New Wave Giants

Username: welcome2thejam

Album: Parallel Lines: Unfortunately remains on my "thought I'd like this better than I did" list. Has some absolute classics of course, and this is still a mighty good score, but my expectations were super high and just too much in the "good but..." territory

Hanging on the Telephone: 10 Starts off with an absolute smasha of a cover. Great drums, blistering pace, it just rips

One Way Or Another: 7 This is a 9-10 in a vacuum that gets dinged for overuse dulling my love for it. Am adding a point back because I forgot how dope the bridge and Debbie's voice right as it comes back afterwards are since that's never the part they use in commercials/media

Picture This: 10 She's such an emotive voice

Fade Away and Radiate: 8 I was gonna ask why the intro was haunted house music, but if the song's about wasting away watching television it's actually clever to use music that sounds like the soundtracks of those black & white monster movies

Pretty Baby: 7 Hey you dropped a bit of your Brill building in my new wave

I Know But I Don't Know: 5

11.59: 7 "It's ten to ten," "it's 11:59" so which is it, Blondie?

Will Anything Happen: 9 Enjoy a return to a nice harder rock sound than the last few tracks

Sunday Girl: 7

Heart of Glass: 10 Are you gonna be the one to low score this all-time bop? Cause I'm not sure not

I'm Gonna Love You Too: 5 Ooh, I am not jiving with this hook

Just Go Away: 8 Fun backup vocals on the "Go Away!" part, sounds like she's getting backed up by the Muppets

Album: The B-52's: Outside of the album closer, very much enjoyed it. Front four were all fantastic, correctly leaned on killer riffs & grooves and the charisma of their leads. Next four couldn't quite hit those high marks but didn't overstay its welcome either.

Planet Claire: 10 Intro theme song to a 70s TV show about a space age noir detective

52 Girls: 10 Ladies and gentlemen, this is Mambo no. 52

Dance This Mess Around: 10 Vocals turn this into an absolute delight to listen to, hits that perfect note between funny and sadly desperate

Rock Lobster: 10 Yeaaaah lmao I never realized how long this song actually is. I'd say it could use a minute trimmed, but I'd also have no idea where to cut it, so maybe it really is perfect as-is. An all-timer riff, some of the funnest vocals ever recorded, and climaxes just when it needs it.

Lava: 8 How'd they manage to pull five minutes out of a single pun?

There's A Moon In The Sky (Called The Moon): 7 Want to think the B-52s picked up a copy of National Geographic, picked the first three articles, and just riffed for three straight songs about the oceans, volcanos, and space respectively

Hero Worship: 8 Saw a couple of youtube comments saying like "delicious screams" my man she's definitely not gonna Hero Worship you talking creepy like that

6060-842: 7 I cheered the bongo use

Downtown: 3 Shame they ended the album by boring me enough to leave me open to get jump scared by the Talking Heads scream in the next song

Album: Remain In Light: One of my favorite albums ever. A fantastic front five run capable of stacking up against anything else in music. Wouldn't be surprised if this is my highest album average in a rate, or just in general even

Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On): 10 Oh, you don't like Born Under Punches? Well take a look at these hands 👊 👊

Crosseyed and Painless: 10 Love my philosophy professor Big Suit David Byrne

The Great Curve: 10 Getting up and moving to this right now. Builds and builds so perfectly and ends on a ripper of a guitar solo

Once in a Lifetime: 11 Just an all-timer, a true blue classic, what else can you say that hasn't been said? Wasn't gonna be my 11 coming in, but it absolutely took my breath away relistening for the rate

Houses in Motion: 10 Genius annotation: "This song is about the realization of dread and corruption under capitalism" Genius user comment: "I always thought it was about being with two girls at the same time"

Seen and Not Seen: 8 Interrupting the groove sesh for a spoken word poetry sesh

Listening Wind: 9

The Overload: 9 Damn the grooves are over, you can't shake ass to this... or can I...?

Album: Beauty And The Beat: Classic power pop album, of course this is in my wheelhouse lol. Think if I was getting into music back then, it'd be one of my absolute favorites.

Our Lips Are Sealed: 10 That bridge is the special sauce, perfect switch-up before it explodes back to life

How Much More: 10 The Go Gos went back in time, developed a great 60s girl group tune, then came back and power pop'd it up for that extra oomph

Tonite: 10 What a chorus hook, don't have much to say outside of this song rocks. Think it's my favorite on the record.

Lust To Love: 10 Those harmonies! Those drums! That swagger and attitude!

This Town: 7 If I look this up and this song is about LA I'm gonna yell

We Got The Beat: 10 Wow, I guess the real Beat was inside of us all along

Fading Fast: 6 Hits a lot of the same beats (heh-heh) as previous songs but is a bit of a pale imitator

Automatic: 8 Great timing for a change of pace

You Can't Walk In Your Sleep (If You Can't Sleep): 6

Skidmarks On My Heart: 8 Super fun surf rock riff

Can't Stop The World: 9 Second straight song with great riff bridges bringing up the score

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