by: Sean Boy
It was love at first listen. I heard Barcelona on a March Records compilation and immediately fell in love with their new wave synth-laced, blissful pop songs. A big spoonful of sugar and no medicine to spoil it on the way down. Upon reading a recently review on Barcelona, e-zinester (furia.com)Glenn McDonald lists a few specific reasons why he likes the band. Number two says, "They are ebulliently playful in ways unabashedly specific to a narrowly focused demographic in whose exact center I happen to sit, having grown up as an introspective geek during the right years to have formative experiences with pre-standardization computers and pre-Pro-Tools electronic music and go on to liberal-arts education and a career in software." I sit in that same demographic center, save the career in software. I came of age musically in the era of Gary Numan, The Human League, and Depeche Mode (the first album). All of a sudden I'm questioning my affinity towards Barcelona. Is it pure nostalgia? Musical grade-school memorabilia? Maybe. Probably. Actually I couldn't care less. Barcelona is pure fun, poignant, and super singable. More so than any of the above mentioned artists. Yes they cop Devo for the bass and groove on "Watching You Watching Us," they lift Yazoo for "Human Simulation," and sure "Everything Makes Me Think About Sex" is the first person account of Sparks' "All You Think About is Sex," but they always manage to put their own spin on the past with subtle, yet unique results. You're just not going to find anything more endearing, punchy, and perfectly neu-wave. Well, excepting their last, sophomore, album Zero-One-Infinity.
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