A Compendium of When 2

It built so slowly in retrospect; that wasn't the case at the time - everything was so new, you couldn't keep up with it. Then it built to its high in 1980 like a lit fuse and, when throughout the years I could list nearly everything, this post's list took editing like leaving friends off the wedding list. Sorry Angry Samoans, you're going to a different party. A decade of New Wave:

1981: Penthouse and Pavement, Heaven 17; East Side Story, Squeeze; English Garden, Eurythmics; Ghost in the Machine, The Police; Dare, Human League; Wild Gift, X; October, U2; Flowers of Romance, PIL, Movement, New Order; Heaven Up Here, Echo and the Bunnymen; Speak and Spell, Depeche Mode; Talk Talk Talk, Psychedelic Furs; Architecture and Morality, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark; Juju, Siouxsie and the banshees; Beauty and the Beat, The Go-Go's; 1982: Imperial Bedroom, Elvis Costello; Lexicon of Love, ABC; Too-Rye-Aye, Dexy's Midnight Runners; English Settlement, XTC; Upstairs at Eric's, Yazoo; Pornography, The Cure; Rio, Duran Duran; Night and Day, Joe Jackson; A Broken Frame, Depeche Mode; 1983: Power, Corruption and Lies, New Order; War, U2; Speaking in Tongues, Talking Heads; High Land, High Rain, Aztec Camera; Touch, Eurythmics; Seven and the Ragged Tiger, Duran, Duran; Colour by Numbers, Culture Club; Porcupine, Echo and the Bunnymen; Dazzle Ships, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark; The Hurting, Tears for Fears; You and Me Both, Yazoo; Construction Time Again, Depeche Mode; 1984: Hatful of Hollow, The Smiths; Reckoning, REM; Sparkle in the Rain, Simple Minds; Some Great Reward, Depeche Mode; Human Lib, Howard Jones; It's My Life, Talk Talk; It'll End in Tears, This Mortal Coil; 1985: Songs from the Big Chair, TfF; The Head on the Door, The Cure; Fables of the Reconstruction, REM; Steve McQueen, Prefab Sprout; Lowlife, New Order; Meat is Murder, The Smiths; This is the Sea, The Waterboys.


1986: Please, Pet Shop Boys; Wonderland, Erasure; Life's Rich Pageant, REM, The Queen is Dead, The Smiths; Skylarking, XTC; Brotherhood, New Order; Black Celebration, Depeche Mode; Whiplash Smile, Billy Idol; Victorialand, Cocteau Twins; From Langley Park to Memphis, Prefab Sprout; 1987: Strangeways Here We Come, The Smiths; Music for the Masses, Depeche Mode; Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, The Cure; Lion and the Cobra, Sinead O'Connor; Faith, George Michael; Actually, Pet Shop Boys; Joshua Tree, U2; 1988, Viva Hate, Morrissey; Nothing's Shocking, Jane's Addiction; Surfer Rosa, The Pixies; Blue Bell Knoll, Cocteau Twins; The Innocents, Erasure; Life's Too Good, Sugar Cubes; Green, REM; From Langley Park to Memphis; 1989: Disintegration, The Cure; Pretty Hate Machine, Nine Inch Nails; Doolittle, The Pixies; Technique, New Order; The Real Thing, Faith No More; Bleach, Nirvana; 1990: Violator, Depeche Mode; Ritual De Lo Habitual, Jane's Addiction; Bona Drag, Morrissey; Listen Without Prejudice, George Michael; Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, The Sundays; Heaven or Las Vegas, Cocteau Twins; Behaviour, Pet Shop Boys.