Customer Reviews

Living In Oblivion : The 80's Greatest Hits, Vol. 1

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Living in Oblivion series is the way compilations should be made. It offers a wide variety of music from the very well-known to bands I've never heard of. The booklet includes a brief, interesting history of the tracks and there are photos of EVERY band on the track list. Even for some of the more famous bands like Bow Wow Wow and Spandau Ballet, the LIO people did not choose the obvious songs like "I Want Candy," or "True" that we've all heard tons of times on the raido, but chose other hits we may have forgotten about or never heard. The LIO series is an excellent way to catch up with some 1980s favorites while also discovering stuff you missed.

Leans hard to the Europop sound of the 80s. BowWowWow, Classix Nouveaux - bands you didn't hear on US radio and won't hear about on Behind The Music. Shiny,Shiny doesn't turn up much on 80's stations, either. Enjoyable Ira Robbins editorial, too.

I bought this 5 cd set years ago and I still get it out often. True, I wasn't familiar with all of the songs (which is strange since I was a teenager in the 80's), but there are enough great songs to justify the purchase.
Most compilations rely on the same 15 songs (yawn). This set reminds you of some songs you may have forgotten and introduces you to some you may have never heard before.
If you love the energy and the off-beat style of 80's new wave, this is a great start.

I remember all of these songs and love most of them! But, I am not looking for mainstream 80s stuff, a lot of the songs on the Living in Oblivion series were hits on MTV or in the postpunk/new wave clubs or college radio. Anyone who hit these types of clubs at the time should know these. A great collection for the true fan of new wave/club music.

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!

Good music. Gotta love Turning Japanese by The Vapors!

Remember the good old days when vinyl was something you listened to instead of something you wore, and cd's were things your father invested? Remember how you used to stay up late to watch "London Calling" on MTV - and when MTV actually showed music videos???????

Dust off those Vans, get out those Girbauds and spike what's left of your hair real high 'cause from start to finish this cd is one of the most comprehensive compiliations of those one-hit wonders we loved so much.

The usual suspects are all here: Kajagoogoo, Naked Eyes, Kim Wilde, et al...but we also get "The Politics of Dancing" by Re-Flex, "I Eat Cannibals" by Total Coelo and "Shiny Shiny" by Haysi Fantayzee.

Trust me. Put this on, invite your own personal Brat Pack over and you'll have a John Hughes film just waiting to happen. Oh - and get volumes 2,3,4 and 5 while you're at it 'cause 'things can only get better'!

I always liked 80s era music just because it's one of a kind, but instead of going by the American Billboard, this is more of a personal selection of stuff you may never have heard, and a lot of it is excellent for any fan of new wave.

When I bought the entire set, I was thinking I would get a great compilation of 80's hits. Instead, the majority of the songs are either one-hit wonders or from bands with weird, tacky names to match the song titles. On a positive note, there are some pretty memorable tunes like "Always Something There To Remind Me" by Naked Eyes and "She Blinded Me With Science" by Thomas Dolby. On the other hand, unless you're a big fan of synthesized-pop music, this is all you're gonna get.

Track Listing:

1. "Too Shy" - Kajagoogoo 3:43
2. "Always Something There To Remind Me" - Naked Eyes 3:39
3. "Talk Talk" - Talk Talk 3:16
4. "Kids In America" - Kim Wilde 3:23
5. "Turning Japanese" - The Vapors 3:40
6. "The Politics Of Dancing" - Re-Flex 3:55
7. "19" - Paul Hardcastle 3:37
8. "Homicide" - 999 3:41
9. "Romanticide" - Combo Audio 3:08
10. "Guilty" - Classix Nouveaux 3:12
11. "(Get A) Grip (On Yourself)" - The Stranglers 4:00
12. "2-4-6-8 Motorway" - Tom Robinson Band 3:16
13. "C30, C60, C90, Go" - Bow Wow Wow 3:01
14. "(She's) Sexy + 17" - Stray Cats 3:28
15. "She Blinded Me With Science" - Thomas Dolby 3:40
16. "Chant No. 1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On)" - Spandau Ballet 4:03
17. "I Eat Cannibals (Part One)" - Total Coelo 3:32
18. "Shiny Shiny" - Haysi Fantayzee 3:41

This compilation is a mixture of mostly one hit wonders and songs that take you to another place and time like Too Shy by Kajagaroo and There is Always Something to Remind Me by Naked Eyes. The music was from the 1980s and a New Wave era with mostly British recording groups. I liked the compilation because there are always song or two that I can't get anywhere else. If you like the New Wave sound of the 1980s, you will like this compilation on compact disc.