The 1986 Listening Post - Boys Don't Cry - Boys Don't Cry

Boys Don't Cry - Boys Don't Cry

#75/1242

1986 Housekeeping

Boys Don’t Cry

Boys Don’t Cry

Genre: SynthPop

4.25 out of 5

Highlights:

Cities on Fire

I Wanna Be a Cowboy

I wanna call this record “The Revenge of SynthRock”. Well, that first track, anyway. It’s filled with abandon and joy, it’s palpable. 

I even listened to the extended version of these because I couldn’t get my finger on what contemporary band they reminded me (this is something I struggle with and am always amazed when other people can just pull of comparisons with ease) and then it hit me: Neon Trees.

I was really late to Neon Trees but I finally succumbed just in time for them to stop recording. Pop Psychology was a devoted love letter to New Wave (even more and better than Dreamcar or Bleachers) and I loved it. 

Boys Don’t Cry is the unwitting grandfather of those records. 

You know these guys. They had a pretty big hit in “I Wanna Be A Cowboy”, a song which should have been the warning that “I’m Too Sexy” was on the horizon.

That said, this style is drifting afield from the mission statement more than a wee bit. 

https://open.spotify.com/album/2unvWXhYUVwQEhIpnwugch?si=5WJWXHv_Q4u--9QjpX71Sw