With one exception (a song with Jay-Z) Rafael Saadiq’s entire new album, The Way I See It, is channeling Motown, Stax and Atlantic recordings from the 60s & 70s. It’s fantastic. You can hear several cuts at his myspace page http://www.myspace.com/raphaelsaadiq
On her 1992 CD Diva, Annie Lennox sings Durbin & Warren’s 1933 hit “Keep Young and Beautiful” in the style of the 1920s.
Complete with scratchy-poppy vinyl sounds. I love that track!
My nomination is “Winchester Cathedral”, released in 1966 by The New Vaudeville Band, but sounding like an early 20th Century song…probably 20s or 30s.
I heard “Stepping Stone” (and a couple more sogs I forget the names of) by Duffy for the first time this weekend, and I totally agree. She sounds just like someone off my mom’s motown cds.
There are entire subgenres of music that have an intentional throwback style. One is Dance Punk - bands like A Kiss Could Be Deadly, !!! and Death From Above 1979 . Another is Post Punk Revival - with bands like The Killers & The Rapture. A third - which includes the above mentioned Ladytron - is Electroclash.
That Thing You Do sounds like a 60’s pop tune. By design, of course.
The Dream Academy’s Life in a Northern Town - released in 1985, sounds very late 60s.
Off-hand, below are some from my myspace friends list (sorry if you don’t have myspace and can’t hear the music - google them, I guess :)). There are a lot that incorporate newer electronic elements, some incorporate rock, some darker goth stuff. For the most part, though, each at least has some songs in their catalogs that have a very old-school feel.
Bands I own stuff by and can vouch for:
Mesh
Anything Box
The Echoing Green
Neuropa
Echo Image
Apoptygma Berzerk
Leiahdorus
Blaqk Audio
Argyle Street
Freezepop
Iris
Color Theory
Splendor Projekt
De/Vision
Intuition
And One
These I’ve only heard on myspace, so I can’t verify quality beyond what’s on there…
Adrenaline Sky
The Low Technicians
Canal Pop
Mark Nicholas / Cosmicity
Composure
Lavantgarde
StandArt
Also, pretty much anything from the A Different Drum label is very synthpoppy.
Enjoy!
Oh wow. I didn’t know there was that much! Thanks! And yeah, I’m on MySpace, so no problem there.
The Dukes of Stratosphear’s 80’s album *Psonic Psunspot * (or the Chips From The Chocolate Fireball CD comp)sounds exactly like a mid-late 60’s psychedelic pop album. XTC are some rather crafty fellows, eh?
I gotta dig Shiny Toy Guns and their We Are Pilots album. Good stuff, my favorite is You Are The One, but I haven’t heard anything to dislike from them.
Try the song This Heart Attack by the Aussie band Faker
For a while I was convinced Voodoo Child by Aussie band Rogue Trader was circa 1984. Even the video is retro.
Thanks for the link! Never heard of this band and now I’m totally loving them. Your 100% on the channeling Robert Smith. Paralysed age has a Robert Smith-y thing going too. Their more on the goth side though.
There’s a song (“Deep Water”) from the latest Portishead album that sounds very music hall-esque. It’s particularly jarring when set against the rest of the album…especially as the song directly leads into this.
Sloan’s first album sounded a bit grungy, so it fit its decade. Then they followed it up with “The 60’s Album” (aka Twice Removed), “The Early 70’s Album” (One Chord to Another), “The Late 70’s Album” (Navy Blues), and “The 80’s Album” (Between the Bridges), so they managed to hit every decade through the 90’s.
“Lovin U” by Alicia Keys from “Songs In A Minor” could be straight out of Motown, with Diana Ross singing lead and the Supremes singing backup.
“Woman” by Wolfmother is straight out of the 70’s.
This is what I came in to nominate. I was shocked to learn it was recorded in 2003- it just screams 80s. Have you seen the music video? It’s everything you’d expect.
It does, doesn’t it? We swing dance to it occasionally.
I always thought a lot of Amy Winehouse stuff sounded like it was a blast from the past, mainly back to black and rehab.