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Today’s challenge is a big one for me. Anybody who knows me will tell you that New Wave (as it was applied in the US, to everything from post-punk to ska to synthpop) is probably my favorite genre, if I was forced to choose one. So it’s incredibly difficult to narrow down for me. That said, the challenge reads “a song by a favorite New Wave 80s band” — so I’ll take comfort in the fact that it doesn’t make me choose my all-time single favorite song.

I’ll go with a track from the transformative year of 1982, from a band who most folks only know for “Safety Dance”:

Today’s challenge: A song by a band you obsessed over as a teen. I’m going to have to do a little bit of arrangement here, since I see that tomorrow’s challenge is New Wave, and there’s a significant degree of overlap there.

I was undeniably obsessed with U2 as a teenager. Then they discovered America, and it ruined them. They had me through Unforgettable Fire, and started to lose me with Joshua Tree. I’m solidly early post-punk U2.