Customer Reviews

Modern Rock: Dance

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Modern rock has many diffrent albums with diffrent 80s hits on them and this is one of the better ones. Its 2 disks and includes lots of memorable hits from the 80s. Some of the highlights from the first disk are tainted love by soft cell, the safety dance by men without hats and der komisser's after the fire. On the second disk some of the best songs are if you leave by orchestral manoeuvres in the dark, shout by tears for fears and you spin me round by dead or alive. Overall a really good collection of hits. Recomended.

Label: Time Life
Year: 1999
Track Title
1. Call Me -- Blondie
2. What I Like About You -- The Romantics
3. Mickey -- Toni Basil
4. Electric Avenue -- Eddy Grant
5. 99 Luftballons -- Nena
6. The Politics Of Dancing -- re-flex
7. We Got The Beat - Go Gos -- The Go-Go's
8. Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go -- Soft Cell
9. Rock This Town -- Stray Cats
10. The Look Of Love -- ABC
11. The Safety Dance -- Men Without Hats
12. Der Kommissar -- After The Fire


Various Artists / Modern Rock Dance (Disc 2)
1. Lies -- The Thompson Twins
2. I Melt With You -- Modern English
3. Wake Me Up Before You Go Go -- Wham!
4. She Bop -- Cyndi Lauper
5. If You Leave -- Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
6. Love Shack -- The B-52's
7. Sex (I'm A....) -- Berlin
8. Dance Hall Days -- Wang Chung
9. Shout -- Tears For Fears
10. You Spin Me Round -- Dead Or Alive
11. Oh Yeah -- Yello
12. You Keep Me Hangin' On -- Kim Wilde

Let me start this review with a warning. If you run across this disc in a store and it says the Soft Cell song is the "Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go" hit version of the song, it's NOT. I picked this up almost SOLELY for that version (which is somewhat difficult to find on CD), only to get burned. Thank you, Amazon, for listing it as "Tainted Love" only.

Now, with that out of the way--this two disc set is far from definitive but, if you're looking for a quick overview of some of the quintessential modern rock/dance hits of the the early Eighties, this set is for you. Opening with Blondie's "Call Me" (from 'American Gigolo'--1980's #1 song), it's chock full of songs with almost as much cultural impact as that classic.

The usual suspects are here: Nena, Stray Cats, ABC, Men Without Hats, Dead Or Alive and Wang Chung. You'll also find some big hits from artists that had bigger hits. For example, The Romantic's "What I Like About You" (another iconic song--arguably their best), is here, but they hit bigger with "Talking In Your Sleep". The Thompson Twins mega-smash "Hold Me Now" takes a backseat to the smaller hit "Lies". Cyndi Lauper's "She Bop" and Berlin's "Sex (I'm A...) are included, though both artists scored bigger hits, as well ("Time After Time" and "No More Words", respectively, among others). This isn't a complaint. I'm glad to see the obvious choices weren't made--some, if not all were BETTER choices.

In a collection of this sort, of course, there are others that you wish weren't included. Wham's "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", Toni Basil's "Mickey" and Yello's "Oh Yeah" are on every collection, it seems and, frankly, they're definitely clinkers. Wham! had much better songs ("Everthing She Wants" comes to mind)--Basil and Yello should just go away.

But, as mentioned above, usual suspects abound. No Eighties collection of this genre would be complete without Modern English's "I Melt With You" or Eddy Grant's "Electric Avenue" or "Der Kommissar" from After The Fire. These hits are also on nearly every collection, but deservedly so. They define the era, as does most of this set.

The included booklet has pics of the artists (looking appropriately Eighties-cheesy) with notes from noted rock journalist Arion Berger. The track listing inside also posts each songs highest chart position (amazingly "I Melt With You" only hit #78 in the U.S.!).

The songs sound great and, though pricey, you could do much worse than this package. Perfect for the casual fan or as an introduction to some decent-to-great artists and a very influential era.

There are TWO versions of Modern Rock: Dance - one is Blue, the other is Orange. I have both versions (I'm a collector of the Modern Rock series). They are similar to each other, except that a few of the songs are replaced by others. Since the picture above is of the Orange one, I am going to list the tracks to it. Here is the tracklisting for the Orange one:

Disc 1:
1. "Call Me" - Blondie
2. "Walk Like An Egyptian" - The Bangles
3. "What I Like About You" - The Romantics
4. "Mickey" - Toni Basil
5. "Electric Avenue" - Eddy Grant
6. "99 Luftballons" - Nena
7. "The Politics of Dancing" - Re-Flex
8. "Tainted Love" - Soft Cell
9. "Rock This Town" - Stray Cats
10. "The Look of Love" - ABC
11. "Break My Stride" - Matthew Wilder
12. "Der Kommissar" - After the Fire

Disc 2
1. "Lies" - Thompson Twins
2. "Never Say Never" - Romeo Void
3. "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" - Wham!
4. "She Bop" - Cyndi Lauper
5. "I Could Be Happy" - Altered Images
6. "Goody Two Shoes" - Adam Ant
7. "Sex (I'm a...)" - Berlin
8. "Dance Hall Days" - Wang Chung
9. "Shout" - Tears For Fears
10. "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" - Dead Or Alive
11. "Oh Yeah" - Yello
12. "The Honeythief" - Hipsway

The tracklist that "Festivalcds" is listing is for the Blue one.

@"Pauleky": Personally, I love the Yello song - I mean, who could forget the images from movies like "The Secret of My Success" or "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"? Or how about the Twix commercial - that was awesome!

Anyway, both versions are pretty good, though I like the Blue one better - I love "The Safety Dance" and "Love Shack". But I also like "The Honeythief", which is on this version. Also, the Blue one has more pictures - 3 full page pics of Tears For Fears, Cyndi Lauper and Toni Basil. The Orange one only has 1 full-page pic of Stray Cats. Both versions have smaller pics of varying sizes of other bands/album covers. The back cover of the booklet for the Orange one has the advertisement for the other CDs in the Modern Rock series, suggesting that this version came out later. Anyway, take your pick, or buy both versions if you like. Also, when ordering this CD, ask the seller which version they have - I contacted sellers before buying, and some of them had the Blue one.