(Sunny Pop / Art Rock / New Wave)
A decade ago, many young listeners had consumed their dose of music by watching individual songs via Internet platforms such as YouTube. With the advent of streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal; however, people have started to listen again to full albums. And it’s a good sign.
The online album-listening somehow influenced many of these enthusiasts to go back to the age-old habit of devouring platters of albums and not only lone singles, as well as buying physical formats such as vinyl records and CDs, which are after all still available in the market, at record shops or, better yet, online stores like Discogs, Amazon, and eBay.
Having said that, young listeners of today might want to backtrack and investigate what albums best represent the genre Sunny Pop, Art Rock, Post-Punk, and New Wave in the previous decades–genres commonly defined by their artistic and melodic quality.
Here are a good number of recommendations, personally curated by yours truly.
1950s:
Bill Haley & His Comets – Shake, Rattle and Roll (1955)
The Four Lads – Breexin’ Along (1958)
The Crickets – The ‘Chirping’ Crickets (1957)
The Chordettes – The Chordettes (1957)
Petula Clark – Pet Clark (1959)
1960s:
The Cascades – Rhythm of the Rain (1963)
The Zombies – Begin Here (1965)
David Bowie – David Bowie (1967)
Margo Guryan – Take a Picture (1968)
Tyrannosaurus Rex – Unicorn (1969)
1970s:
Sparks – Halfnelson (1971)
Roxy Music – Roxy Music (1972)
Split Enz – Mental Notes (1975)
Kraftwerk – The Man-Machine (1978)
The B-52s – The B-52s (1979)
1980s:
Joy Division – Closer (1980)
Blue Zoo – 2 x 2 (1982)
Depeche Mode – Some Great Reward (1984)
The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead (1986)
The Wild Swans – Bringing Home the Ashes (1988)
1990s:
Echo & the Bunnymen – Reverberation (1990)
The Other Two – The Other Two and You (1993)
The Listening Pool – Still Life (1994)
The Cure – Wild Mood Swings (1996)
Monaco – Music for Pleasure (1997)
2000s:
British Sea Power – The Decline of British Sea Power (2003)
New Order – Waiting for the Sirens’ Call (2005)
The Killers – Sam’s Town (2006)
Coldplay – Viva la Vida, or Death and All His Friends (2008)
a-ha – Foot of the Mountain (2009)
2010s:
Two Door Cinema Club – Tourist History (2010)
U2 – Songs of Experience (2014)
Morrissey – World Peace Is None of Your Business (2015)
Suede – The Blue Hour (2018)
The Sherlocks – Under Your Sky (2019)
Final Note
Listening to it randomly on the radio or YouTube may be convenient, yes; but nothing beats the experience of enjoying music via full albums especially when you physically own the CDs or vinyl records.
