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 system 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 now. I'm a sucker for hi-hat work, and a good drummer, sure the Simmons kits in the early 80s had a sound that defined the decade, but in terms of any accentuating hardware 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 symbo...

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 a 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 the song while very much of its time, is still a great listen, and propels the album through a series of familiar and very strong songs fro...