By: Drew Daniel

The Human League’s “Marianne”: the emotional stakes keep changing.

By: Jessamyn West

Blondie’s “Hanging On the Telephone” — fuck this intermediated bullshit!

By: David Smay

The B-52s’ “Dance This Mess Around” — a cargo cult for Bubblegum music.

By: Deb Chachra

Rough Trade’s HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL. It still sounds dangerous.

By: James Parker

“Sadder than sad with my old-man spigot./Can you dig it?”

By: Tim Carmody

Talking Heads’ “Life During Wartime” — a mantra for our paranoid days.

By: Lucy Sante

The Normal’s WARM LEATHERETTE — JG Ballard’s method, inscribed on the head of a pin.

By: Joshua Glenn

From THE STARS MY DESTINATION to COP HATER.

By: Joshua Glenn

Introducing this summer’s ENTHUSIASM series — on New Wave music!

By: Lynn Peril

LINCOLN ASSASSINATION BUFFS.

By: Tom Nealon

ALMONDS: NO JOY. They’ve always been a lie.

By: Joshua Glenn

From THE PUPPET MASTERS and SPARTACUS to THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS.

By: Joshua Glenn

From TITUS GROAN and THE DARK WORLD to THE SECRET OF THE SWORDFISH.

By: Lynn Peril

The Secret Vice — a history of anti-masturbation warnings.

By: Joshua Glenn

E.E. “Doc” Smith’s pioneering space opera, TRIPLANETARY.