Wither my 80s heroes?

So in the past month, I've acquired new albums by Depeche Mode, Heaven 17, and Madonna. Here are my capsule reviews:

Madonna: This is a perfectly passable Kylie album. Really not much more than that, however. I'm glad she's getting in touch with her disco roots... without Mirwais' belaboured quirky mixes. Some very chunky big synthbass however - nice 16th notes that sound very Jupiter 8.

Depeche Mode: Some very good stuff on there, but here's my recommendation. GET FLOOD back. And somebody please apologize to Alan Wilder and get him back to the band. And finally, will someone please rein in Martin's horrible ballad-istic tendencies? This album reminds me of "A Broken Frame" - not very hooky, a couple of very bad songs, and a few that will sneak up on you.

I think Dave Gahan's songs are great - maybe just maybe Dave and Vince Clarke could get together and do an album? Vince has been playing the same damn song since 1985, he could use a change of scenery.

Heaven 17: This one's tough. Bear with me. Way back in 1980-1983 H17 did some great audio experimentation with modular synths and Fairlights, and the sheer exhuberance of that experimentation outweighed their occasional cheezy indulgence. Then their albums grew more and more "professional" sounding - using more session players, and then their cheese was more and more apparent.

Flash forward to 1999, they released "Bigger than America" - done on an 8 track with their old Roland Modular synths. It was brilliantly edgy, and very reminiscent of their very first efforts.

And then in 2001-2003 they worked on a new album that was only just released called "Before/After". And somewhere, they lost that spirit again - this new album has them working with looped drums, and more generic synth sounds... and basically they jumped RIGHT BACK to their late 80's cheese. There are good moments, but really, Glenn Gregory could be singing over almost any producer's work.

I'm going to leave it at this: But one final note: Annie and Dave, what are you DOING? I listened to the newer tracks on the new Eurythmics Greatest Hits album... and I woke up a few hours later. Jesus.