Freedom of Choice-New Wave Hits

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 23, 1992)
• Original Release Date: November 24, 1992
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Caroline
• ASIN: B000000HVS
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #253,305 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Ca Plane Pour Moi

2. Rock & Roll Girl

3. Destination Unknown

4. How Much More?

5. 5' 1"

6. Pump It Up

7. The Wait

8. Tainted Love

9. Wishing

10. Dreaming

11. Wuthering Heights

12. I Got You

13. Homosapien

14. Mexican Radio

15. Antmusic

16. Don't You Want Me Baby

17. Hero Worship

18. Girl U Want

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars High school soundtrack redoing Elementary school soundtrack, June 5, 2005

By 

epsteinsmutha "epsteinsmutha" (At the bottom of Juan Epstein's excuse note) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Freedom of Choice-New Wave Hits (Audio CD)

It's for a great cause, this album, despite what rightwingers might think of it. If you are old enough to remember the old K-Tel compilations (predates Now That's What I Call Music!) like Chartaction '83, Streer Beat or Hit Mix, you probably heard the originals on one of those. Before alternative got silly, several of the "biggies" (Sonic Youth, Redd Kross, Superchunk, Mudhoney, The Muffs and an uncredited Soul Asylum doing the Vibrators' "Baby Baby") and some lesser knowns put out this album of cover tunes. It was too early in some respects for the 1980s retro boom of late, but 13 years on they still hold up pretty well and the price is right. I got this when I was in high school and still listen to it quite frequently.

Signed,
epsteinsmutha

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The dream of a Tribute lover, March 22, 2001

By 

Agustín (Las Palmas, Spain) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Freedom of Choice-New Wave Hits (Audio CD)

Many people hate tribute records. Many people like them. I am one of the later. I accept that they are often made in a careless way, looking like the artist involved didn't care too much for something they are doing free. This is not the case here. Almost all the covers are taken very seriously, with love. After all those are the songs that really got a lot of people into music. And we are talking about some heavyweigths here: Sonic Youth (alma mater of the project), Mudhoney, Yo la Tengo...

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Forgotten alt-bands of the 90s remember alt-bands of the 80s, January 26, 2002

By 

Kenton Larsen (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Freedom of Choice-New Wave Hits (Audio CD)

When bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam redefined the "alternative rock" genre in the early 90s, it became easy to forget that the 70s and 80s had alternative scenes of their own.

Except back then it was called "new wave" and the songs were characterized by synth-driven tempos, propulsive arrangements, and lyrics about alienation and nuclear war.

Freedom of Choice, a fund-raiser for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, presents some of the genre's best songs and places them in the context of the alternative rock of the 90s. So, songs by the Human League, A Flock of Seagulls, Missing Persons and Soft Cell are covered by Chia Pet, It's OK, Erectus Monotone, and Finger, respectively. Add covers of pre-new wavers Elvis Costello by Mudhoney and Iggy Pop by Tiny Lights, and you've got the idea.

When this collection came out in 1992, it was probably a little early to be commemorating the 80s and call -- as the liner notes do -- the Go-Go's Charlotte Caffey and Devo's Gerald V. "new wave legends". The good news, however, is that unlike most compilation CDs, this one is surprisingly consistent.

Sonic Youth, perhaps the best-known alternative band on the compilation, turn in a fine dismantling of Plastic Bertrand's "Ca Plane Pour Moi" as do Yo La Tengo, who cover Blondie's best song, "Dreaming".

White Flag provide an effective, albeit unrecognizable, cover of Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights" and the Muffs score with an upbeat version of Paul Collins' "Rock & Roll Girl".

More faithful to the originals are Mudhoney's take on Elvis Costello's "Pump it Up" and the Connells' rendition of Split Enz's "I Got You."

Ten years after the fact, this compilation remains an interesting relic, though it's telling that the bands of the 80s covered here are still remembered fondly, while the bands doing the covering are, but for a handful, mostly forgotten.