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Intro

Early rock music was earnest. For example, in Runaround Sue, Dion starts with “Here’s my story, it’s sad but true”, and then what you see is what you get. But starting with the Beatles, artists became more inclined to trick the listener. With subversion in its DNA🔖✔, new wave took this ball and ran with it. There are infamous curveballs, like Devo's brutal switcheroo🔖✔ near the end of Beautiful World. But let’s kick off April with some lesser-known songs that fooled many.

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Walk Like an Egyptian (the Bangles)

The LA-based new wave🔖✔ band Bangles shared the the Go-Go's sunniesss🔖✔ but traded edge for a lighter jangle-pop sound. They continued the momentum of Manic Monday with Walk Like an Egyptian. There’s ancient Egyptian motifs abound: The tambourine, not common in new wave, emulates shifting sands. And gongs give Walk an ancient tomb vibe. And of course, the iconic video shows the band in typical ancient Egyptian garb striking an Egyptian pose. Everyday commuters and unexpected celebrities also get involved. Walk enjoys a catchy and pleasant melody and vocals. But for a new wave band, a song about Egyptian posing feels a little too literal. Wait, let’s check out these lyrics: they jump between schoolboys and businessmen, with instructions to “move” and “pose” - something more physical is going on. Turns out the song was about trying to keep your balance on a boat, inspired by the Bangles’ travels. The song offers the explanation, but the aesthetic offers an arresting alternative - and that’s the one most people keep.

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Rio (Duran Duran)

I previously covered Rio🔖✔, but there’s yet another layer to it. This sun-kissed smash came on the heels of the lustful pursuit of Hungry Like the Wolf and one-night-stand vigil of Save a Prayer. Add in the video, Duran Duran’s heartthrob reputation, and album cover, and it’s easy to believe Rio is an ode to a young woman. That misread plays right into Simon LeBon’s style - lyrics that sound precise, but keep you working to pin them down. Rio’s lyrics point elsewhere. The mention of the “Rio Grande” sticks out, as early Duran Duran typically grounded their imagery closer to home. And “mountains in the north” describes the US’ Rockies better than anything in the UK. With these as anchors, the more cryptic lyrics fall into place and you realize Rio is an homage to the US. Even the introduction of the saxophone to their sound leans into an American-leaning pop palette. The effervescent vocals and instrumentation also lean into idealized escapism, echoing a broader mythology of America as sun-soaked, mobile, and larger than life. But by the time Rio starts, many already dubbed it a love song.

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Our Lips are Sealed (the Go-Gos version)

LA-based Go-Gos enjoyed a North American breakthrough with Our Lips are Sealed. True to them, Lips has a playful spunk based in LA punk but tempered with girl group harmonics and sheen. The video doubles down on this, with the band having fun in LA on their own terms in the realm of Lauper's🔖✔Lauper's Girls Just Want to Have Fun🔖✔. This makes Sealed appear as an upbeat call to its listeners to squash rumors by shaking them off and not engaging. But two years later, Fun Boy Three released their own version (big in the UK), whose signature paranoid, haunting melody strips away the party vibes and reveal what it’s really about. As it turns out, the Go-Go’s Jane Wiedlin and Fun Boy Three frontman Terry Hall cowrote this song as a response to the swirling rumors about a romance between them. The difference isn’t in the words - it’s in the posture. The Go-Go’s put Lips’ lyrics to use, squashing rumors by smiling rather than addressing it. Fun Boy Three prefers to let the tension show.

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The Riddle (Nik Kershaw)

Nik Kershaw’s European top-10 hit The Riddle was a great palette cleanser after his breakout, the poignant (but heavy) Wouldn’t It Be Good. The melody leans hard on Renaissance-Faire style pagaentry, with a pastoral flute-driven bridge. And the lyrics seem to follow suit, like “wise men fighting over you”, and “old man of Aran”. They give Riddle a profound, storybook feel. The phrasing feels deliberate, as if each line is part of a larger code. Seizing on this, a promotion was launched to interpret the cryptic lyrics, with some fans writing pages of interpretation. But taken together, Riddle's lyrics never resolve into anything coherent. Bemused, Kershaw soon “admitted” that the lyrics were stream-of-consciousness words used as filler to support a killer melody he didn’t want to lose. As he liked the whole sound of Riddle, he opted not to update the words. Listeners are invited to connect dots that were never meant to connect. And that’s the real trick: The Riddle doesn’t hide its meaning. It creates the illusion that there’s meaning there at all.

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Every Breath You Take (the Police)

The Police were master of the lyrical and sonic curveball. Like in Message in a Bottle🔖✔, where a lonely "SOS" chant of becomes a chorus of connection by song’s end. Every Breath You Take continues in this fashion. On the surface, it plays like a tender song of longing, strengthened with phrases like “my poor heart aches”. And Every Breath is one of the band’s gentlest singles, with mellow, predictable guitar and drum sections. Also, it sits next to Wrapped Around My Finger and other sonic cousins on Synchronicity. The slow, elegant, black-and-white video (complete with classical imagery), further lulls you into a sense of safety. But that calm hides something else entirely. Sting repeats “I’ll be watching you” throughout, and gives many examples of such (“every move you make”, “every word you say”). And remember the predictable, repetitive instrumentation that served as comfort food? It becomes entrapment - the fact that Sting’s character will relentlessly stalk his ex-lover: anytime, anyplace, anywhere. The video’s slow, looping visuals reinforce the stalker’s persistence. The lyrics never change, but rather how safe the song makes you feel.

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Veronica (Elvis Costello)

It’s fitting that Elvis Costello delivers this article’s final trick. He’s been fooling the listener from the start🔖✔, like the addiction tale of Pump it Up🔖✔, wrapped in a party song. While Elvis transitioned to a smoother sound, his trickery never left. As the only hit he had in the US was the earnest Everyday I Write the Book, many Americans (like me) thought Veronica was straight-up too. After all, Costello chose an optimistic Penny Lane-style melody (given optimism cred by co-writer McCartney), and the song praises a woman. But lyrics like “she’s not even sure if her name is Veronica” gave me pause. Soon came a gut punch when I realized that Veronica is Costello’s grandmother who was living with dementia. But later still, the bitter transitioned to bittersweet as I realized that Costello was celebrating her. He preserves her through glimpses of her wit and presence that won over her eventual husband. It’s a similar formula to Alison’s combo platter of resentment, pity, and longing. Costello’s trick isn’t just the contrast. It’s that your reaction to Veronica keeps evolving, just like the memory he’s trying to hold onto

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Outro

In new wave, the trick isn’t just in the lyrics - it’s in the framing. A melody can soften a blow, a video can rewrite a premise, and context can tell you what to hear before a song even begins. These songs don’t just hide their meaning - they guide you toward the wrong one. And that’s the fun of going back: once you see it, you hear everything differently.

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