Old Enough to Forget

Strange Behavior is an album I remember fondly, and for many years I looked for it on CD. I never did find a copy. When I set up my old stereo in the basement, this was one of the first records I played. To be fair, it's not like I had a lot of vinyl left to choose from, but what I had left was special, at least to me. I could picture Gary standing there playing his Roland G-707 in a sheepskin-collared bomber jacket. He was the epitome of cool. In short, I was having a great time reminiscing. I'm playing this now and, partway through the first side, the little things that irritated me back then weren't as pronounced. I'm a sucker for hi-hat work and a good drummer. Sure, the Simmons kits of the early '80s had a sound that defined the decade, but in terms of accentuating hardware, it was practically non-existent here. The result on Strange Behavior is a driving beat without any accoutrements, so to speak, although here and there, buried in the mix, you can hear a cy...

I was feeling a bit bummed out, so I went to the basement looking for something to raise my mood from shitty to something just slightly less than grumpy. I riffled through the albums that were in my "pending listen-to pile," and there was Zappacosta's 1984 self-titled release. This was an album I always meant to buy when it came out, and never did. Don't know why, I just didn't. "Passion" was a song that melded all the great elements of early '80s pop, and even the follow-up single "We Should Be Lovers" was great. When I was looking through a discount bin and saw a decent-looking copy with pristine vinyl, it was finally time to pick up the album. Like Paul Janz, Zappacosta built pop songs around his ability to carry a song through the power of his voice. The album kicks off with "Passion," and while the song is very much of its time, it's still a great listen and propels the album through a series of familiar and very strong s...