CD101.9 for more than 20 minutes without having some of his smooveness slathered on your ears. Or if you like to watch reruns on late night TV. Anyway, here is, gone full '80s. Maybe not quite moonwalking, but still definitely low-gravity.

Bob James - Moonbop

Disturbed

Ack, a day back in the flow of daily life, and I've lost the easy vacation shine, the cat-like jitteriness making its presence known way too soon. Who would've thought I'd lose the mellow before the suntan. Agitation suggests a rock-out. And so it goes. 

Absolute Grey - Memory Of You

Say you don't know me, I'm your native son

I'm mostly unqualified to hold forth on Willie Nelson's music, beyond a general affection for his nasally pipes and an amusement over his very public stoniness. But his lovely version of this paean to the faded railroad life of America sends a not so patriotic chill up my spine. Which alone makes it a totally suitable tune for this Memorial Day weekend. (And I'm pretty sure Willie will be firing up more than a grill on Monday.) Meanwhile, see you back on Tuesday.

Willie Nelson - City Of New Orleans

Red and blue

Increasingly, my favorite singers are the ones who polarize. Even if I can't stand them, it's hard not to respect the ones who put a stake in the ground, or at least care enough to give some character to their pipes. 

David Sylvian's solo debut is pretty much Japan without the name, and that's a good thing, even if it does point toward the navel gazing tendencies of his later work. This tune is solid though, with some welcome tightness supplied from his ex-bandmates. Dig the segue from blue notes in the verses to the cherry red swagger in the chorus.

David Sylvian - Red Guitar

A world so sweet and true

Love or hate, you can't deny the basic sweet-spot appeal of dreamy synth pop. I've spied curmudgeons who breathlessly grasp for pejoratives absently tapping their feet when they think no one's looking. I embraced the candy full-on a while back, and I've never found it hard to equally love "serious" music at the same time.

Which may be why it's cool to hear '70s proggers and other musos getting hip to such simple joys. Case in point — today's tunes, which by way of segue, feature Barbara Gaskin (faire maiden vocalist of yesterday's song) teamed up with Dave Stewart, who played in just about every Canterbury art rock band in shaggier-haired days (not the guy from Eurythmics).

This duo had some '80s hits, but generally played it under the radar. Honestly, they're hit or miss, but these two are surely hits in my mind. And mischievous ones at that, being radically rethought cover versions (check the originals here and here). The chorus of the first one, in particular, does transport me to a different world — accessible only for a few moments, and all the more sublime as a result. Plus, pitch bending!

Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin - I'm In A Different World
Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin - Roads Girdle The Globe

Can't chop down a symmetry

You can almost see the in the stairwell at the Canadian food co-op where a young Jane Siberry probably pinned up her ad looking for a New Wave band to execute her proggy/coffee house aesthetic. Or that's how it looks in my most reductionist moments. In reality, I dig this stuff just as shamelessly as I do Kate Bush. This is the nerdy version of that more flamboyant allure. And I am especially loyal to it, since I refuse to follow the muse of Siberry's late career. But this is squarely in that other '80s I sometimes believe I can will into popular memory.

Jane Siberry - Symmetry (The Way Things Have To Be)