This New Wave playlist is a wonderfully nostalgic romp from the late ’70s to the mid ’80s that leans into quirky Pop and feels like a Proto-Indie blueprint. I feel like the music in this Spotify playlist is definitely a heavy influence on the C-86 contingent featured on the now classic cassette given out free by the NME. There’s a lack of guitar jangle but the artistic focus and wit, alongside the Pop focus, really seem to step away from Punk and into something more modern.

The playlist featured here was pulled from a homemade cassette that flipped between my parents cars through the mid-90s. This collection of New Wave and 80s Pop is therefore the sound of my childhood. Featuring everyone from XTC through Jona Lewie to Killing Joke, it truly is an eclectic mix that has soundtracked a few parties in its time.

Play this New Wave playlist from top to bottom to relive the way I remember it from my youth, or throw it on shuffle because really those memories are mine and don’t be so Goddamned weird.

For a playlist that leads up to this moment, check out ‘Psychotic Reaction‘; a Punk history playlist that begins in the mid-60s with the Proto-Punk of Count Five & The Sonics and runs through to the early 80s flourishes of Post-Punk with early numbers by The Fall & Gang of Four.