Yow! I just got an email from Fluid Japan‘s Todd Lewis hipping me to the fact that Canada’s mighty, mighty Men Without Hats, who thoroughly rocked our world last summer, had a new single out! After a pause of about ten seconds as I processed that fact, I went to iTunes and immediately bought the track. It’s wonderfully more than $0.99 worth of technopop goodness!
Men Without Hats: I ♥ The 80s – CAN – DL [2025]
- I Love The 80s 3:42
It surprisingly had a slightly hesitant intro that was less than immediate as the synth lead seemed to be invoking the intro to Van Halen’s if-you-can’t-beat-em-join-em synthpop smash, “Jump!” With a melody re-arranged from that of “Safety Dance” and the same sturdy tempo, this song immediately played out like a sequel to that earlier hit. It could have gone either way but as soon as I heard Ivan Doroschuk intone “I remember so much fun, back in 1981” I was putty in his hands. This song immediately gave me endless goodwill with that couplet and there was much more to come. Thankfully, the band were indulging in knowing winks instead of desperate rehashes here.
“Tell you what I’m going to do,
“I Love The 80s”
Party like it’s ’82
Dancing safely ‘cross the floor,
Like we did in ’84
Brand new record by The Fixx,
Sounds like 1986
Get your Walkman®, grab a tape,
Mark it 1988
The second verse leading into the chorus had some welcome vocoder touches and by the time that the third verse invoked The Fixx I was cracking my face with a smile. One more shameless bit of self reference with the melodic hook from “Pop Goes The World” doubling as the middle eight and this was definitely a song that took me to a happy place. And Gott Im Himmel… they made a video for it. A real one with the band actually in it and no AI vis-u-crud! It looks like they had a lot of fun.
This lights a fire under me to try to grab their last album, “Again [Part 2]” which featured the same lineup here [sans drummer Adrian White] and was released in 2022. I was so disappointed that no CDs of this were at the merch table last summer when I saw the band. But now that I’ve looked, I see that MWH have also released a new live LP that plays very similar to the show that they rocked for us last year.
Men Without Hats: Live – Can – LP [2024]
- Safety Dance [single version]
- Moonbeam
- Where Do The Boys Go?
- Antarctica
- I Like
- Pop Goes The World
- Safety Dance [Extended mix]
This was released in November of this year as an LP and it’s still out there in the band’s website for $40.00. If that were forty Canadian dollars, it might not be so bad, but I don’t think that’s the case. Still, that’s practically free next to the three figures the LP is trading hands for on Discogs! Thankfully, the band released it as a DL on iTunes for a mere $6.93. So that is calling out to me strongly.
The band’s web store has this to say about the album. “Whether you’re a longtime fan or just discovering their music, this live album is the perfect way to experience the raw energy and magic that Men Without Hats bring to the stage.” Before last year, I would have thought that hyperbole, but I’m here to tell you that raw energy is exactly what MWH traffic in live! And I’m happy that their summer shed set [as recorded in The Great White North in March of last year] was all of that and more. The only caveat here was that fave song “I Got The Message” as we saw/heard is replaced with the slightly lesser single “I Like.” If you’ve got the budget for that wax slab straight from the band, then DJ hit that button!
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Post-Punk Monk 
Well if that’s good news🙌👍. I’ll be seeing MWH’s in 2 weeks hoping they played it live🤞🙏.
This is my (Mike B.’s) 1st time seeing them.
I’ll wait (Van Halen Song) until then when my Safety Dancing will be engaged 🕺 💯😎👌.
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*Mike B.* – Two weeks, eh? So where are you seeing them? The tour dates on their site don’t really have much in July. Wherever you see them, they will rock it!
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So it’s an 80s gig downtown L.A. free gig (I Paid 4 VIP & Parking) About $40+.
Headliner – Starship with Mickey Thomas
The English Beat
Men Without Hats
Naked Eyes
& Missing Persons✅️.
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*Mike B.* – So that’s a “phantom gig” not on the band’s tour page nor bandsintown’s site! Things like that make me paranoid. When the band’s mailing list is silent… and their tour page. Plus a third party tour site are silent, how can we make sure we don’t miss stuff? Not bad for parking in L.A.! Throwing in VIP is a steal! Have fun! I still need to see English Beat but will be seeing General Public (?!?) in a month!
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Nice- Enjoy
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https://www.eventbrite.com/e/free-event-starship-english-beat-men-without-hats-more-tickets-1406167558019?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
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*Mike B.* – Thanks for sharing that with any L.A. readers!
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👍
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An aquaintance just posted all the gear he’s toting on the road as sound-man for the new Men At Work tour. Always got those two bands mixed up! Great review…I love the 80’s seems delicious.
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rangster – Men At Work tour??! How can that be with Greg Ham dead?
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I really couldn’t say: Kris’ video here: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1Avx51gz42/
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and a quick search shows that yes indeed, they are touring all over. But no new material, it seems.
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They never really stopped touring. The only gap I see is from about ’95 to early 2000s
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Naked Eyes is sorta like Thompson Twins or ABC, one person is carrying on the brand.
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There’s a great YT clip about the litigation over Down Under. I’d normally holster the link-finger for You Tube but I see above that our host appears to have softened on his blockade of said channel so…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UODO2O5k_94&ab_channel=Traxploitation
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Tim – As a kid I really liked “Laughing Kookaburra” and I can sing it even now, but I never noticed it being interpolated into “Down Under” until the lawsuit. The bigger question of Men At Work was why The Police didn’t also sue.
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Tim – While I still resent Alphabet’s hyper-monetized, vise-like grip on the attentions of primates in order to become the most intrusive advertising agency in the world, that’s merely exploitative late period capitalism. To quote Jello Biafra, “we’ve got a bigger problem now.” The occasional viddy from Alphabet may manifest here when I find it’s worth the pain of contributing, however modestly to their ability to own the world. [When I typed that I just sort of talked myself out of ever relenting on this issue, I think…] In a perfect world any artists I write about would have Vimeo channels and extensive SoundCloud offerings. Alas, this world is far from perfect.
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Perhaps it’s time for that “Men Without Work” supergroup at last…
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I was prepared to not like this song for being too on the nose in its title, BUT, the echoes on ‘Safety Dance’ kind of made me ease off ‘hate’ and into ‘like,’ triggering the nostalgia of it all. It’s a clever ditty with its way of dropping the decade years in its lyrics! My band, Bolero, opened for these guys back 1988 at a venue called One Step Beyond in Santa Clara, California. It would have been May 21 between their Anaheim (5/20) and San Francisco (5/22) gigs. Sadly, Setlist.FM doesn’t list our gig. At any rate, When we went to thank the guys backstage, the only thing I remember is their singer, Ivan Doroschuk, saying to me: “You like Jeff Goldblum!” I was tall, dark and lanky!
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René: I know! The title itself has a lot to overcome, but it managed to do it with aplomb.
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I love your review, it’s spot-on!
I love their references, lyrical and melodic, to 80s pop culture and their own songs…such a fun new tune!
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tonkatodd – Whatever “it” is, MWH still have it. And the stone face of Ivan is so eternally smile resistant that… it makes me smile.
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Yes, they do. I saw them last year too and was pleasantly surprised at how great the show was.
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Love it that a so-so Men Without Hats track is *crushing* the comment count compared to a lot of other conversations here of late.
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That video is fab, but when I heard “brand new record by The Fixx,
sounds like 1986″ I was wondering if that was supposed to be a good thing…
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walkabout was an ok album, but not as good as reach the beach.
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I never thought I would say this,but that is brilliant. Great song and video-I do love a bit of self-referential fun.
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gavinthemetamorph – Don’t tell me you’re a Men Without Hats naysayer? I won’t have you being a synth snob… except for Howard Jones. And hell, I actually enjoyed his concert last summer!
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I’m not a synth snob,just not heard anything else by MWH other than That Hit. I like Howard Jones btw…
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Dave Mattingly – Welcome to the comments! Don’t be a stranger.
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