The Edge of the Eighties A Nice Box set

There are so many 80s music collections being released these days that I must admit to being more than slightly bored by most of them. The trouble is, so many of them are either padded out with singles that are so obscure that I can’t even remember them or they have the same repetitive handful of hits from the likes of Culture Club, Duran and Dead Or Alive. If I get one more CD with ‘You Spin Me Round’, I swear I’ll tear up my leotard!
I’m glad to say that the newly released Edge Of the Eighties (3 CD) set is a good deal better than the average. It begins magisterially with two of the truly great songs of the early ‘80s, Ultravox’s Vienna and Visage’s Fade To Grey… But then it branches out into some less obvious highways and byways of 80s music. There’s Soft Cell singing the wonderful ‘Torch’ rather than the more frequently anthologized ‘Tainted Love’. There’s David Bowie singing the far from obvious ‘Up The Hill Backwards’ - and there is, inevitably, Dead Or Alive but (for a nice change) singing one of their other hits - ‘That’s The Way (I Like It)’.
There is a pretty good mix of 80s music here, as a matter of fact - ranging from the super well-known performers such as Adam and the Ants and Siouxsie and the Banshees to the unjustifiably forgotten (by all but their fans, that is!) bands such as Telex and Swansway.
Here is a full track listing.
Disc: 1

1. Ultravox - Vienna

2. Visage - Fade To Grey

3. Soft Cell - Torch

4. Passions - I'm In Love With A German Filmstar

5. Japan - Quiet Life

6. Landscape - Einstein A Go-Go

7. Simple Minds - Glittering Prize

8. Adam & The Ants - Dog Eat Dog

9. Bow Wow Wow - Go Wild In The Country

10. Altered Images - Don't Talk To Me About Love

11. Fiction Factory - Feels Like Heaven

12. Furniture - Brilliant Mind

13. Lotus Eaters - The First Picture Of You

14. David Sylvian - Red Guitar

15. Associates - Party Fears Two

16. ABC - That Was Then

17. Haysi Fantayzee - John Wayne Is Big Leggy

18. Haircut 100 - Favourite Shirts

Disc: 2

1. New Order - Temptation

2. Propaganda - Duel

3. Swansway - Soul Train

4. Joy Division - Atmosphere

5. Cocteau Twins - Pearly Dewrdrops\x{2019} Drops

6. Mobiles - Drowning In Berlin

7. Pretenders - Talk Of The Town

8. Susan Fassbender - Twilight Café

9. Art Of Noise - Beatbox

10. SPK - Metal Dance

11. A Flock Of Seagulls - I Ran

12. Tears For Fears - Pale Shelter

13. Blue Zoo - Cry Boy Cry

14. B-Movie - Remembrance Day

15. Thompson Twins - In The Name Of Love

16. Blancmange - Living On The Ceiling

17. Men Without Hats - Safety Dance

18. H20 - I Dream To Sleep

Disc: 3

1. Siouxsie & The Banshees - Dear Prudence

2. The Cure - The Walk

3. Scritti Politti - Absolute

4. Talk Talk - It's My Life

5. Japan - Life In Tokyo

6. David Bowie - Up The Hill Backwards

7. Devo - Whip It

8. Our Daughters Wedding - Lawnchairs

9. Bauhaus - Kick In The Eye

10. Spear Of Destiny - Liberator

11. Echo & The Bunnymen - The Back Of Love

12. Bow Wow Wow - Chihuahua

13. Dead Or Alive - That's The Way (I Like It)

14. Psychedelic Furs - Love My Way

15. Stranglers - European Female

16. Telex - Moskow Diskow

17. Laurie Anderson - O Superman