Decadent albums
Luxury sounds of 80s excess
New Wave, Synth Pop, and early House have always had an opulent sound. It’s the music of economic prosperity and optimism for the future. Music from a time when people felt free, frivolous, and flashy. A time when the counter-culture became overrun with posers, so the cool kids started making dance music and pop again. The 80s and 90s were also the last decades when any new technology was introduced to music–the synthesizer and the DAW. Since then, we’ve just been repeating and riffing off the old stuff, which sometimes works really well. A lot of this has to do with economic issues, and the promise of wealth in the new millennium feels pretty flimsy, unless you’re a character on HBO’s Industry.
I was a late watcher of Industry, but in the last couple of months I finished Season 2, before blowing through Seasons 3 and 4. The soundtrack opened wistful portals into a period when capitalism, cocaine, commercialism, sabotage, and slander were sexy and commendable. Hearing The Prodigy, New Order, Pet Shop Boys, Duran Duran, or Ultravox scoring scenes with hyper ambitious, party-addicted City Boys and Girls, reminded me of a few of my favorite albums that came out of the era and bleed into today. It’s a British continuum of hedonism and nostalgia that I can’t help but love.
Electronic: Electronic (1991)
First up is Electronic’s eponymous album. Formed by New Order’s Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr of The Smiths, this alt-dance group is a who’s who of 80s and 90s new wave and indie rock, mixed with a kind of sultry absurdism. The most popular track, “Getting Away with It” (with Sumner and Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant on vocals), is featured on Season 3 of Industry. The album feels like an embodiment of Sam Rockwell in Charlie’s Angels, or even Jason Statham in Snatch. But it also conjures a leather-trench-wearing Harper Stern sabotaging a close friend while getting high off her own precarious success. Some of my favorite tracks include “Patience of a Saint,” “Get The Message,” and “Some Distant Memory,” but it’s all good in Electronic’s world–front to back, low lift, high reward.
Real Lies: We Will Annihilate Our Enemies (2025)
The cover says it all. Pining and emotional, this album’s an extension of the romantic new wave ethos, and an embrace of early house and synth pop. Tracks like “Wild Sign I Choose You” remind me of Underworld’s A Hundred Days Off (also on this list), and might score Yasmin on a sexy messy-hair bender. And “Loverboy” makes me think about Rob, desperately hoping that one day Yas might appreciate his kindness and love him back. In the meantime, he’ll be on his own bender, and occasionally sleeping with his predatory cougar client. Either way, this album evokes big city life, 1990s hedonism, romance, and parties. And repeated lyrics on “loverdrink” ring with emphatic agreement–“I live by the Thames and it dares me to drink!”
Pet Shop Boys: Release (2002)
Maybe one of the least successful albums from this core synth-pop duo, Release is Pet Shop Boys’ eighth studio album and one of my favorites. It’s also impossible to choose just one Pet Shop Boys album, partly because they’re so prolific (with 15 albums, along with numerous compilations, live albums, soundtracks, Further Listening, extended releases, and a live musical). The other reason is because many of my favorite Pet Shop Boys songs are dotted across the forty-ish years they’ve been together. But I just can’t help but love Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe in their fcuk* era. And as trailblazers of a certain kind of electronic sound, it’s nice to see them experimenting with something more melodious.
Spurred by financial catastrophe, and the group’s near collapse, this album is made up entirely of love songs. Some songs are acoustic, some are ballads, but all are intrinsic to the Y2K generation’s particular brand of escapism. The album was recorded entirely in the Northeast of England, and is perfect for contemplative road trips, ideally along the edge of the Moors (cc: Yas and Robert at the end of Season 3 escaping London and Yas’ bankruptcy and media scandal). Pet Shop Boys fans might question my decision here, but I urge you to play Release all the way through and enjoy sensitive anthems like “Home and Dry,” “Email,” and “Love is a Catastrophe.” Release is Pet Shop Boys’ inner child album, embracing innocence, melancholy and sincerity in their midlife era.
Underworld: A Hundred Days Off (2002)
Another album that followed a long delay, personal turmoil, and Darren Emerson’s departure from the group, Underworld’s A Hundred Days Off supplies extravagant music for the chronically unemployed. Sometimes house, sometimes trance, sometimes experimental or atmospheric, this album has less thumping than some of their past records. And with one less member, and a wide range of contrasts, this album is impossible to categorize, but somehow remains true to the group’s core sound. There’s a kind of stream of consciousness that I love in this album. Songs like “Trim” narrate lobotomized nonsense with a cartoon-western beat and lyrics like “Woman in a box with her head in her box speaks French when spoken like a tourist French.” “Sola Sistim” is aimless, drifting, and bass-y in a good way. But songs like “Two Months Off,” “Little Speaker,” and “Dinosaur Adventure 3D” leave room for the type of hyper-charged energy the young lads and ladies of Industry are known to exhibit on and off the trading room floor. But the synth is always there, along with a renewed sense of optimism. I get the sense that this album is less of a finance bro dances alone in his head every night type thing, and more of an arrival and a triumph. It’s the record that marked a new chapter for a pared-down version of Underworld that continues to bless its listeners until today.
A Playlist by Me (2026)
I’m panicking about the fact that there’s very little synth pop or new wave on this synth pop/new wave inspired list. Also a lot of the music that I wanted to include that reminds me of these genres, and also Industry doesn’t fit into the list I’ve made here. Not to mention I’d like the freedom to include a few tracks by American artists and maybe some post punk. Maybe even artists from non-English speaking countries, or Ireland. And definitely more Pet Shop Boys. So here’s a playlist I’ve made with some of the music I’ve included here, and some music that only fits according to me. Enjoy!!
 | A guest post by
|