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Various Artists
Ultimate 80s
(Madacy)
First Appeared at The Music Box, August 2004, Volume 11, #8
Written by Michael Cooney
Sometimes, it appears as if the ’80s never ended. After all, popular
television shows like Family Ties, The Golden Girls, and The
Cosby Show remain in heavy syndication around the world, and since the
decade came to a close, the music industry has unleashed a virtual flood of
’80s-oriented rock and pop compilations. Of course, this isn’t much of a
surprise. It’s a much simpler task to rehash old hits than it is to find new
talent, and as a result, nearly 15 years after the fact, the music of the ’80s
is still going strong.
The latest retro offering to hit store shelves is Ultimate 80s, and
contrary to its name, the album hardly paints a complete picture of era’s music.
Several movements that grew to prominence during the decade — such as Heavy
Metal and Hip-Hop, for example — are missing entirely from the collection, and
even the biggest stars of the day — most notably Michael Jackson, Prince, and
Madonna — are nowhere to be found. Still, Ultimate 80s is an entertaining
endeavor. Its two discs are packed with choice cuts from Devo, the Cars, Richard
Marx, and The J. Geils Band, among others, and it also boasts at least a few true
classics. Back on the Chain Gang from The Pretenders, and the Simple
Minds’ smash Don’t You (Forget about Me) are certain to tug at the heart
strings of any ’80s kid, but even so, it is impossible to listen to Ultimate
80s without recognizing how much the world has changed. In the intervening
years, both Robert Palmer and INXS’ Michael Hutchence have passed away, and many
of the stars who remain seem to have lost most of their luster. For instance,
has anyone taken a look at Boy George lately? What the hell is he thinking, and
how did the country as a whole ever come to the conclusion that Huey Lewis and
Bananarama actually made music worth buying? Even those artists who were once
hard-edged and tough have been declawed and tempered. Pat Benatar and Billy Idol
were once symbols of rock rebellion, but now Benatar’s Hit Me with Your Best
Shot and Idol’s cover of Mony Mony have become staples of soft rock
radio. As such, they utterly have lost their bite. Even Duran Duran’s hit Hungry Like the Wolf, which once was thought to be sexually explicit because
it featured the sound of a woman moaning over the music, sounds absurdly tame.
Yet, the most important difference between the ’80s generation and the
current one is that the children of the former never had to worry about guns in
schools or terrorists on airplanes. In fact, the biggest problem that many
middle class kids had on their minds was who to take to the dance on a Friday
night. While it’s easy to feel nostalgic about the past — and Ultimate 80s
certainly assists in that regard — in a post-9/11 world, much of the music and
everything else about the decade of Reagan and Bush I seems passionless,
uninspired, and more than just a little bit silly. In other words, it’s time,
perhaps, for all of those still fixated upon the era to just grow up. 
Ultimate 80s is available from Amazon.com.
To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
Click Here!
For UK orders, please
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2004
The Music Box
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