Folk of the 80's

Men Without Hats - Folk of the 80's 1980

I know I mentioned a Devo album as the next review, but this one has been stuck in my head lately and it's a true winner. We picked this up at a record fair at the Black Cat on Valentine's Day, so romantic. I think we both were hesitant about picking this album up. This four song EP, their first ever release, has four songs, one of which (Antarctica) is on the bands full length album "Rhythm of Youth" (A great album). So why drop five bucks for three songs that could be total crap? We were likely propelled by the fact that "Rhythm of Youth" was such a good album, but really I have no idea why we bought it. The first song, "Modern(e) Dancing" is such an ear-worm that it's been locked in my head from listen one. It has goofy bleeps and bloops, an extremely catchy chorus, and some strange yelps from singer Ivan Doroschuck. The band is French Canadian, known as great yelpers... did you not know that? "Modern(e) Dancing" also features the line "with 60's hairdo's and 90's eyes", which seems incredibly futuristic for an EP put out in 1980. The other three songs; "Utter Space", "Antarctica", and "Security (Everybody Feels Better With)" are strong, memorable, and worth serious repeats.

"So where can I get one?" Turns out this is another hard to find album. Strangely, only "Antarctica" shows up on compilations and the other three songs are impossible to locate. I suppose people heard "The Safety Dance" and just assumed that anything else these guys put out was ignorable. Well,however you track this record down, it'll be worth it. At $1.25 per song in the current digital age of music, I feel we got a great deal.