Various Artists – Dark Side Of The 80s Telstar

The only “dark side” of this catchpenny farrago is exactly how and why it was compiled. Whether or not one enjoys the nihilism that informed one-tune scowlers like The Mission, Fields Of The Nephilim and New Model Army is neither here nor there; exactly what are Billy Bragg, Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” and The Stranglers’ “Peaches” doing here? Most of the rest, apart from The Fall’s cheerfully excruciating “Mr Pharmacist” (a borderline “dark side” case in itself) and Killing Joke’s genuinely menacing “Love Like Blood”, has you asking yourself where the ’80s backlash is.