Double Shot: New Wave

Various Artists - Alternative - New Wave | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 27, 1999)
• Original Release Date: August 17, 1999
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: K-Tel
• ASIN: B00000JTD0
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #394,906 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. New Moon on Monday

2. Reap the Wild Wind

3. It's My Life

4. Hyperactive!

5. Lawnchairs

6. Too Much Peassure

7. Tenderness

8. Walking on Sunshine

9. Our Lips Are Sealed

10. Tell That Girl to Shut Up

See all 12 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Open Your Eyes

2. Fetish

3. Destination Unknown

4. Mexican Radio

5. Ghost Town

6. The Late Mistake

7. Airport

8. Starry Eyes

9. Promises, Promises

10. Send My Heart

See all 11 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Quite Your Typical New Wave Compilation, January 22, 2008

By 

Jason W. Bellenger (Byron Center, Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Double Shot: New Wave (Audio CD)

Back in 1999 and 2000 K-Tel teamed up with EMI-Capitol and released a series of these 'Double Shot' compilations, limiting the releases to only 24 tracks over 2 discs of material. 'Double Shot: New Wave' is one of better new wave releases in my collection, simply because it branches out beyond the typical hits of the decade and includes a number of gems and rarities.

This release does feature a number of overused tracks. "Walking On Sunshine" by Katrina And The Waves, "One Way Or Another" by Blondie, "Eyes Without A Face" by Billy Idol, and "Ghost Town" by The Specials are some of the tracks which often feature too much on other compilations of this kind. That's not to say that these aren't worthy of inclusion, but do we really want them yet again? For example, The Specials' "Ghost Town" was not a hit in the U.S. but a #1 record in the U.K., and it seems to be popping up everywhere! I suppose the collection had to include some of these more known hits in order to draw people in to getting this release. Additionally, considering this is a 1999 release many more compilations have since followed with these similar songs. Perhaps these tracks were a bit more unique then.

On the other hand, featured are a number of rarities and gems from this era which are often hard to find on CD. "Too Much Pressure" by The Selector, "Tell That Girl To Shut Up" by Holly & The Italians, "Open Your Eyes" by Lords Of The New Church, "Fetish" by Vicious Pink, "The Late Mistake" by Comateens, "Starry Eyes" by The Records, and "Send My Heart" by The Adventures are all essential tracks, in my opinion, and enough reason to purchase this 'Double Shot' compilation. "Fetish" by Vicious Pink is the full 6:20 song, not an edit. I don't believe that this track can be found on any other compilation. How often do you find Comateens on CD or available for purchase? Even Amazon doesn't even have any Comateens music available for sale. When searching this is what shows up! "The Late Mistake" is one of the band's forgotten brilliant recordings and gets a much-deserved spot here.

I bought this 2-CD collection earlier in the decade for a cheap price, not knowing many of the songs on the release. I knew a few of them, but this was before I really started discovering new wave music. I must say that over 5 or 6 years of listening to these discs that I've grown to like nearly every track on this set, even re-discovering songs that I originally ignored or didn't care for. "Open Your Eyes" by Lords Of The New Church is now one of my favourite songs on this release, after I originally ignored it since my purchase. "Send My Heart" by The Adventures is a hidden gem that should have been a hit.

The release also benefits from not using some of the most typical hits by some of the featured artists. Instead of using "Hungry Like The Wolf" or "Rio" by Duran Duran we get another hit by the band with "New Moon On Monday". Instead of "She Blinded Me With Science" we get "Hyperactive" by Thomas Dolby. Instead of "Always Something There To Remind Me" we get "Promises, Promises" by Naked Eyes. "Gold" replaces the overused "True" by Spandau Ballet. Yes, that band did have many more hits than "True" ... well, at least outside the U.S. And even now "Gold" is finding it's way on too many compilations.

For a 1999 release, the sound quality is good. The tracks have obviously been given an upgrade from their original releases, but the remastering is not amazing. No mastering credits are given either. Some tracks sound better than others, but that's probably due to production. For example, "Lawnchairs" by Our Daughter's Wedding sounds amazing, yet "Send My Heart" by The Adventures sounds particularly lifeless. Motors' hit, "Airport", which I re-discovered on this collection, sounds flat in comparison to recent, punchy remastered versions of the track that I've come across. It's a shame that this release did not come out a few years later when Capitol was finally at the top of the game with their 24-bit remastering technology, which is still used today. Nonetheless, none of these tracks sound bad, so it's still worth purchasing for the rarities even if you are picky about sound quality.

Buy this now out of print title before it's gone! Now if only Capitol could pull some more rarities from their vaults and issue additional compilations like these!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun Comp.., February 12, 2009

By 

Robert Lett (Richmond, Va United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Double Shot: New Wave (Audio CD)

Fun New Wave comp with quite a few more obscure songs, which to me is not a bad thing. Worth it for the song "Lawnchairs" alone. "Lawnchairs" is also on the out of print Rhino cd "New Wave Dance Hits Of The '80s: Just Can't Get Enough" which being Rhino is probably slightly better sound but it gets a fortune on the secondhand market....

4.0 out of 5 stars Oh please! This CD is great for Vicious Pink alone!, December 31, 2006

By 

Albert Smith Jr. - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Double Shot: New Wave (Audio CD)

I am still discovering stuff to this day and this was one of them. The main reason I bought this cd was because it had Viscious Pink, which is impossible to find on cd these days. This cd happens to have the full length version of "Fetish", which I had on 12-inch. Now I have a digital copy, which is worth the price of the cd, especially if you like 80's new wave. It's not Expose and Cyndi Lauper, but mostly bands that actually played their own instruments rather than get "produced" for the 13 and under crowd.