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Another of my not-quite-guilty pleasures of the 80s, Tears For Fears has always been one of my favorites from that era. They understood that if you’re going to build your music on a largely electronic palette, you should at least have a decent vocalist to give it some kind of human touch - and few bands around that time could do better than Roland Orzabal.

This collection picks up with a song which is actually simultaneously atypical and emblematic of the Tears For Fears sound, “Sowing The Seeds Of Love”, which I’m sure everyone remembers from around 1989-90. Like several of the duo’s singles, it got huge radio airplay, so you’re bound to remember the song, even if you don’t remember who did it.

The highlights include “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”, “Head Over Heels”, “Cold Shelter” (my personal favorite of anything the band did while they were in business), “Woman In Chains”, and two songs with some fairly interesting (and psychologically loaded) lyrics, “Tears Roll Down” and “Shout”. A few less prominent selections round things out.

Overall, I found, while listening to this, that I actually miss the Tears For Fears sound. What I miss about the ’80s in general is both the cutting-edge way the music was put together (when synths were relatively new), and the fact that there seemed to be a sudden influx of songwriters who not only knew what chord progression they wanted their material to follow, but how they wanted it to sound, how they wanted to sing it, and how to use the then-new technology to achieve that. Tears For Fears were masters of that art, and sadly, precious few of the acts who were equally as good are still in circulation.

1. Sowing The Seeds Of Love (6:19)
2. Everybody Wants To Rule The World (4:11)
3. Woman In Chains (6:29)
4. Shout (6:33)
5. Head Over Heels (4:14)
6. Mad World (3:29)
7. Pale Shelter (4:39)
8. I Believe (4:49)
9. Laid So Low (Tears Roll Down) (4:44)
10. Mother’s Talk (4:59)
11. Change (3:54)
12. Advice For The Young At Heart (4:54)

Released by: Fontana
Release date: 1992
Total running time: 59:14

I appreciate very much the fact that the compilers of this best-of collection cop to the fact upfront that the listener’s mileage may vary wildly on what constitutes the best of pop pioneer Todd Rundgren. It’s nice to hear that acknowledged, particularly when you’re dealing with someone whose repertoir varies as wildly as Rundgren’s does.

That admission aside, the collection is somewhat predictably heavy with material from Rundgren’s early opus Something/Anything?, including the radio hits “Hello, It’s Me” and “I Saw The Light”. A selection of solo hits and songs performed with Utopia follows, with a few surprising inclusions (”Just One Victory” and one of my personal favorites, “Something To Fall Back On” from his 1985 A Cappella album) along the way. And of course it wouldn’t be a Rundgren compilation without “Can We Still Be Friends”, “Love Is The Answer” and “Bang On The Drum All Day”.

Overall, it’s a solid collection, and essential for anyone who’s fallen under the spell of the current wave of power pop acts (i.e. Jason Falkner, Umajets, etc.) - for they were heavily influenced by the likes of Todd Rundgren.

1. We Gotta Get You A Woman (3:10)
2. Be Nice To Me (3:25)
3. I Saw The Light (3:02)
4. Hello It’s Me (4:24)
5. Couldn’t I Just Tell You (3:22)
6. Just One Victory (5:00)
7. A Dream Goes On Forever (2:25)
8. Real Man (4:30)
9. Love Of The Common Man (3:39)
10. Love Is The Answer (4:18)
11. Love In Action (3:30)
12. Can We Still Be Friends (3:38)
13. The Very Last Time (3:53)
14. Bang The Drum All Day (3:38)
15. Something To Fall Back On (4:17)
16. The Want Of A Nail - duet with Bobby Womack (5:14)

Released by: Rhino
Release date: 1997
Total running time: 61:25

You couldn’t swing a radio dial in the late 70s and early 80s without it hitting a Hall & Oates song. The original purveyors of “white boy soul” - and in many respects still the best - Daryl Hall and John Oates launched a string of hits into the airwaves.

Highlights on this collection include “Sara Smile”, “Kiss On My List”, “You Make My Dreams”, “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)” and “One On One” - and those are just the ones I liked. Other hits include “Maneater” and “Private Eyes” (both major chart hits, though they were overplayed to the point where I tend to skip those tracks these days), as well as latter-day hits like “Adult Education” and “Say It Isn’t So”, which never really tripped my trigger like the earlier stuff.

I do, however, have an axe to grind here - how could they leave out the excellent live version of “Everytime You Go Away” from the Live At The Apollo album featuring David Ruffin and Eddie Kendrick!? That was one of the biggest hits Hall & Oates had, and it’s a rare case of a song which, despite radio overexposure, I still like. The live version of “Wait For Me” is on here, but it’s hardly a substitute. What were they thinking?

Other than that, the oddly-titled Rock ‘n’ Soul Part I is a worthwhile collection - though maybe it’d help if more people knew this was the greatest hits album.

1. Say It Isn’t So (4:18)
2. Sara Smile (3:10)
3. She’s Gone (3:27)
4. Rich Girl (2:26)
5. Kiss On My List (3:54)
6. You Make My Dreams (3:07)
7. Private Eyes (3:28)
8. Adult Education (5:28)
9. I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do) (3:45)
10. Maneater (4:33)
11. One On One (3:56)
12. Wait For Me (live) (6:05)

Released by: RCA
Release date: 1983
Total running time: 47:35

If this album is a good example of anything, it’s a good example of how not to pick the lead track of an album. Counting The Beat is an interesting 1981 set by The Swingers, a band formed by former Split Enz guitarist/vocalist Phil Judd and featuring future Midnight Oil bassist Bones Hillman and guitarist Michael Den Elzen (who later sat in as a session player on Tim Finn’s fourth solo album). The problem with Counting The Beat, however, is wading through the first two tracks before getting to the album’s real meat.

The Swingers sound a lot like Judd’s later band Schnell Fenster, with Judd’s trademark wavering, almost-shouting vocal at the forefront of the group’s sound. Some of the songs here are worth a listen - “Lovesick”, “True Or False”, and “Ayatollah” among them - but something about the first two tracks on the CD (”Practical Joker” and “One Track Mind”) consistently hits me as being unappealing. Others’ mileage may vary, and whether or not you can stomach much of Judd’s vocal style will probably a major factor in whether you like those tracks or, for that matter, the entire album.

Split Enz fans wondering if The Swingers sound anything like that band may or may not find some similarities. Counting The Beat was produced by David Tickle, who helped the Enz cement their sound in the early ’80s with True Colours, and here it sounds like he’s trying to split the difference between the Enz and the Clash. Sometimes it works…and sometimes it doesn’t.

Overall, a cautious recommendation; it helps if you’ve heard some early Split Enz and perhaps the more melodically inclined (and, frankly, better produced) Schnell Fenster first.

1. Practical Joker (3:18)
2. One Track Mind (3:46)
3. Lovesick (3:47)
4. True Or False (4:13)
5. More (3:55)
6. Counting The Beat (3:04)
7. It Ain’t What You Dance It’s The Way You Dance It (3:02)
8. Ayatollah (3:39)
9. Five O’Clock Shadow (3:43)
10. Funny Feeling (3:46)
11. Distortion (3:52)
12. Hit The Beach (4:01)
13. One Good Reason (2:50)
14. The Flak (3:41)

Released by: Mushroom
Release date: 1981
Total running time: 50:37

Some would say that the genius of comedy is knowing when to milk a joke for all it’s worth, and knowing when to get off the stage while the crowd’s still laughing. And though I hesitate to stereotype They Might Be Giants as strictly a comedy act, they do have one part of the mastery of comedy down pat: they know when to stretch a song out or make it short.

I don’t know whether to weep or cheer about the fact that I’d heard about his band long before they were “the band that does the theme song from Malcolm In The Middle,” before they were even those guys who did “Birdhouse In Your Soul”. In some respects, this stuff is superior to their later works, and it all goes back to that theory about the genius of comedy. Some of the songs, like “Cowtown”, “Mr. Me” and the uproarious “Kiss Me, Son Of God” say what they’re there to say and then get off the stage - or at least out of your ears. Others, like “Lie Still, Little Bottle” and “They’ll Need A Crane” (the funniest breakup song ever), stick around for a little while. And that’s not a bad thing in and of itself - as funny or irreverent as their lyrics may be, Linnell and Flansburgh are impeccable musicians.

That said, don’t underestimate their lyrics either. Where else will you hear something like “every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that wonders what the part that isn’t thinking isn’t thinking of”? (Incidentally, that line’s from my favorite song off the album, “Where Your Eyes Don’t Go”.)

It’s hard to define exactly what They Might Be Giants is, but I’ll tell you what it isn’t: hard to enjoy. Very highly recommended.

1. Ana Ng (3:23)
2. Cowtown (2:21)
3. Lie Still, Little Bottle (2:06)
4. Purple Toupee (2:40)
5. Cage & Aquarium (1:10)
6. Where Your Eyes Don’t Go (3:06)
7. Piece Of Dirt (2:01)
8. Mr. Me (1:52)
9. Pencil Rain (2:42)
10. The World’s Address (2:24)
11. I’ve Got A Match (2:37)
12. Santa’s Beard (1:56)
13. You’ll Miss Me (1:53)
14. They’ll Need A Crane (2:34)
15. Shoehorn With Teeth (1:13)
16. Stand On Your Own Head (1:16)
17. Snowball In Hell (2:32)
18. Kiss Me, Son Of God (1:53)

Released by: Restless / Bar None
Release date: 1988
Total running time: 39:39