The Cars · 1981 Spin it Again - The Cars at the exact moment when every night on the road had made them a machine without yet making them a tired one.

Pat Benatar · 1980 Spin it Again - She had been singing in Holiday Inns two years before this, and then she went quadruple platinum.

Modern English · 1981 Spin it Again - Everything they did before the song that followed them everywhere — and it turns out it was the more interesting half.

XTC · 1992 Spin it Again - Gus Dudgeon, Prairie Prince, harpsichord, martyrdom myths, and the quiet sound of a band making their best record while ceasing to exist.

Talking Heads · 1986 Spin it Again - The one where Talking Heads stopped dissecting America and just let it be strange and enormous and okay.

Culture Club · 1983 Spin it Again - Boy George was twenty-two and already knew that the quieter he sang, the harder it landed.

Depeche Mode · 1981 Spin it Again - The principal songwriter left before the second album, and somehow that's when Depeche Mode actually started.

Eurogliders · 1984 Spin it Again - Grace Knight sang jazz standards later in life, and once you hear this record properly you understand exactly why that was always inevitable.

Devo · 1981 Spin it Again - This is Devo before anyone had heard of Devo, playing to rooms full of people who had no idea what they were watching.

The Plasmatics · 1983 Spin it Again - The band that blew up cars on TV made a hushed, lonely EP in 1983, and nobody noticed.

Oingo Boingo · 1983 Spin it Again - Eleven musicians, one very anxious Danny Elfman, and a producer from the Canterbury scene walked into a Hollywood studio and made the Oingo Boingo album that still doesn't get its due.

Tracey Thorn · 1982 Spin it Again - Tracey Thorn made this before the industry found her, and you can hear exactly that in every quiet second of it.

Blondie · 1978 Spin it Again - Mike Chapman flew in from LA, ran Debbie Harry through takes until she was nearly done, and accidentally made the template for the next decade of pop.

Duran Duran · 1981 Spin it Again - Colin Thurston had just come off Bowie's Berlin trilogy and then produced this — which tells you it was never just a pretty-boy record.

XTC · 1979 Spin it Again - Hugh Padgham was in the room, Terry Chambers was behind the kit, and the bass guitar sounds like it's trying to escape the speakers.

The Human League · 1981 Spin it Again - Martin Rushent almost left 'Don't You Want Me' off the album entirely.

Joe Jackson · 1982 Spin it Again - Joe Jackson ditched the band, kept one piano, hired a few session guys, and recorded it in New York in the middle of summer like he was trying to outrun something, and you can hear exactly what that sounds like.

XTC · 1986 Spin it Again - Todd Rundgren produced it, Andy Partridge hated him for it, and the record came out better for the argument.

Grace Jones · 1981 Spin it Again - Grace Jones, Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare, and a cold synth bass in a room together — that's the whole story.