10 Perfect New Wave Albums With No Bad Songs

For those of you who have never come across the musical stylings of Devo, they're the synth-pop and new wave equivalent of Weezer. There's a slapstick quality to their sound, their music is laced with humour and they didn't take themselves too seriously.

They formed in the early '70s. After several years of slogging away on the live circuit and sending out various demo tapes, their material found its way into the hands of David Bowie. The group was offered a recording session with legendary producer, Brian Eno. Although, Eno wrote and structured a number of synth heavy melodies for the album, the group resisted going full synth-pop.

The result was an album of punk-inspired guitar melodies, with elements of electronica laced throughout. Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale duelling vocals were reminiscent of David Byrnes erratic approach to delivering lyrics - particularly, on Too Much Paranoias and Praying Hands. The album was fun, silly and erratic. The guitar and bass parts were delivered with the frantic energy of punk rock, but the songs had a jovial and less aggressive tone to them. This was a form of proto-pop-punk, if you will - played by new wave nerds.