Music For New Romantics is a new 3-CD compilation reflecting and celebrating a time when, in the aftermath of punk rock, young elites in England’s major cities threw off the shackles of grey, damp and dreary turn-of-the-80s Britain and sought something more refined and cultured.
Curated with help from London boy-about-town and DJ Chris Sullivan (of Blue Rondo A La Turk), and featuring the best of of glam rock, proto-punk, electronica, disco, funk and camp 60s curios, Music For New Romantics captures the spirt of its time. This is a deep dive into the eclectic and eccentric listening habits of a group of people determined not to be swallowed by punk’s gloomy reflections of British society, and to create a fantastical and improbable world all of their own.
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What is so refreshing about this compilation is that it doesn’t merely rely on the songs and artists that we have been familiar with in years gone by whenever albums representing the genre have been put together. Sure, there are the likes of Japan, Visage and The Human League here, but to omit them would be ludicrous, and at least some of the songs here are less obvious.
CD1 begins in spirited and bustling fashion with Roxy Music’s ‘Do The Strand’, Nina Hagen’s ‘TV Glotzer’ and Lou Reed’s ‘Vicious’, before drifting into pulsating dancefloor gems ‘Chase’ by Giorgio Moroder and ‘Love To Love You Baby’ by Donna Summer.
Dry ice permeates CD2 with Tubeway Army’s ‘Down In The Park’, The Cure’s 1980 atmospheric smash ‘A Forest’, and The Human League’s hugely inspirational, ‘Being Boiled’. All the synth heavyweights are here: OMD, Visage, John Foxx and Japan. Siouxsie and the Banshees get to close the disc with their rousing 1978 hit, ‘Hong Kong Garden’ (named after a Chinese restaurant in Chislehurst).
Anyone cynical about a 3-disc ‘New Romantic’ set running out steam will quickly be proved wrong. Marianne Faithfull’s anthemic, ‘Broken English’, which took inspiration from the Baader-Meinhof political activist group, is celebrated here in full. M’s ‘M Factor’ reminds us that there was more to the band than ‘Pop Muzik’. We are also treated to the 12″ version of New Order’s third single, ‘Everything’s Gone Green’ from 1981. There is even the fantastic 12″ version of ‘Funky Town’ by Lipps Inc, which clocks in at almost eight minutes, as it should.
There are some curios here, too. Sister Sledge’s ‘Lost In Music’ is a seemingly peculiar choice for inclusion here, but this Nile Rodgers production was beloved of many during the era, as Chris Sullivan describes in the compelling sleeve notes.
A five-star compilation.
Image may be NSFW.
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Music For New Romantics is released on Nov 25th | Pre-order
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