Intro

Halloween is a time for putting on costumes and pretending to be someone else. But some new wave artists didn’t need October 31 to try on a new identity. Whether borrowing another artist’s sound, venturing into unfamiliar genres, or revealing an entirely different personality, these six acts ventured well outside their comfort zones. Some disguises were remarkably convincing, others rather awkward. And as with any good costume, sometimes the most interesting part is who’s underneath.

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Duran Duran Is… a Roadhouse Band

Violence of Summer

Duran Duran🔖✔ was known in the ‘80s for drawing on movies for inspiration. Wild Boys🔖✔ reminds us of Thunderdome, and Howard Jones loved Buddhist Lyrics🔖✔ Raiders of the Lost Ark. So for Violence of Summer, they were going for… Road House? In line with the album promos of the band at a carnival, Nick for the first (only) time uses a honky-tonk synth throughout. And Simon’s phrasing consistently borders on shouting, in his contrast with his usual save-it-for-the-chorus bombast. John trades his usual rhythmic tension and fretless bass for a bustling, almost partylike pace. This is all backed up by new (American) members Cuccurullo providing muscular guitar riffs and drummer Sterling Campbell keeping the energy steady. Indeed, Violence is the anti-Chauffeur.

Duran Duran also took this disguise beyond the recording studio. In the video for Violence, Simon had hit the gym a lot, and trades his new romantic attire for a baseball shirt. This is interspersed with motorcycle gangs and shirtless men fighting each other. While I found this an intriguing departure for Duran, it was an odd choice as the first single given the more accessible Serious was available, and Violence stumbled. The album also came undone, and Duran Duran chose not to tour for it.

The Judges Say… An intriguing disguise that muddied the band’s identity

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Squeeze Is… A Country Band

Labelled With Love

Squeeze's🔖✔ Cool For Cats is an enjoyable album, with its follow-up Argybargy an effective expansion of their sound. And they wanted to go whole-hog with East Side Story, complete with four producers. While that part was scaled back, the resulting album is deliciously eclectic. Most notably on Labelled With Love, where it sounds like they’re possessed by a country band. The acoustic guitar is relaxed and has that signature country twang, set to a shuffling beat. Tilbrook, in a country tradition, sounds resigned and pained. It even checks two boxes from David Allan Coe’s famously exhaustive country-song checklist: drinking and mama. Alas, no trains, trucks, or prison. But it’s quite convincing.

But cowboy hat aside, this is a British song through-and-through. Drawing on real life experiences of British war brides, Labelled With Love zeroes in on a young woman who falls in love with a WW2 American pilot and moves to his world. After drinking and eating himself to an early death, she moves back to Britain only to find there’s no life for her there either. Her only solace is the very whiskey that helped destroy her husband.

The Judges Say… Best costume, fewest artistic compromises

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Human League Is… Janet Jackson

I Want Your Loving

By 1985, the Human League🔖✔ were struggling to follow up their early-'80s success. Virgin Records saw an opportunity in Minneapolis producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, poised to reinvent Janet Jackson with Control. The producers wanted to extend their reach into mainstream pop, while the League were eager for some Minneapolis magic of their own. Everyone stood to benefit. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, the resulting album, Crash, had a contentious creation, with I Need Your Loving its archetype. Right off the bat, the intro’s bright synth (complete with glissando), syncopated rhythms, in-your-face percussion, scream Control. These continue throughout. Even Oakey gets the Minneapolis makeover. Where Oakey normally approaches romance with a certain detachment, here he turns the emotion up to 11, shouting and grunting his way through pleas for love and kisses. The usually reserved League sound positively horny.

The Judges Say… Jam and Lewis's sound overwhelms the League's identity

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The Boomtown Rats are… a Noir Jazz Band

Walking Down Town

The Boomtown Rats🔖✔ had long indulged in rat-related wordplay and songs about big-city life. But on the B-side Walking Down Town, Geldof transforms into a literal boomtown rat, prowling a large city’s underbelly. He even declares that he “wants to think like an animal”.

In Walking (or crawling) Down Town, Geldof describes an unnamed American city in vivid, unflinching detail: think “the grass is greener on the newest graves’“ and “fear… seeping through the cracks and basements”. And the musical backdrop is the poster child of urban sleaze: noir jazz. A dirty jazz horn dominates the intro and is reprised throughout, set to dripping water effects. Also in the noir realm is a section where a band member whispers before Geldof gives his biggest shout ever with “this place stinks like Chicago!”, bypassing the usual New York reference in favor of Chicago, with all its gangster-era associations. That being said, my Chicago-native wife would like a word with him. Geldof’s rants are set to jazzy piano riffs. Geldof peppering his songs with loud declarations is nothing new, but when laid onto the jazz noir sonic backdrop, it reads like a hard-boiled narrator describing the city’s underworld.

The Judges Say… A Boomtown Rat that goes all-in on noir.

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Adam Ant Is… a Rap Metal Frontman

Very Long Ride

At first I hesitated putting Adam Ant🔖✔, who reinvented himself with each solo album, in this article. In his Wonderful stab at acoustic reflective rock, he made it full of affirmations and calls to lay down arms. That makes the aggressive Very Long Ride a curious song, especially as an album closer. Ride is dominated by a nu-metal-like guitar riff that plays throughout, making it the main hook (over Ant’s vocals) for the verses. And for only the second time ever, Ant raps, this time in a very un-Ant Rap-like fashion. He delivers his lines rap metal style with restrained venom that refuses to release the tension. It’s almost like the usually-energetic Ant was really antsy and had to get it out at the end.

The lyrics are another outlier. Where much of Wonderful offers affirmations and calls to lay down arms, Very Long Ride is more “life sucks, wear a helmet”, explained through the lens of the narrator’s interpersonal struggles. And while Ant’s no stranger to this (Goody Two Shoes🔖✔ anyone?), his imagery is more vitriolic - he harbors a revenge fantasy complete with gun in hand, and drops his only-ever F-bomb.

The Judges Say… Ant sheds Wonderful’s gentleness for a darker alter ego

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The B-52s are… a Romantic Rock Band

Vision of a Kiss

The B-52s🔖✔ often took us to outer space and introduced us to a giant rampaging bird🔖✔ and the Devil-as-carjacker🔖✔. But romance not deflected by irony or absurdity? That's a rarer creature in the B-52's universe. For example, in Give Me Back My Man, Cindy shows love for her boyfriend…. that just got eaten by a shark. Enter 1992’s Vision of a Kiss: no puns, no irony - just innocent romanticism. The lyrics are delightfully twee, such as “lost in a vision of your sweet lips“ and “ever since we met I’ve been so impressed with you“.

But the standout is Schneider. Best known for his clipped, shouted declarations, Fred could easily have turned such an earnest love song into an embarrassing novelty. But his vulnerable performance works because he doesn't entirely abandon his distinctive voice or personality. He stretches his range without trying to become a conventional pop vocalist. Also kudos to Pierson for great harmonies that provide silk and grit without stealing the spotlight from Schneider. Strickland, as in the rest of Good Stuff, lets his southern-flavored guitars and drums breathe, making an effective bed for Fred.

The Judges Say… Fred sells the disguise by remaining Fred

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Outro

So who wore it best? Squeeze arguably pulled off the most convincing transformation while sacrificing the least of their identity. The Human League weren’t so fortunate, while Fred Schneider proved that even sincerity could be an unlikely costume. But perhaps that’s the fun of musical masquerades: they can reveal as much about an artist as they conceal. And unlike Halloween costumes, these disguises are still around for us to revisit long after the party ends.

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