New Wave Outpost Forum

Thinking back to what you read or said back in the day, without the benefit of nostalgia's glow or 20/20 hindsight, what do you recollect as the best-reviewed New Wave albums, the ones critics said would enter the pantheon of Best Albums Ever?

I'm going to have to say The Cars - Heartbeat City.

In my view, this is not one of their best albums. It seems to me that after their brilliant early days they might have been getting pressure to produce a real maintstream pop album...and Heartbeat City was born.

At the time it came out, I remember reading a full one page review in the newspaper (that was a lot of space in our limited Entertainment section). I wish I still had a copy as it described every single synth and guitar hook, drum beat and lyric in every song in agonizing detail, as if this were the most important album of the era.

I love the Cars, and I like this album. It certainly was a commercial success. I LOVED it in 1984...but when I listen to it today, it sounds forced and overproduced.

Sorry, Cars fans.

A couple of albums come to mind

* Elvis Costello & the Attractions - [i]Armed Forces[/i]
* The Clash - [i]London Calling[/i]

I agree with you, zill, about [i]Heartbeat City[/i]. I don't listen to that album any more. At all.