Poptopia: Power Pop Classics Of The '80's

Here is proof that great music was indeed produced in the 80s. Some real moments of magic on here, including power-pop gems from Great Buildings, the Plimsouls, Utopia, Marshall Crenshaw, the Pursuit of Happiness, Hoodoo Gurus, and ... oh, just pick a few of your own favorites. It's all pretty much addictively great catchy material. Although ... I really wish they hadn't stuck that overplayed Romantics track on there. I suppose the label felt that was a selling point. Sigh. I'm also not crazy about the Holly & the Italians track, or rather that's not one of my favorite songs by her. But neither of those songs is bad enough to downgrade my rating; this is one fine compilation. Note: as I write this review in 2012, used copies are selling for insanely high prices. Thumbs down to the greedy dealers trying to take advantage of an out-of-print title.

This compilation, like most of Rhino's power pop/new wave/D.I.Y. compilations adequately picks the most popular songs for that specific era/genre but fails to dig deeper as far as obscure tracks are concerned. While "What I Like About You" is a classic tune it's already on Rhino's other compilations, and they could have selected another Romantics song. Once in a while they will surprise me and toss in a lesser-known but well-deserved gem, such as "Whatever Happened to Fun" by Candy (and a few others in the D.I.Y. series), but the cynic in me says that it's only because some geek on the Rhino selection team wanted to show how "hip" he was and pick some tune he's only read about and for some reason or another be included, but not by any thorough research on the subject matter. Anyway, if you like pop this is a good collection to have if you want some of the classics on one disc.

Great power pop from the decade when that was the genre that never spoke its name. Several of these tracks - "Whenever You're on My Mind", "There She Goes", "Behind the Wall of Sleep", "Love Is For Lovers", and, of course, "What I Like About You" - pretty much dare you not to sing them all day after you hear them. A few of the tracks just don't click with me, but that's probably me rather than the collection. I'd give it five stars if (as the liner notes sadly point out) an XTC track and "Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)" had made it on. Buy it, put it on, and sing along loud enough to drown out your "cool" neighbor's snide comments.

the included offerings by: great buildings, hoodoo gurus, plimsouls and tommy keene would all make my top 10 for the decade list, with the db's and la's in the top 30. that alone suggests 5 stars.... however, the obligatory inclusion of the pedantic "what i like about you" as the opening cut will cost them a star ("when i look in your eyes", a tastier rendition of the same three chords, would make a more palatable choice). overall, a very credible line-up.note of interest: great buildings became the rembrandts ("friends" theme fame) in the 90's and you can't help but hear bits of "i'll be there for you" in the vastly superior "hold on to something".

If you liked the 80s power-pop scene, then you probably have most of the songs on this disk on their individual albums. To have all of these cuts on one disk is a god-send. As a power-pop collection, this anthology stands without peer. Buy it; you'll love it.