Songs about years, songs with years in the titles … anything for a kooky theme. If you were born in the early to mid-1980s, or graduated from high school, these may be your years! While I searched in vain for a 1980 and 1982, I do have 1981, 1983, 1984 and 1985 covered.

Things kick off with hardcore punk legend Kevin Seconds channeling his poprock side on a cut from his 2002 split album with Matt Skiba. “1981” recounts a lost love from that year. And it was probably for the best. Neon Trees’ take on “1983” from their 2010 album Habits is a bit more rosey-coloured, perhaps because songwriter Tyler Glenn was busy being born that year. His recollections are understandably hazy. Power pop stalwarts The Records come on all ominous with the George Orwell-inspired “1984” from their 1979 debut Shades in Bed. But it’s still hooky (in a “Break-up Song” sort of way). 1985 gets two treatments. Canadian west-coast folkie Ryan McMahon gives us a classic balladeer’s story about hitting lows both economic and personal in “1985” from his 2011 record All Good Stories. Meanwhile punky funsters Bowling for Soup took SR-71’s paean to crippling nostalgia “1985” to new chart highs in 2004, a cut from their The Hangover You Don’t Deserve release.

Kevin Seconds – 1981The Records – 1984

Years pass but in our constantly connected world it’s never too late to get caught up on some past masters. Click the links on the artist names above to connect with these acts.

Top photo is from a 2016 newspaper story about a fan who built a 1980s replica cinema in his backyard in Stoke-on-Trent, UK.