Albums

Nouvelle Vague - Nouvelle Vague presents: “New Wave”

Bruce Turnbull 16/06/2007

Rating: 3/5

Quite an odd, but culturally humongous phenomenon, the new wave movement spawned some tremendously successful artists; most of which practically dominated the charts during the 80s, and quite a few have survived the 90s fallout and remain established acts enjoying healthy careers. This, a collection by Nouvelle Vague's Marc Collin and Gilles Leguen, is a tribute of sorts, by some of the biggest names in the genre, performing covers of outlandish, and obscurely ordinary songs, and transforming them with a slick, new-romantic vogue and a multitude of synthesizers.

Amongst this assemblage of oddballs are genre stalwarts Gary Numan, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Joy Division and Duran Duran. Lesser known acts such as Nico, Honeymoon Killers, Silicon Teens and Visage join their heroes in performing some killer covers of classics such as “Move On Up”, “In the Year 2525”, “Summer In the City”, “Fame”, Satisfaction (I Can't Get No) and “You Really Got Me”, with strangely enjoyable results. Possibly the best of these eccentric interpretations is The Stranglers' version of “Walk on by”, which, at their height, would have blown the club scene into smithereens.