VA - Going Underground - 66 Smash New Wave Hits [2011] (3 x CDs)

NEW WAVE

VA - Going Underground - 66 Smash New Wave Hits [2011] (3 x CDs)

A set like Going Underground 66 Smash New Wave Hits doesn’t really begin at track one. It starts somewhere in the middle of a feeling, like switching on a late-seventies radio and catching whatever happens to be playing. Three discs, sixty six tracks, and a wide spread of bands that once shared chart space for a brief, restless stretch of time.

The sequencing leans into that restlessness. Short, punchy songs arrive in quick succession, rarely staying long enough to settle. A wiry guitar intro, a clipped vocal, a chorus that lands and disappears, then something slightly colder or more melodic takes its place. The set moves quickly, but not randomly. There is a quiet sense of balance between the sharper edges of early new wave and the more polished pop that followed close behind.

Names drift in and out without ceremony. The Jam bring urgency and precision, Blondie shift the tone toward something lighter on its feet, and Elvis Costello adds a more deliberate phrasing that sits somewhere between punk energy and classic songwriting. None of them dominate for long. The compilation keeps moving.

What becomes noticeable over time is how varied the term new wave actually was. Some tracks lean close to punk in their directness, others carry traces of earlier pop or rhythm and blues, and a few hint at the synthesizer driven sound that would take hold in the early eighties. The set does not separate these strands, it lets them sit together as they once did.

Heard straight through, the collection feels like a compressed version of a changing scene. Styles overlap, moods shift, and the edges between genres blur without needing explanation. It does not try to define new wave, it simply places the records side by side and lets the shape appear gradually.

Leave it running and the energy holds, quick, bright, and slightly unpredictable, just long enough to suggest how that moment sounded while it was still unfolding. (B)

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Track lists

CD1

01 Jam - Going Underground 2:54

02 Siouxsie & The Banshees - Hong Kong Garden 2:53

03 Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone you Shouldn't've?) 2:40

04 Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Pump it Up 3:17

05 Dexy's Midnight Runners - Geno 3:26

06 Vapours - Turning Japanese 3:43

07 Cars - My Best Friend's Girl 3:41

08 Plastic Bertrand - Ca Plane Pour Moi 2:56

09 Adam & The Ants - Dog Eat Dog 3:13

10 Lene Lovich - Lucky Number 2:46

11 Motors - Airport 4:28

12 Patti Smith Group - Because The Night 3:20

13 Boomtown Rats - Rat Trap 4:55

14 Stranglers - No More Heroes 3:27

15 Only Ones - Another Girl Another Planet 3:00

16 Eddie & The Hot Rods - Do Anything You Wanna Do 4:02

17 XTC - Making Plans for Nigel 4:11

18 Flying Lizards - Money 2:29

19 Jilted John - Jilted John 2:53

20 Undertones - Jimmy Jimmy 2:41

21 Dickies - Banana Splits 1:54

22 Sham 69 - If The Kids Are United 3:45

CD2

01 Blondie - Hanging on The Telephone 2:20

02 Knack - My Sharona 4:01

03 Joe Jackson - Is She Really Going Out With Him? 3:34

04 Squeeze - Up The Junction 3:10

05 Ian Dury & The Blockheads - Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll 3:04

06 Jags - Back of My Hand 3:19

07 Split Enz - I Got You 3:25

08 B-52's - Rock Lobster 4:53

09 Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Start 3:18

10 Pretenders - Stop The Sobbing 2:37

11 Tom Robinson Band - 2-4-6-8 Motorway 3:15

12 Skids - Into The Valley 3:09

13 Members - Sound of The Suburbs 3:15

14 Ramones - Sheena is A Punk Rocker 2:46

15 Dr Feelgood - Milk & Alcohol 2:46

16 Generation X - King Rocker 2:16

17 Tubes - Prime Time 3:15

18 Devo - Whip It! 2:37

19 Rezillos - Top of The Pops 3:14

20 Ruts - Babylon's Burning 2:34

21 Public Image Limited - Public Image 2:55

22 Wire - I Am The Fly 3:08

CD3

01 Cure - Boys Don't Cry 2:35

02 Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart 3:25

03 Psychedelic Furs - Pretty in Pink 3:58

04 Kim Wilde - Kids in America 3:24

05 Kirsty MacColl - They Don't Know 3:00

06 Teardrop Explodes - Reward 2:41

07 Tenpole Tudor - Swords of A Thousand Men 2:55

08 Hazel O'Connor - Eighth Day 3:09

09 Slits - I Heard it Through The Grapevine 3:58

10 Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers - Egyptian Reggae 2:36

11 Specials - Gangsters 2:46

12 Selecter - On My Radio 3:01

13 Grace Jones - Private Life 5:11

14 Tom Tom Club - Genius of Love 3:28

15 Marianne Faithfull - Broken English 4:35

16 X Ray Spex - Germ Free Adolescents 3:11

17 Passions - I'm in Love With A German Film Star 3:57

18 Sparks - The No 1 Song in Heaven 3:29

19 Human League - Being Boiled 4:16

20 Japan - Life in Tokyo (Part 1) 4:01

21 Go-Go's - We Got The Beat 2:30

22 Bow Wow Wow - C30 C60 C90 Go! 3:03

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Music weaves itself into the fabric of our emotions, dances through the corridors of memory, and whispers to the soul of who we are. Sharing these stories deepens the connection, turning the experience into something timeless and profound.

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