Varied styles of pop songs – 26 of them! The marketing blurb compares the variety to the heyday of cassette mix tapes but I would argue that the sounds themselves are also quite throwback-ish, being very reminiscent of various New Wave styles. Name that forebear! At times, I thought that was the game I was supposed to play while listening.

1. Feel of mid-70s glam Bowie
2. Oy, Vocoder and overdriven, swirly synths; very 1982
3. Synthesized falsetto vocals over a breezy groove
4. A bassline to make Kim Deal proud and snotty vocals and sharp guitars; nice
5. Lush female vocals singing humorously cynical lyrics; again, sharp guitars
6. 60s-ish pop but with whiny white guy guitar-n-singing and trashy recording
7. Point-counterpoint guy/girl singing; chintzy synths and organ; fabulous
8. Uh, The Wedding Present?
9. Great tune, pleasantly sparse arrangement, and equally pleasantly tinny recording
10. Giant balls of psychedelic gas
11. Hazy summer afternoon tune
12. Proto-synth a la Human League; clubbing-related lyrics; restrained vocals
13. Raucous, bombastic production; solid song; what, some sort of Tom Jones tribute
14. Emotionally cold love song; plenty of antecedents there – Ultravox, e.g.
15. Competent if thin bassline, wavering vocals; early New Order?
16. Lysergic 60s-style pop
17. Sloppy and thin drums and guitar, not-quite-sweet-enough vocals
18. Cure minus Robert Smith’s voice
19. Heavenly-style sweet vocals and semi-acoustic pop
20. Song about relationship spring cleaning by twee guy but then brash women bust in
21. Of the insanely breezy and catchy school of pop; pa-pa-paaa-pa-pa-paa, yay!
22. Too sweet vocals for the arrangement, too muscular guitars for the weak vocals
23. Lo-fi riffing and monotone singing; funny lyrics though
24. We want to be The Undertones
25. Choppy electronics and mechanized voice; again, funny lyrics redeem the song
26. Whoa, where’d the Krautrock synth swoops come from? Excellent! For comparison, think Six Finger Satellite’s dystopic synth blasts