Posted on: April 30, 2009 Posted by: anfnewsacct Comments: 0

This disc is marketed specifically to those individuals who remember who Bow Wow Wow is. I know that they did “I Want Candy”, but beyond that, I have no clue what else they charted with. Apparantly, there are thirteen other tracks that VH1 Classic and Sony deemed it essential to put on this album. Many of the songs feel a little dated, as we are listening to a Bow Wow Wow that had their heyday in the earliest days of the eighties. Still, individuals will pop when they hear the band’s cover of The Strangeloves’ classic “I Want Candy”.

For those individuals that are big fans of the band, this may prove to be a replacement for all of the vinyl and burned mix CDs that they have. However, there is nothing on here that would win this greatest hits over, no live footage, no DVDS footage of the band, nothing else besides the relatively scanty information that is present in the liner notes. What I would be a bigger fan of is a number of the bands of the eighties coming together on a VH1 Classic album to contribute two or three of their tracks (Yaz, Bow Wow Wow, Falco and Baltimora) all come to mind here. Tracks like “Do You Wanna Hold Me? and “(I’m A) TV Savage” recreate the magic of “I Want Candy” fairly well, but there are songs like “Mile High Club” and “C30, C60, C90, Go” that just do not do much to innovate or keep the band’s momentum going.

The inclusion of a Space Invaders minigame is not enough to bring individuals to spend even a reduced (sub-$10) price on this album. If you want a better taste of what the early eighties had to offer, pick up a compilation of tracks from that period. Hell, fire up Mininova and download the top 100 tracks for 1980-1984, and that would provide stronger songs and more variation than is present during this greatest hits package. As this CD is packaged, the only individuals that should run out to the store and pick it up at this minute are those Bow Wow Wow fanatics that want to have a legitimate version of the cassettes or CDs they cut so many years ago, or are those people that do not want to carry the entirety of Bow Wow Wow’s catalog along with them. Skip this album.

Top Tracks: I Want Candy, Aphrodisiac

Rating: 3.0/10

Bow Wow Wow – We Are The ‘80s / 2006 VHI Classic / 14 Tracks / http://www.wearethe80s.com / http://www.vh1classic.com / Reviewed 05 May 2007

[JMcQ]

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