Penguin Prison (Stranger)

The neo-synth pop movement has a lot to answer for... namely some amazing music. Penguin Prison is another artist (see also the divine Class Actress) who sounds like he was frozen in carbonite in around 1987 and recently defrosted to continue his insanely catchy pop ways.

And there are pop hooks a plenty on this album, as well as some interesting lyrics and song subjects such as "Multi-millionaire" and "Don't fuck with my money" which are songs for our times backed by the sounds of an earlier age... or even earlier economic collapse.
"A funny thing" really scores with a fast electro beat and is a super dance track but the sheer retro-ness almost reaches the point of no return on "Something i'm not" which starts off sounding like it was recorded on a VIC-20 but luckily does get a bit more sophisticated later on, C64 then. There is also an infectious 80s funkiness on "The worse it gets" which approaches George Michael territory.

So many great songs, one of the best examples of modern synth pop, retro but fresh. Really this is one of the best 80s albums you haven't heard... up until now.