With\u00a0nostalgia for the music of the 1980s showing no signs of abating, it should come as no surprise that record companies continue to release countless CD compilations of that decade\u2019s enduring hits.<\/p>\n
One of the latest is a collection of 18 hits that all reached number one on the Billboard singles chart, called Pure \u201880s #1s<\/i>. Obviously, considering just how many hits there are to choose from, picking the ones to fill a single disc can be quite a challenge. To their credit, Hip-O Records tries to span the whole decade and also included songs of different styles. But this approach doesn\u2019t always work, and it becomes an issue here as well. <\/p>\n
While I personally could have done without the inclusion of songs like \u201cDon\u2019t You (Forget About Me)\u201d by Simple Minds or \u201cEvery Breath You Take\u201d by The Police, since they seem to be included on every 80\u2019s hit CD that exists, I can\u2019t deny that not only are they great songs, but two of the quintessential anthems of the decade. For a record label to omit tracks like these would be at their own peril.<\/p>\n
Survivor\u2019s dated, cheeseball classic from the Rocky III<\/em> film, \u201cEye Of The Tiger,\u201d opens the album with a rocking start, followed up by the sophisticated pop classic \u201cOwner Of A Lonely Heart\u201d by 70s progressive rock stalwarts Yes, a song which finally brought them mainstream commercial success long after their creative peak.<\/p>\n Other welcome appearances include the excellent and quirky new wave hit \u201cDown Under\u201d by Men At Work, the late decade falsetto-fest of Fine Young Cannibal\u2019s \u201cShe Drives Me Crazy,\u201d and the hyper dance rhythms of Michael Sembello\u2019s \u201cManiac\u201d from Flashdance<\/i>, a movie widely eclipsed by its own soundtrack.<\/p>\n The disc does, however, suffer from a lengthy dead spot in the middle, where a number of insipidly dull, corporate soft rock songs bring the party to a crashing halt. The first of these, a sentimental, heavily-70s sounding piano ballad by Christopher Cross is pretty enough, but it\u2019s followed by \u201cThe Living Years\u201d by Mike + The Mechanics, which aside from a decent chorus doesn\u2019t have anything to offer, and it is then that we reach the nadir of the disc, Bad English\u2019s \u201cWhen I See You Smile.\u201d What a truly abysmal piece of polished commercial crap, which should surprise no one seeing how it originated from the undisputed queen of tacky corporate schlock, Diane Warren. I don\u2019t care if it made it to number one, I highly doubt that anyone remembers this song, and it would be wise to not encourage that. Strangely enough though, this song doesn\u2019t really sound dated at all — if I heard it on the radio today I wouldn\u2019t believe that it\u2019s almost 20 years old. <\/p>\n I\u2019m also annoyed that my nemesis, the Godawful \u201cKarma Chameleon\u201d by Culture Club, made the cut here. It always sounded like a throwaway meant for a Saturday morning show geared towards pre-school kids. Just a terrible song that I wish I could avoid for the rest of my life, but I doubt I\u2019ll be able to pull that off. The album also closes with a whimper, Lionel Richie\u2019s \u201cAll Night Long (All Night),\u201d a track devoid of any inspired melodies that just happily ambles along in its mediocrity. <\/p>\n All in all, I suppose Pure \u201880s #1s<\/i> is a decent enough compilation that will likely make a lot of people happy, but I can\u2019t really recommend it. Given that there are literally hundreds of similar collections available, you can probably easily find one with the best songs and none of the awful tunes found here. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":28403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5827],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-39848","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-various-artists","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39848"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}