The Beat Surrender

I was a touch wary when this landed on my doormat (ok it goes into a mailbox but lets not get technical here folks). An album that states “When post punk met pop culture” is a compilation that could go a couple of ways for me. Especially when you consider that these are all cover versions that are spread over the two discs. Surely this is just easy money isn’t it?

Well fortunately this isn’t a rip off at all, sure some of the tracks don’t really work (Duran Duran singing Fame for one), but on the whole this album boxes up some brilliant versions of generally well known songs by some great artists from that period.

Which for somebody like me who was only a very young lad at the time this almost like getting in a time machine and going back to what i’d just missed out on, the highlights include The Slits doing a brilliant version of I Heard It Through The Grapevine, The Stranglers Walk On By (which I have got on 7” to be fair) and Telex with a computerised Dance To The Music. The album is finished off by Joy Division roaring through Sister Ray.

New Wave has been lovingly compiled by Nouvelle Vague and is out now. For a limited period we are also running a competition to win copies of the compilation so head over to the Extras section.