New Wave

With the 1985 release of Low Life, New Order put forth their most commercially accessible effort to date. While some of the dark-wave drippings of their Joy Division roots are evident, high energy progressions, which would carry them for years to come, began to emerge here...

Best Of Dance Hits is a collection that features some of Hubert Kah's biggest hits, including "So Many People," "Machine Gun," "Limousine," "Carousel," "Midnight Sun," and "It's Me, Cathy (Follow My Heart)." Hubert Kah is a German synthpop band, led by Hubert Kemmler. Kemmler's career began as a member of a trio named Hubert Kah, consisting of Hubert Kemmler (vocals, keyboards), Markus Lohr (guitars, keyboards) and Klaus Hirschburger (bass) at the time of the New German wave 1982 commercial success with the singles "Rosemarie", "Sternenhimmel" ("Starry Sky") and "Einmal Nur Mit Erika… (Dieser Welt Entfliehn)" ("Just Once With Erika … To Escape This World"), and with the albums Meine Hohepunkte ("My High Points") and Ich Komme ("I'm Coming"). During this time, Kemmler caused quite a stir by his TV appearances, wearing a nightdress or straitjacket.

As the third new Blondie album of the 2010s, Pollinator falls into something of a familiar pattern. Ever since 2011's Panic of Girls, the revived Blondie have been determined to fit within the confines of contemporary music, riding the remnants of the new wave revival and emphasizing electronics. Unlike Ghosts of Download, which was buried as a second disc with a collection of re-recordings of greatest hits in 2014, Pollinator pushes splashy guest stars. Blood Orange co-writes "Long Time" with Debbie Harry, Joan Jett guests on the opener "Doom or Destiny," Strokes guitarist Nick Valensi appears on "Best Day Ever," which he co-wrote with Sia Furler, and the group cover both Johnny Marr ("My Monster") and Charli XCX ("Gravity").

From the return of Dan K. Brown – the bassist on all their classic efforts from Reach the Beach (1983) to Ink (1991) – to its George Underwood cover art (the painter whose work adorned Reach the Beach and Phantoms), Beautiful Friction is a return to form for the Fixx, the synth-pop-but-almost-prog-rock group who made socially aware angst fly up the charts in the '80s with "Red Skies," "One Thing Leads to Another," and "Saved by Zero." This reunion effort is without a surefire hit like those, and at first listen, it is a bit light on hooks, but lead single "Anyone Else" is strong enough to beckon any longtime fan's return, and the skeletal, funky workout called "Girl with No Ceiling" brings to mind the Phantoms era – kinetic in an "Are We Ourselves" style.