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Modern Music for 80s Nerd

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Very much an eighties child who also very much finds 98% of modern music leaves me cold with its pro-tooled, digital-sheened, auto-tuned, millennial-whoopy cynical generic blandness.

Can anyone recommend any millennial acts/songs that would please a lover of eighties music? I tried Hot Chip (after reading they would fit the remit) and they left me cold. Any suggestions? Cheers!

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Comments

  5. ‘Lover of eighties music’ is a broad definition, but I’ll have a go…
    Lana Del Rey has a [very good] new album out and as that’s what I’ve had on repeat for the last week how about a track from it.

  6. Jesca Hoop also has a [brilliant] new album out. She has an eighties feel throughout her albums [there’s a lot of Kate Bush in this track] but it also sounds ‘modern’ [whatever that means]. IMHO she is one of the best lyricists around right now and I love a writer who can write a song where the meaning isn’t obvious.

      • Lana will be in my top ten, for sure. Jesca may just make it to number 1.
        The ladies are smashing it this year. Aldous Harding is another top 5 contender.
        This is her video for ‘The Barrel’ which I’m putting in here because it’s got that bonkers 80’s vibe.

  7. The 1975 wear their ’80’s influences proudly. I’m not the first to notice that this track owes a lot musically to ‘The Downtown Lights’ by The Blue Nile

    • Agree with The 1975. 80s kid here too and although I have no idea what these young people are going on about, they do have an 80s vibe.

      See also Everything Everything and Metronomy (but not the latest album).

      (I can’t get on with Hot Chip either.)

      Oh I know! Cut Copy! They’ll do the trick.

  10. I say give up! The eighties were a unique time in music (for good and for bad…..) and it’s very difficult to recapture that without just sounding kitsch.

    Having said that, check out La Roux’s two albums. Both very good, and without being an 80s copyist she/they do seem to capture something of the sound and spirit of the time. Catchy pop songs with a synthy feel, slightly “crunchy” sounding and without the sheen of modern productions. The closest comparison I can think of is early Depeche Mode. Would fit seamlessly into a 1984 episode of TOTP.

  12. C Duncan’s album, Health, has that laid-back Prefab Sprout/Scritti Politti vibe.

    Pale Waves sound like a mix of The Cure, The Cranberries, The Cocteau Twins and The Blue Nile.

    Sink Ya Teeth are like a mash up of Donna Summer and A Certain Ratio.

    I’d have said The 1975 but Lemonhope beat me to it.

    I will think of other later and come back.

  13. The new Lloyd Cole is ever so 80s and not in a Lloyd Cole 80s jangle way either, chock full of analog synths and even , on track ‘Violins’ that electronic woom woom drum sound, just like Taylor Dayne.

  14. So far..

    Hurts – yes, this definitely has 80s feel
    Lana Del Rey – nice, more of a 90s Massive Attack feel to me – good video
    Jesca Hoop – can definitely hear KB vibes, especially in harmonies. another good video
    The 1975 – great video and I love the song. never really checked them out before. this is exactly what i’m talking about – they actually play around with the arrangement rather than it being the same THE WHOLE WAY THROUGH (another modern pop trope). Had Killers/U2 feel to it too. Will check out the albums. “modernity had failed us” indeed.

    Thanks for the recommendations so far – knew I could rely on you all. Will check them all out. Keep them coming!

    • Did I ever tell you about that time when Mrs duco and I had the table next to Robyn and her mum at a restaurant in Stockholm’s old town? [Oh, shut up duco – Afterword moderators].

      • Martin Kellerman had a description of Robyn’s inspiration in a fake interview that made me smile:
        – Jag har lyssnat på Kate Bush, Leila K och the Knife och jag tänkte göra en album i deras stil, fast sämre…

  18. Yes to Robyn also Christine and the Queens Girlfriend has Madonna /Jackson/Prince flavours. Then there’s Roisin Murphy, especially Overpowered album. So much modern music has these kind of roots. I guess I am some kind of 80s fan since I like all this stuff, actually I like it better because the less desirable elements are removed. It’s done with better taste and judgement that you can have with hindsight. Some 80s music is beyond the pale (like any era) but it was a period that embraced dance music, electronica and good times and those are all things worth getting inspiration from.

  21. or how about if the Carpenters had signed to Subpop records

    or what would happen if Kate Bush made a Goth album. (Give it a couple of mins for the orchestra to go mental.)

    or how about some eliminator era ZZtop…

    • They were my first thought too. But are they 80’s sounding? I hear a bit of Floyd in their music. (As well as William Shatner!) But I don’t think there’s ever been anyone quite like them. For my money, the most interesting band in rock right now. Their concert at the Proms was fantastic.

      • The 80s bit was a sticking point for me too – sampling I suppose started in the 80s, so i was going to try to hang it on that!

        The Proms concert is now, I think on Youtube; I started watching it, but was worn out from work and fell asleep (which I was most annoyed about afterwards).

  25. Some of the 80s old guard are giving these whippersnappers a run for their money. This is ‘Sugar and Spice’ from the recent (well, 10 years old) Madness album The Liberty of Norton Folgate, probably my favourite Nutty Boys song since Bed and Breakfast Man:

    And this year’s album, Encore, by the Specials is great:

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