By: Damon Krukowski

“Our parents loved your music, but now they are dead.”

By: Damon Krukowski

“I am mute, ignored, covered in dust.”

By: Damon Krukowski

“Never, no matter how easy your instrument, begin to sing.”

By: Lucy Sante

Tearing up time signatures.

By: Dan Fox

Thomas Dolby’s EUROPA & THE PIRATE TWINS. Unrequited love — or Brexit?

By: Erik Davis

Tuxedomoon’s “Time to Lose”: a haunting layered confection of longing and regret.

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: Tor Aarestad

Oingo Boingo’s “Little Girls”: Swiftian, or adolescent Hitler skit?

By: Deb Chachra

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

By: Adam McGovern

Lene Lovich’s “Lucky Number” — squeaky, staccato, pioneering.

By: Ingrid Schorr

Ian Dury’s “Clevor Trever” — “Got no right to make a clot — out of Trever.”

By: Tim Carmody

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

By: Mimi Lipson

Dolly Mixture’s “How Come You’re Such A Hit With The Boys, Jane?” — a rebuke to phonies.