80's Hits Stripped

My homeboy Kuka gifted me an album the other day. I was in Caesars Palace eating a 2-item combo from the Mexican place in the food court when an acoustic version of Your Love by The Outfield came on and I listened to every note, captivated by how cool this acoustic version sounded. I didn't want it to end, especially when the next song came on: an N'Sync song I'm pleased to tell you I cannot name.

Turns out, there's an entire album of "stripped" 80's tunes. I can honestly say, there are some AWESOME tunes on here.  Colin Hay of Men at Work fame performs an acoustic version of Down Under that's just as insanely good as The Outfield classic Your Love.

Some of the tunes are live recordings though most are studio recordings and sound fabulous. Who knew these 80's icons could actually sing and put together some really wonderful sounding songs? Heard in a different way, you can really get a feel for the emotion put into the lyrics and the musicality these groups possessed when you take away the neon and bad outfits.

So, I highly recommend checking out this album. If you're a fan of the 80's, fantastic unplugged tunes or just great musicians who were lumped in with douche-bags like Tony Basil and Devo, this album is a must buy.

Here's an NPR review when the album came out 3 years ago; the title says it all.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5425800

For those with iTunes, here's a link to the album in the store...

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/80s-hits-stripped/id268637602