Fun Boy Three - Summer of '82

The B-side to their cover of "Summertime" (yes, that "Summertime"). It's very much in keeping with the style of their first album, which is to say still fairly Specials-like.

To this day, I can't ever look at strawberries and cream without this running through my head.

Julian Cope - Kolly Kibber's Birthday

A wonderful track from his debut solo album, 1984's World Shut Your Mouth (which did not include the song of the same name, and was all the better for it). In typical Julian style I don't really have any idea what it's all about but it's a far more somber and brooding track than the title would suggest.

This is really Julian Cope at his best - a far rarer specimen than it ought to be.

Coast - Now That You Know Me

Also-ran Brit-poppers of the mid-1990s. They were actually really good live, but their recordings weren't really up to much which is probably why you've most likely never heard of them.

I think this was the closest thing they had to a hit, from 1996.

Ultra Vivid Scene - Crash

This wouldn't have been one of my favourite UVS songs back in the day but I've developed a new appreciation for it lately. They might have been known as a shoegaze band but this is closer to classic '80s new wave than anything else.

From their 1988 self-titled debut album.

The Sweetest Ache - Briaris

The Sweetest Ache were one of Sarah's underachievers: the quality of their output never really matched the quantity, and too many of their songs sounded like minor album tracks, even the A-sides. Basically I think they just didn't really have the songwriting skills to cut it. Which is a shame, because I always wanted to like them more.

So how they managed to come up with this astonishing thing of beauty is a bit of a mystery. It's not just the female vocals, although they would improve anything in the band's catalogue; the song itself sounds like nothing else they ever recorded. In fact, it sounds like almost nothing else in the world.

Simply gorgeous.

It's from their 1991 debut album Jaguar.

The Mabuses - In the Long Run

The best way to describe London's Mabuses would be Syd Barrett fronting the Monochrome Set. That's a bit simplistic, obviously, but it does a good job of capturing their quirky/arty psychedelic pop sound. They released two albums in the early '90s, disappeared for yonks and then resurfaced a couple years ago. Not sure what they're up to now, if anything.

This is a relatively straightforward (by their standards) pop piece from their self-titled 1991 debut.

Animation - Where It Rains All Days

A wonderful little treasure that escaped the notice of virtually everyone when it was released in 1984, even though it fit in perfectly with the kind of vaguely '60s-inspired guitar pop that was all the rage on US college radio at the time. Their lone release (as far as I can tell), a five-song EP, was produced by the singer of the Smithereens and is very similar stylistically to that band. Actually, I never really cared much for the Smithereens, but they never wrote a song this good.

The rest of the EP is meh, but if the quality of this track tempts you (and why wouldn't it) you can get the whole thing from Wilfully Obscure.