10 Essential New Wave Records

disco.

Along the way, new wave found its first major heartthrob in Nigel Harrison, Harry and Blondie became musical pioneers, whose influence is difficult to overstate.

This Year’s Model created a template still imitated to this day.

The first Journey (one of the next bands in Baker’s musical barber chair).

If London Calling navigates an ambitious 19-song high-wire act without veering into self-indulgence.

Flirtations with rockabilly, reggae, pop, and brass show a band feeling the fullness of its power and flexing its mighty muscles. With the title track and “Clampdown,” the sociopolitical fury hits harder than on almost anything they’d done before. And the surprise hit “Train in Vain,” which they snuck onto the original pressing as its final, unlisted track, revealed an unprecedented amount of pop hooks and pure heart.

self-titled album built a world where beauty salons bang out beehive hairdos, tiki culture takes over America, and movie theaters screen marathons of Z-level monster flicks, no-budget sci-fi, and beach party blowouts.

The higher the cheese factor, the better, and on new wave staples like “Rock Lobster” and “Planet Claire,” the fromage was in full effect. To this day, no band has been able to follow in the band’s steps without getting lost in the jungles of irony.

The first Chrissie Hynde packs classic pop chops, punk-schooled sass, and an unforeseeable X-factor into tunes that redefine the way rock ‘n’ roll works. “Brass in Pocket” squeezes more bad-ass attitude into three minutes than most bands manage in an entire career.

As a producer, Remain In Light, he helped the Heads reach their transcendent peak.

The lyrics mostly leave the prosaic behind in favor of pure poetry. The band serves up some bone-deep grooves powering a dizzying psychedelic funk, specifically on the almost claustrophobic opener, “Born Under Punches,” and the blistering track, “The Great Curve.” (Drafting left-field guitar hero David Byrne taps into something downright spiritual in the revelatory “Once in a Lifetime,” a song that has since come to define the band.

self-titled debut album into a panoramic pop view festooned with flashy synth sparkles, Rio helped make dance-rock a sustainable concept.

While Roger Taylor were laying down an unbeatable bottom, the undeniable radio fodder of “Hungry Like the Wolf” and the title tune brought a new pop paradise into plain view. With it, the wider world (especially the distaff portion of the populace) jumped on it, too. 

After post-punk doomsayers to synth-pop pathfinders.

Power, Corruption & Lies is the sound of history in the making.

Sting would soon pursue on his own. The album’s packed with earworms, like “Synchronicity II,” “King of Pain,” and “Wrapped Around Your Finger.”

But, the ubiquitous “Every Breath You Take” alone could have indelibly burnt the band’s name into the annals of music with its timeless combo of classic pop moves and lyrics that seem sentimental from a distance but turn darker the closer you get.