VA - Jon Savage's 1986-1990, Rollin' Under the Melody [2025] (2 x CDs)

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VA - Jon Savage's 1986-1990, Rollin' Under the Melody [2025] (2 x CDs)

Rollin’ Under the Melody captures a moment when underground music in the late eighties was quietly reshaping the emotional vocabulary of pop. Jon Savage’s 2025 collection focuses on the years 1986 to 1990, a period often overshadowed by bigger narratives, MTV dominance, stadium pop, the rise of house and hip‑hop, but beneath that surface was a parallel world of artists working with mood, texture, and introspection. This set brings those voices forward, revealing how much of the era’s innovation happened just outside the mainstream spotlight.

The compilation traces a shift from post‑punk austerity toward something more melodic and inward‑looking. Many of these tracks were originally released on small labels, fanzine‑driven imprints, or short‑run 12‑inches that circulated through college radio and independent shops. What ties them together is a shared sense of emotional clarity: songs built on chiming guitars, early digital synths, and rhythms that feel both propulsive and fragile. Savage highlights artists who were experimenting with vulnerability at a time when pop was leaning toward gloss, giving the set a tone that’s reflective without being nostalgic.

Production-wise, the music sits at the crossroads of jangle‑pop, dream‑pop, proto‑shoegaze, and the emerging indie‑dance hybrids that would define the early nineties. You hear the era’s technological transition, drum machines blending with live percussion, chorus‑soaked guitars drifting into reverb, and vocals that hover between spoken intimacy and melodic restraint. These choices give the compilation a cohesive atmosphere, even though the artists come from different scenes and cities.

Rollin’ Under the Melody is valuable not just for its curation but for its sequencing. Savage arranges the tracks to tell a story of underground resilience, showing how musicians carved out emotional space in a decade often remembered for excess. The result is a portrait of late‑eighties pop that feels newly illuminated, music that thrived in the margins, now restored with the attention it always deserved. (B)

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Track lists

CD1

01 Mr. Fingers - Mystery of Love 6:44

02 Shop Assistants - Safety Net 2:21

03 Arthur Russell - Let's Go Swimming (Gulf Stream dub) 5:18

04 Cameo - Word Up! 4:19

05 Hüsker Dü - Could You Be the One? 2:33

06 Throwing Muses - Finished 3:53

07 Petrol Emotion - Big Decision (extended version) 4:39

08 M; A; R; S - Pump Up the Volume (remix) 6:27

09 Ultramagnetic MC's - Traveling at the Speed of Thought 5:01

10 Eric B & Rakim - Paid in Full (Seven Minutes of Madness - The Coldcut remix) 7:08

11 S-Express - Theme From S-Express 5:59

12 Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock - It Takes Two 4:49

13 Primitives - Crash 2:32

14 Raze - Break 4 Love (Spanish mix) 5:26

15 Dinosaur Jr - Freak Scene 3:35

16 Spacemen 3 - Che 4:29

17 Stone Roses - Full Fathom Five 3:21

CD2

01 Sonic Youth - Teen Age Riot 6:56

02 Black Riot - A Day in the Life (club mix) 5:31

03 Fine Young Cannibals - She Drives Me Crazy 3:35

04 Gruesome Twosome - Hallucination Generation 3:46

05 Band of Susans - Hard Light 4:39

06 Happy Mondays - W. (F. L.) (Think About the Future - The Paul Oakenfold mix) 7:10

07 A.C. Marias - One of Our Girls Has Gone Missing 3:16

08 Sly & Lovechild - The World According to Sly & Lovechild (Soul of Europe mix) 8:21

09 Saint Etienne - Only Love Can Break Your Heart 4:30

10 Soho - Hippychick (No Acid Ted mix) 5:08

11 Charlatans - The Only One I Know 3:57

12 Technotronic; Ya Kid K - Rockin' Over the Beat (Rockin' Over Manchester Hacienda mix) 6:32

13 Deee-Lite - What is Love? (Holographic Goatee mix) 4:10

14 Pet Shop Boys - So Hard (David Morales remix) 7:40

15 High - Take Your Time 3:58

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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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