Songs From The Big Chair

Listening to the opening track, it seems that it would be hard to record something that smells more of the 80s than that. The production, the drums sound, the eerie guitars, the clichés synth lines, the additional saxophone because why not... Some songs, with less artifice, could actually be enjoyable post-punk tracks! I get why this appears in this list, it's highly representative of a given time in history, and it's not intrinsically bad, but as dad rock from the 70s needed punk, this kind of pop from the 80s needed grunge to get some fresh air.

This album is unmistakably from the mid 80s with that characteristic brittle production, booming drums and overly bright keyboard stabs thrown in at random intervals. I found that I preferred the quieter tracks to the better known stadium friendly anthems like Shout and Everybody Wants to Rule the World. Highlight was probably The Working Hour which opens like something off the Vangelis Blade Runner soundtrack. Note to self - not to be confused with Simple Minds