Simon Reynolds in the Guardian:
“See, I have this hunch. I reckon that if you were to draw up a top 2,000 albums of every pop decade and compare them, the noughties would win: it would beat the 1990s decisively, the 1980s handsomely, and it would thrash the 1970s and 1960s. But I also reckon that [...]

“The new compact synths resembled an orchestra in a box; you didn’t need to have a whole band of instrumentalists. Suddenly pop was packed with duos who divided labour neatly between the composer-operator, and the singer-lyricist: Eurythmics, Yazoo, Tears For Fears, Blancmange, Pet Shop Boys. The shape of a synth-pop outfit was subversive, or at [...]

McLaren on the set of the “Double Dutch” video, 1983 (source)
As should have been expected, I heartily enjoyed Simon Reynolds’ thorough Rip it Up and Start Again, which was written with a mix of clarity and insight that allowed me to breeze through it in a few days. The chapter that stuck with me [...]