2025-08-31
Plastics - Welcome Back
Original release: 1981
So, I heard Stereo Total’s cover of I Love You, Oh No (which is not on this album, but bear with me for a second) and an acquaintance of mine casually mentioned that it was actually a cover and that the original by Plastics was absolutely worth checking out, so I did, and it was. (Thanks, Ethan!) Side note: This was back in the pre-streaming-service days, so the chance of running into someone who just happened to know a Japanese band that were only active for a few years in the late ’70s/early ’80s was pretty fucking low, which made it all the more cool.
I did not know much, if any, Japanese new wave at the time, but it has that extra crazy edge over their western contemporaries, like B-52s, Devo and, to some extent, Talking Heads. They are completely unapologetic and with lyrics straight out of an English phrase book and a French one, interspersed with a bunch of cat-adjacent onomatopoeia, what’s not to love?
If you have ever felt you needed some more crazy, glam-inspired new wave in your life, this is what you want, I promise.
Listen
- Diamond Head: https://youtu.be/Hd-ZQplAL8M
- Good: https://youtu.be/uhf2FX6FhyY