Modern music that sounds like the eighties?

July 14, 2006 4:09 PM

I love 80s New Wave synthpop in a completely non-ironic way. I came of age with this music, and it's still a big part of my life. What contemporary music has that mid-80s synthpop vibe? I'm looking for both individual artists and songs. (For example, I think Kylie Minogue's "I Believe in You" has an 80s vibe, but not everything of hers does. But The Postal Service would be right at home in 1984.) Here are some examples of what I'm looking for:

• "Destroy Everything You Touch" by Ladytron (feels a little like Berlin mixed with Book of Love)
• "I Built This City" by Baxendale
• "Night on Fire" by VHS or Beta (totally early Cure)
• "Elevator Love Letter" by Stars (my favorite 80s-ish song of recent years — sounds like oh so many minor hits of twenty years ago)
• Bodies Without Organs
• some of Scissor Sisters

I'm basically looking for music that wouldn't have seemed out-of-place in the collection of an angst-ridden teen circa 1985.

posted by jdroth to media & arts (63 comments total)

Check out some of the new Goldfrapp, in specific "Supernature". Sounds very 80's to me!
posted by wolftrouble at 4:11 PM on July 14, 2006

AskMe has helped me create so many memorable CD mixes that I should really post the playlists someplace. This one could really kick ass...
posted by jdroth at 4:17 PM on July 14, 2006

office
posted by crush-onastick at 4:19 PM on July 14, 2006

Try Mates of State. Here's some free mp3s on Barsuk's website, including "Fraud in the '80s."
posted by sevenless at 4:20 PM on July 14, 2006

Metric!
posted by scody at 4:26 PM on July 14, 2006

POLYSICS - The Japanese DEVO. Go out and get their new album, "Now Is The Time!" It's amazing.

Also, The Epoxies sound right out of 1985.
posted by SansPoint at 4:30 PM on July 14, 2006

Look into Ladyton's latest, The Witching Hour.

Maybe some Fischerspooner, Alice in Videoland, or The Knife.
posted by lekvar at 4:34 PM on July 14, 2006

Annie's "Chewing Gum" has a Tom Tom Club sort of feel to it. My fave Ladytron songs right now are "International Date Line." from "Witching Hour" and "Turn it On" from "Light and Magic."
posted by Gilbert at 4:35 PM on July 14, 2006

Lansing Drieden has some great stuff

mp3
posted by atom128 at 4:42 PM on July 14, 2006

What, nobody's mentioned The Faint or The Killers yet? Or The Postal Service?
posted by twiggy at 4:43 PM on July 14, 2006

oops.. original poster mentioned Postal Service.. but the other two stand :-)
posted by twiggy at 4:44 PM on July 14, 2006

Wow. Thanks, folks. Great suggestions so far. Even the songs that don't sound eighties are great. For example:

The Twist by Metric == !!!!!

Wow, I love that song. Destined for other playlists, if not this one. Thanks, scody.
posted by jdroth at 4:47 PM on July 14, 2006

Pull Tiger Tail
posted by ludwig_van at 4:49 PM on July 14, 2006

What you're looking for is usually called electro-clash or electrohouse.

Some artist and dj names

Goldfrapp
Fischerspooner
Larry Tee
DJ Hell
Tommy Sunshine
Royksopp
Mylo
Trentmoller
Les Rhythm Digitale (also called the Thin White Duke)
Mark Knight
posted by empath at 4:51 PM on July 14, 2006

Chromeo!
posted by themadjuggler at 5:02 PM on July 14, 2006

Imogen Heap's Speak for Yourself.

Also: Zero 7, Hooverphonic, Morcheeba.

Also: Stars, it seems to me, are part of a genre which includes Matt Pond PA, the Stills, the New Pornographers, the Essex Green, Rogue Wave, maybe the Shins and Death Cab... hard to define what I mean, but it has to do with making indie pop-rock music that's not studio slick but has a fancier style than indie rock. Allmusic Guide calls some of these guys chamber pop, which doesn't sit with me somehow...
posted by barjo at 5:02 PM on July 14, 2006

Somehow, while exploring your suggestions, I've ventured into Regina Spektor. She's not what I'm after, really, but wow. Gorgeous. I love the song "Us". It might be chamber pop, as suggested by barjo.
posted by jdroth at 5:06 PM on July 14, 2006

Also: Stars, it seems to me, are part of a genre which includes Matt Pond PA, the Stills, the New Pornographers, the Essex Green, Rogue Wave, maybe the Shins and Death Cab... hard to define what I mean, but it has to do with making indie pop-rock music that's not studio slick but has a fancier style than indie rock.

It's called indie-pop. Studio slickness has nothing to do with it, really. It's just generally sweeter and less aggressive than indie-rock, as one would probably expect. Although Death Cab are probably more likely to be called indie-rock and the New Pornos power-pop.
posted by ludwig_van at 5:24 PM on July 14, 2006

And the term chamber pop specifically refers to the very lush, orchestral, texturally varied type of Pet-Soundsian pop music. I haven't heard enough Regina Spektor to tell you whether the term applies to her, but I would think that it does not.
posted by ludwig_van at 5:26 PM on July 14, 2006

Enon!
posted by sprocket87 at 5:38 PM on July 14, 2006

33hz. M83. United State of Electronica. Booka Shade. Herbert.
posted by beelerspace at 6:04 PM on July 14, 2006

Regina Spektor can be chamber pop, but mostly gets called that because she's a girl with a piano.

As for your question, and maybe this is because I've actually been listening to a lot of mid-80s music recently, not very much of what you're talking about would have sounded contemporary in the mid-80s. Think about how things actually did sound then, synth-pop wise— Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, New Order, The Cure, Human League, Heaven 17, Comsat Angels, etc. (The US pretty much got its synths out of the way in the '70s, and was into dance and post-punk fallout from NY then, along with an awesome powerpop revival called New Wave for some reason).

Some of what you want could be electro/electropop, like some folks have mentioned. For that, really, you're about five years too late. That was all the rage around 2000, with Adult., Trentmoller, Ellen Alien, Peaches, Le Tigre, DFA, etc. Adult. is definitely worth picking up if that's what you want— more abrasive, minimal, squared-off stuff, but I don't think it is (even though it could have lived in the '80s).
Then there are bands that have throwback parts, but still live in the rock idiom (as opposed to the mostly dance electro movement). The Epoxies are a good example, but there's also The Numbers, Godzuki, Chromeo, LCD Soundsystem, Dub Narcotic Sound System, TV on the Radio (who sound like Peter Gabriel) and Kate Bush, who still sounds kinda weird.

As far as bands that really sound like they'd be happier in the '80s? I gotta give a shoutout to Charlie Slick who has the right keyboard tones. You might also like The Casionauts, who are kinda emo-Lake-and-Palmer.
But mostly, this question comes down to giving you what you want or what you asked for, since they're not the same thing.
posted by klangklangston at 6:23 PM on July 14, 2006

Controller.Controller
She wants Revenge
Interpol
posted by doctor_negative at 6:32 PM on July 14, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

The new AFI album, decemberunderground, has a very noticeable Depeche Mode influence.

Second the Faint.
posted by visual mechanic at 6:41 PM on July 14, 2006

Chicks on speed.
If you're mentioning she wants revenge, you might also think the bravery, too. Sort of a U2ish-Cure clash going on there.
posted by boo_radley at 6:47 PM on July 14, 2006

Not very much of what you're talking about would have sounded contemporary in the mid-80s...this question comes down to giving you what you want or what you asked for, since they're not the same thing.

Klangston: you're a college kid. You weren't even born when I was listening to New Wave. Trust me: what I'm asking for and what I want are the same thing. Bodies Without Organs would have fit just fine in 1984 or 1985. (Although — damn — your Charlie Slick suggestion is spot on: early Depeche Mode meets ???)

The songs/artists I listed in the question would have been perfectly at home with the music I liked at the time. Meaning: I could interweave these songs and artists with songs and artists from the 80s, and nobody would be the wiser. And that's what I'm looking for.
posted by jdroth at 6:50 PM on July 14, 2006

Eh, I wasn't too musically knowledgeable back then, but a few years ago when someone put some songs from The Shins' first album on a mix for me, I thought they were an '80s band.
posted by bitpart at 7:20 PM on July 14, 2006

Seconding The Knife. Particularly their first album, Deep Cuts: the first track, Heartbeats, is a glorious casserole of 80s synth, handclaps, and Lauperesque vocals.
posted by hot soup girl at 7:22 PM on July 14, 2006

Seabound, Iris, Harmonizer-era Apoptygma Berzerk, De/Vision... a lot of recentish EBM has a major 1990s synthpop vibe to it.
posted by Kellydamnit at 7:32 PM on July 14, 2006

I'm a college kid, but I just turned 27. The Bodies Without Organs that I've heard sounds more like J-pop than '80s synth stuff, and I don't think that the Postal Service sounds '80s at all.
Most of it is because while the compositions are often similar, especially in the use of keyboards as bedding for pop, the tones are all off. The big reverb/fast decay drum sound is missing, along with the synth sound being tinnier now (Charlie Slick is one of the few bands that does it right, and that whole album is awesome. Totally recommended). It's the timbre of things that's off with the stuff that you mentioned. Like, I just bought the Scissor Sisters album, and had it on while I read your question. While I can see some connection, I think they have more fashion from the '80s than sound, aside from the general "Let's Ape Bowie" thing.
Even bands like The Faint and The Rapture seem like they're doing it less because they're actually in that millieu, and more because they'd like to remind you of it. And don't get me started on Interpol, who seem to exist to make people remember the '80s as boring (and She Wants Revenge is an Interpol knockoff, for god's sake).

But other bands for you to look into are Japanther, Need New Body (who broke up recently, and are '80s half the time and totally spazzing out the other half), The Unicorns, Dykehouse (who's on the GBV-meets-New Order tip), Midwest Product (who are more '80s clubby) and Matthew Dear's vocal stuff, which is what Prince would do if he was microhouse.

But I think Charlie Slick's about the best I've seen in a while at doing what they do.
posted by klangklangston at 7:32 PM on July 14, 2006

Cut Copy has this nailed.
posted by exogenous at 7:33 PM on July 14, 2006

Oh, and on The Knife side of things, who are Swedes and you'll love 'em, one of the songs on their album was actually an uncredited track by the band Zeigeist, who also rock the '80s 303 sound.
posted by klangklangston at 7:33 PM on July 14, 2006

And you'll like both Thunderbirds Are Now! and New Grenada too. New Grenada waver between Deathcab and Postal Service musical poles, and are pretty dece.
posted by klangklangston at 7:45 PM on July 14, 2006

I was about to say Cut Copy - Bright Like Neon Love. This seems like the perfect record for you. (It's great, too.)

Also: Coloma, Junior Boys, Robyn (her self-titled CD is amazing), and Sarah Cracknell's self-titled record all come to mind as worth checking out.
posted by josh at 8:02 PM on July 14, 2006

Good suggestions so far. Let me add another: Malmö, Sweden-based The Radio Dept, a quintessential 80s-retro band that manages to sound like the golden age of New Order, Joy Division and My Bloody Valentine, while managing to craft a unique (and I mean completely unique) identify of their own. Their latest effort, Pet Grief, is just as good as their first masterpiece, Lesser Matters. From the former I particularly recommend the opening track, It's Personal, as an example.
posted by gentle at 8:28 PM on July 14, 2006

Seabound, Iris, Harmonizer-era Apoptygma Berzerk, De/Vision
If these bands appeal to you, try VNV Nation, especially the album Praise the Fallen. And see them live.
posted by lekvar at 8:29 PM on July 14, 2006

I think Art Lord & the Self Portraits may be right up your alley.
posted by NoMich at 8:45 PM on July 14, 2006

Try Lifestyle or Freezepop. Two Boston bands that both involve vague acquaintance Sean Drinkwater. Good stuff! I'm posting from my phone or I'd Google some links for you...
posted by autojack at 8:53 PM on July 14, 2006

I second Freezepop. I have three of their CDs. It's completely non-ironic synth-pop and it's very well done. I love it.
posted by smallerdemon at 9:09 PM on July 14, 2006

Every time I hear the song "Sweet Lovin' Man" by Magnetic Fields (it's on 69 Love Songs, Vol. 1), I think that it would have been a hit were it sung by Irene Cara in 1983.
posted by the_bone at 9:29 PM on July 14, 2006

Check out the Russian Futurists, too. Fantasticly catchy indie synth-pop.
posted by Schismatic at 10:12 PM on July 14, 2006

All of the above are excellent suggestions. Along the vein of empaths's suggestions:

Tiga
Jacques Lu Cont/Stuart Price remixes (same person as LRD/TWD)
Armand Van Helden
JoolsMF (awesome remixes available at Get Your Bootleg On)
Soulwax


I do a college radio show on saturday nights playing house/electroclash. You might want to check out my playlists for inspiration (look for entry titles that say Caution: Falling Beats)
posted by radioamy at 11:31 PM on July 14, 2006

"The French band Phoenix draws elements from an eclectic '80s upbringing to arrive at their rock-synth sound." [allmusic]
posted by joe lisboa at 12:55 AM on July 15, 2006

I also second the_bone's Magnetic Fields recommendation. Some (early) tracks may be too lo-fi to meet the OP's described tastes, but Stephen Merritt's veins run thick with '80s synth and songcraft. Take a listen to "Strange Powers" or "Take Ecstasy With Me" from the Holiday LP and then move from there if interested. 69 Love Songs was crazy-hyped, but also crazy fucking good.
posted by joe lisboa at 12:58 AM on July 15, 2006

You might also like The Casionauts, who are kinda emo-Lake-and-Palmer.

Hahahaha. Those kids are still around?
posted by joe lisboa at 1:00 AM on July 15, 2006

I'll second or third "She Wants Revenge" - it's like "17 Seconds" or "Faith" era Cure. Loves it.
posted by willmize at 3:51 AM on July 15, 2006

Architecture in Helsinki! Maybe not 100% synthpoppy, but it has that feel to it.
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 5:37 AM on July 15, 2006

From BC, The Organ or The Immaculate Machine
posted by thecjm at 7:55 AM on July 15, 2006

I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness

She Wants Revenge
posted by Benway at 7:55 AM on July 15, 2006

Shiny Toy Guns ought to fit the bill. I saw them open up for Bob Mould in LA last year, which has some element of irony, as they sound like all the bands he was trying to destroy in the 80's, mashed up into one.
posted by mzurer at 8:31 AM on July 15, 2006

If you or anyone likes the Polysics, who were mentioned above, make sure to check out Tokyo Electron for a similar vibe.
posted by klangklangston at 8:36 AM on July 15, 2006

Barcelona not only has that 80s synth-pop vibe, but many of the lyrics are actually about being an angst-ridden teen circa 1985. Try "Paging System Operator" or "Studio Hair Gel".
posted by jjg at 9:19 AM on July 15, 2006

i noticed on radio dept's myspace that they are on the soundtrack for sofia coppola's new movie, marie antoinette.

given that the trailer audio consisted of only the new order song "age of consent" i think their inclusion is a good sign from the standpoint of being an 80s-type band.

awesome.
posted by joeblough at 9:29 AM on July 15, 2006

Stellastarr*? They had a minor radio hit a year or two back with the song "My Coco". They really don't do the synth bit but they sound (to me) like a bit faster/more rocky Talking Heads. (Especially the singer's voice.)
posted by mrg at 10:05 AM on July 15, 2006

Oh yeah, and (suck it, haters) Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are very synth-y/New Wave-ish/Talking Heads-esque.
posted by ludwig_van at 10:23 AM on July 15, 2006

Seabound, Iris, Harmonizer-era Apoptygma Berzerk, De/Vision
If these bands appeal to you, try VNV Nation, especially the album Praise the Fallen. And see them live.

Have and have, repeatedly, but, they don't really have that 80s vibe the questioner was looking for, IMO. They lean a lot more towards the Industrial end (esp. on PTF).
posted by Kellydamnit at 11:33 AM on July 15, 2006

Check out Future Bible Heroes (one of whose members is Stephin Merritt from the Magnetic Fields).
posted by jesourie at 11:52 AM on July 15, 2006

Klee - Gold

I-F - Space Invaders are Smoking Grass
posted by subtle-t at 9:50 AM on July 16, 2006

Klee - Gold

I-F - Space Invaders are Smoking Grass

Console - 14 Zero Zero
posted by subtle-t at 9:52 AM on July 16, 2006

DMX Krew (or something like that). A 80's sounding electro band on Rephlex Records. I remember there being some other explicitly 80's throwbacks on that label, but I haven't followed the goings on there in years.
posted by Falconetti at 10:36 AM on July 17, 2006

the organ.
posted by ifjuly at 3:07 PM on July 19, 2006

I saw a band in Vegas called A Kiss Could Be Deadly that fits the bill - I think they're from California.
posted by ferociouskitty at 1:49 PM on July 20, 2006

Well glancing through my vinyl and CD collection from the past few years these stand out. They exude that classic 80s synthpop and hi-NRG vibe. Some even use 80s song samples and/or lyrics. Starting with my top faves....

Axoe - Red Light
Stellar Project - Get Up Stand Up (Phunk Investigation Vocal Club Mix)
Roxane - I Can Feel It (Housetrap Rmx)
Eloquent - Faux Pas
Axoe - Calling
B! Machine - Umbrella
KAJ - Picture on the Wall
Leiahdorus - Pause
The Echoing Green - The Story of Our Lives
Herd & Fitz - Just Can't Get Enough (Extended Version)
Faith Assembly - Hurt
Paris By Air - Mercy
Blue October - Mistakes
Nukleon - Infidel
B! Machine - In Thrall (Remix Edit)
Jason Karl - Get You (Extended Vocal Mix)
Da Matra - Glitter (Shellshock Club Mix)
Herd & Fitz - You'll See Me (Original Mix)

Many of these can be found on eBay. As a rule of thumb, almost anything released on A Different Drum will have a fairly distinctive new wave sound.
posted by rkrause at 2:18 PM on August 3, 2006