10 Amazing '80s Bands That Everyone Forgot About
1. Au Pairs
With post-punk enjoying a major moment in the UK especially, now is an appropriate time to celebrate one of the best acts the genre ever produced. Au Pairs didn’t trouble the charts in their brief lifespan, yet their fiercely political but always danceable music can be heard in the switched-on bands of today’s indie scene.
The Birmingham band’s two albums pack so much into the music and lyrics. Debut Playing With A Different Sex is the more straight ahead post-punk release, with the jagged “We’re So Cool” providing the energy and the oblique “Headache For Michelle” the grooves, boasting one of the era’s best basslines.
Sophomore - and final - effort “Sense And Sensuality” throws the kitchen sink into the mix, with elements of jazz, reggae, and world music dropped in. It’s not as immediate as the first album but highlights the deep songcraft that many post-punk bands (then and now) struggle to match.
The likes of Idles can be traced back to the cutting social commentary of Au Pairs, whose lyrics deal smartly with sexual politics, the Troubles, war, domestic abuse, and plenty more, but without ever becoming po-faced. Their records just sound better every year.