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Review by Paul Rambali, NME, 22 September 1979

BLONDES have more fun. They also sometimes sell more records. This puts our subject in a rather invidious position. ...

Review by Nick Kent, NME, 22 September 1979

WIRE WERE from the very outset a conceptually intriguing collective, even though they bristled with a potential that was all too often offset by niggling ...

Elvis Costello & The Attractions: Get Happy!! (F-Beat)

Review by Paul Rambali, NME, 16 February 1980

ON AN otherwise typical day late last October, Elvis Costello strolled through the door of London’s Rock On record shop in Camden Town, the oldies ...

The Associates: The Affectionate Punch

Review by Paul Morley, NME, 16 August 1980

RUMOURS have been dripping down from Scotland about a diverse horde of determined post Skids/S. Minds/Scars groups all ready to shift our attention. Positive Noise, ...

Gary Numan: Telekon

Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, 6 September 1980

AH, THE shimmering dust-free corridors, the pleasure machines, the limitless possibilities opened up by microtechnology, the disturbing effects of cybernetic leisure upon the fragile human ...

The Skids: The Absolute Game

Review by Chris Bohn, NME, 20 September 1980

BUBBLEGUM'S BACK and it sounds wonderful. In contemporary terms the Skids are to The Clash and the post-modernists what Sweet were to Slade and Bowie: ...

David Bowie: Scary Monsters (RCA)

Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, 20 September 1980

LEARNING to live with somebody's depression: the man in the clown suit stops running, finds self in back-against-wall situation, attempts to deal with same. Scary ...

David Bowie: Bowie For Breakfast: Angie Bowie’s Free Spirit

Review by Cynthia Rose, NME, 4 July 1981

David’s golden years get shredded as Angie spills half baked beans. ...

Simple Minds: New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)

Review by Paul Morley, NME, 18 September 1982

ONETHIS RECORD is something of a glow. Whatever your preference you will find it memorable and instructive. Find its qualities and fix your place. Be ...

David Bowie: Rare

Review by Chris Bohn, NME, 18 January 1983

NEITHER RARE nor particularly well done, the latest Bowie collection of alternative cuts, outtakes, live run throughs, flipsides and flops is hardly likely to endear ...

Echo & The Bunnymen: Porcupine (Korova)

Review by Barney Hoskyns, NME, 22 January 1983

PERHAPS IT WAS inevitable, even decreed in some heaven up "there". Maybe it’s just the third time unlucky. But if Porcupine isn’t good it isn’t ...

David Bowie: Let's Dance

Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, 16 April 1983

"Put on your red shoes and dance the blues to the song they're playing on the radio..." ...

The Police: Junger than Stingtime: The Police's Synchronicity

Review by Richard Cook, NME, June 1983

THE POLICE are much like Gods to their pop universe, not only in their worship rating but in their omnipotent attitude to their work. They ...

Paul Young: No Parlez

Review by Barney Hoskyns, NME, August 1983

SIMPLY FOR not being Kevin Rowland or Paul Weller or Martin Fry, Paul Young fully deserves his Number One. And 'Wherever' is more than a ...

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble: Texas Flood (Epic)

Review by Cynthia Rose, NME, 27 August 1983

DAVID BOWIE didn't discover Stevie Ray, the power blues specialist who by the sound of this solo LP was sorely tempered on Bowie's tepid Let's ...

Depeche Mode: Construction Time Again (Mute)

Review by Mat Snow, NME, 27 August 1983

"LOTS OF surprises in store/This isn’t a party/It’s a whole lot more," sings Dave Gahan in ‘More Than A Party’. It’s a song from Construction ...

Psychedelic Furs, The: Malice Through The Looking Glass: Psychedelic Furs: Mirror Moves (CBS)

Review by Jane Solanas, NME, 19 May 1984

THE RETURN of the underdogs. Castigated, laughed at… they flew to New York, where Butler quit drinking, attacked the museli bowl and kissed his girlfriend. ...

David Bowie: Tonight

Review by Richard Cook, NME, 29 September 1984

IT MIGHT be foolish to conjecture on which are David Bowie's public and which are his private records. ...

David Bowie: Labyrinth

Review by David Quantick, NME, 28 June 1986

MOST OF us are familiar with David Bowie from his role as Vendice Partners in the sparkling musical comedy Absolute Beginners, but how many I ...

Eurythmics: Revenge

Review by Biba Kopf, NME, 5 July 1986

THEY PICK dreams like they were pockets, these market research trained thieves, respray them in glitter and, even before the paint's properly dry, they're selling ...