Monday, August 9, 2021

The 1980 Listening Post - Hilly Michaels - Calling All Girls

 Hilly Michaels - Calling All Girls


May 28 1980 LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Hilly Michaels

Calling All Girls

Genre: New Wave

4.75 out of 5



Highlights:

Calling All Girls

Teenage Days

Shake It and Dance

U.S. Male

Turn Me On Your Radio

Devotion

Something On Your Mind





You know this guy. Listen to that title track. It explodes with New Wavosity and was ALL over MTV back int he day. Then you never heard it again. Like, you hear Plastic Bertrand more than this tune and this song is better than “Ca Plane Pour Moi”, which is an excellent example of the genre.

This came out on my birthday in 1980 and I would have been very happy in retrospect if someone would have given this to me. 

Hilly played with Sparks and this is Sparksalicious. 

This is produced by Roy Thomas Baker and it sounds like it was produced by RTB. It’s clean and crisp and multi-layered and just plain weird when it needs to be. 

Is RTB in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? He really should be. 


Greg Hawkes plays keyboards on this as well. 


Listen to “U.S. Male” and tell me that it doesn’t belong on Angst in My Pants. It’s actually better than 50% of that album and that album is great.

“Turn Me On Your Radio” should be a New Wave radio staple. Dammit.  

“Devotion” is a 1980s Glamtastic updating of that sound that BCRs couldn’t quite capture. Cuz you need RTB on the knobs to make that happen, boys. 

“Something On Your Mind” is an updating of that Kimono My House style that we all loved.


This album is a New Wave classic and people should talk about it more.






It’s a crime that we only have access to this via Google Drive downloads. Get it. You need this. But they are FLAC files and those are a bitch to convert. 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QoumrVOkCc3FpmKHRC9WeVtiI3HmQwA-?usp=sharing

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