Customer Reviews

Living In Oblivion : The 80's Greatest Hits, Vol. 5

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Interesting mix of 80's second / third liner pop & new wave hits.
Some track facts:
1. Bananarama's "More Than Physical" (Single Remix) (3:20) not found anywhere else on CD (as we speak)!! This is an edited mix of the UK 7" version (3:43) found on the master series. Such a brilliant but massively underrated song, even on Bananarama's greatest hits compilations this song (nor version) is nowhere to be found, extremely rare!!!
2. Double's "The Captain Of Her Heart" - scarce nowadays
3. China Crisis' "King In A Catholic Style" (3:54) - not indicated but is actually an edited version.
4. Peter Schilling's "Major Tom (Coming Home)" (4:58) - not the radio edit (4:10).
5. Naked Eyes' "Promises, Promises" (US Version) (3:59) - one of my personal favorites, slightly different from the UK version (4:28).
6. ABC's "Vanity Kills" (3:30) (US Single Remix) - different from the album a.k.a. UK single version.
7. When In Rome's "The Promise" (3:39) - another 80's dance classic and another one of my favorites.
8. Climie Fisher's "Love Changes (Everything)" (Single Remix) (4:29)
9. Icicle Work's "Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream)" (3:46) - another new wave classic.
CD also features US & UK chart peak positions and album info of every track. Despite the bizarre art cover, you wouldn't want to let this one pass you by if you are an 80's music collector ... brings back lots of great memories!

Correct Track Listing

*Recommended Tracks

1. "Major Tom (Coming Home)" - Peter Schilling 4:58
2. "Hyperactive" - Thomas Dolby 3:40
3. "Promises, Promises" - Naked Eyes 3:59
4. "The Promise" - When In Rome 3:39*
5. "Vienna" - Ultravox 4:57
6. "Enola Gay" - Orchestral Manoeuvers In The Dark 3:32*
7. "King In A Catholic Style (Wake Up)" - China Crisis 3:52
8. "Steady" - Jules Shear 3:31
9. "Our Lips Are Sealed" - The Fun Boy Three 2:52
10. "Pleasure And Pain" - The Divinyls 3:55
11. "Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream)" - The Icicle Works 3:46
12. "The Honeythief" - Hipsway 3:10
13. "Souvenir" - Rubber Rodeo 3:48
14. "I Wanna Be A Cowboy" - Boys Don't Cry 3:41*
15. "The Captain Of Her Heart" - Double 4:35
16. "When Your Heart Is Weak" - Cock Robin 4:40
17. "Love Changes (Everything)" - Climie Fisher 4:29
18. "More Than Physical" - Bananarama 3:20
19. "Vanity Kills" - ABC 3:30*
20. "We Close Our Eyes" - Go West 3:41

I currently own, as of this writing, volumes 2 and 5 of this series. They are definitey hard to find. This, along with other 80s compilations I own, definitely gives me my 80s fix. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, where 80s radio has failed on two stations (decade injustice). Therefore, this CD collection is a necessity for those who have also been abandoned by radio format changes.

The Living In Oblivion series of CD compilations does something that many similar compilations do NOT do: they give us some great variety of "hits".

There is no doubt that "Mickey" by Toni Basil was a huge hit. There's also no doubt that "Our Lips are Sealed" was a break out hit for the Go Go's, but the Funboy Three version wasn't. But what about "Living in a Box"? It only hit the Billboard top 100 at #89 in 1987. So why is it here? Why are a large number of these songs? They're not top 10 hits, right?

Wrong!

I'm sick to death of so many compilations relying on top 40 hits from the 80's. The U.S. music tastes are typically very different from those of Europe. Just because a song doesn't make the U.S. Billboard top 40 doesn't mean that it isn't a hit in other countries. And although I'm an American, my music tastes have always run more in line with those of Europe.

I'm delighted that the Living in Oblivion series (and the Pop and Wave series) have incorporated a variety of hits from the U.S. and Europe.

I also like that some of the more obscure groups and their songs are available on these compilations. There are several songs on these albums that never were released on CD (as they hadn't come into being at the time of the groups' albums initial releases), so albums such as these are the only place where you can find these hits. The Boys Don't Cry song "I Wanna Be a Cowboy" hit the Billboard charts at #12 in 1986, but the group disappeared soon thereafter. Then all of a sudden a dance version of that same song came out in the early 2000's and rocketed up the dance charts.

Don't be misled, the Living in Oblivion series is one of the absolutely best series for a variety of music from the 80's. If you want to hear run of the mill, top 40 only hits from the 80's, well, then you'll just have to look elsewhere.

Also, the liner notes and pictures of the groups included in the jewel box are really clever. You get to find out what the chart position was for the songs in the compilation and see what the groups looked like at the time of the song's release. My only issue with these liner notes is that the author of them seems to be disparaging the very music which these albums are espousing. Apparently many believe that the music from the 80's was vacuous and devoid of emotion. One need only listen to the song "The Promise" by the group "When in Rome" (Living in Oblivion Volume 5) to know that such a statement is false. While that group only had this one hit and then faded into obscurity, "The Promise" made the Billboard Top 100 at #11 and the Billboard Dance Chart at #1.

Anyway... I can't recommend this album and its entire series any more! It's simply awesome! Before believing those who would disparage this series of albums, please check the Billboard charts and you'll see that these songs were in fact hits.

GET IT!

I own all 5 of the LIO series and must say that v.5 stands out as the issue that most personifies (what I believe) is the point of the series. Many of the songs in the series were songs I may have heard only once in the 80's (in clubs, on the radio, in movies). But were it not for the LIO series, many of the tunes would definitely be relegated to musical "oblivion". (Hint to the LIO naysayers: Just because you never heard it before, doesn't mean it isn't "GOOD"! If you want only what was in the TOP 40 in the '80's, try a TIME-LIFE series!)

Everything here shines in it's own '80's quirky sort of way. I left off 1 star only because the version of "Hyperactive" is an edited version and not the full version included on Thomas Dolby's "Retrospectacle" album.

Not everything in the LIO series is a hit, but it contains so many songs not found anywhere else that truly deserve a second listen and their own place outside of oblivion.

PS: I am told that v.5 is officially OUT OF PRINT.

This album (& the others in the Living in Oblivion series) is awesome. I have lots of other 80s compliation CDs, & the nice thing about these is the lack of overlap! The tracks are almost completely unique to this series for comps. A must buy for any 80s lover!

Living in Oblivion Volume 5 is like finding someone's time capsule of their favorite songs. I bought the CD for Double's "The Captain of Her Heart" becase a smooth jazz station played it one evening, and it's the only song my month old daughter will fall asleep to. Although there are many songs that I didn't particularly care for back then (Ex: I Wanna Be a Cowboy), it is interesting to hear songs that a lot of DJ's are using for their mixes today, and new groups are re-making with modern beats and rifts. I didn't thnk that I would play the entire CD over and over again (except track 15 of course), but I find myself playing it twice a week.

This CD has tracks I could not find any where else, not even Napster or Walmart Custom CDs. I played it on my summer break to the beach and it brought back memories. My kids even like the music. So, if you Wanna be a Cowboy, or you miss the Captain of your heart, listen up and enjoy!

I used to earlier buy the NOW compilation series thinking the best songs were found in the NOW compilations but i now realise i wasted a lot of money on the now scrap only after coming across the Living In Oblivion series of 80s hits i had listened to volumes 1 and 2 and feel this is the type of music i always wanted

I searched & searched for "The Captian of her heart" & "Pleasure & Pain" Finally found them on one album miss Double & long live Divinyls ! I was also happy to find "Major Tom"(coming home). Now if I could only find "Buffy Come Back"- Angel & the Reruns.