With the new releases this year, you'd think it was sometime in the 1980s. There are new albums from the B-52's, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, and Donna Summer, and Dolly Parton's first mainstream country album in a very long time. Even a look at the box office offers a blast from the past with the next installment in the adventures of Indiana Jones. On the concert scene are new tours by Tina Turner, Yazoo (Yaz in the USA) and newly reformed New Kids On The Block. It certainly feels like someone hit rewind on the clock and welcome back to the 1980's.

Well no Delorean was needed for this trip, it's all so called new and improved for 2008. So far the disappointments for me have been Madonna's new album and the newest installment of Indiana Jones. Madonna's previous effort which had her inspired from the 1970's and even used a sample of ABBA's "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" Her new effort is reported in the press to be a touch more 1980's but I don't really sense a whole "80's" feel to it, it feels fairly contemporary to me and much of the album itself is fine and enjoyable. The one area that's significantly a potential problem is that it seems to be lacking anything remotely sounding like great radio song. Its lead single that's kicked off the arrival of the album features Justin Timberlake and Timbaland and makes the audacious claim that they only have four minutes to save the world. Sounds to me like it's a lost cause and Madonna and Justin Timberlake could have better spent their four minutes than spending it pissing me off. It was because of this stinker of a song, I didn't bother getting around to listening to the album for about a month after I bought it.

And good old Indiana Jones, I wanted so much to enjoy this movie but it really was not very spectacular. I think had this movie have been any other character or some completely new character, it might have been a bit better in my book, but because it's Indiana Jones, the expectations are set a little higher. Harrison Ford's performance was good, but the situations seemed so forced that it was hard to get more than limited enjoyment. The presence of Shia LaBeouf is a complete annoyance and in one scene where he grabs Indiana Jones' fedora and motions like he's going to put it on, all I could think, was "Don't you dare, you talentless, little shit." I know Spielberg thinks the kid has got talent, but haven't we learned from "The Temple Of Doom" that adding smartass children makes for adventures we wish we never took. While I did think the alien plot was interesting, but the combination of John Hurt and alien heads in that oh, so familiar, shape, made the adventure feel like a path we've been down many times before in a different franchise. Just for homage sake I kept hoping to see an alien burst out of John Hurt's chest since this movie just felt like a complete retread of every Indiana Jones adventure mixed in with Aliens, E.T., and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind all rolled into one without anyone bothering to find a way to make it feel fresh.

While Madonna and Indiana Jones were disappointing in 2008, there have been some points of salvation for the return of the 1980s. Both the B-52's and Cyndi Lauper put out fun albums that have been highlights of the year so far for me. I've never been a particularly big fan of either of the B-52's or Cyndi but I was quite pleased with both of their new albums. Most of my previous experience with the B-52's albums has made me quite content with just sticking to the core hits. Well for some reason I actually felt excited about the release of "Funplex" and it seemed like for good reason, it's a fun album. It felt quite refreshing to hear new pop songs that sound like the way pop music used to be in the 1980's, and that to me means good music. I found a number of songs from the album that will continue to surface in playlists of favorite songs long after I've lost the desire to enjoy the album as a whole. It's certainly an album I'm glad I purchased this year.

Cyndi Lauper's "Bring Ya To The Brink" was quite a pleasant surprise for me. Like the B-52's I was quite content to stick with just the hits collections I already have with Cyndi's music. I've been extremely disappointed with a couple of other albums by Cyndi that I tried and there simply wasn't any chance I was going to buy this one without hearing at least the samples of the songs. For once I was able to find a quite enjoyable album with Cyndi actually singing songs in a way that suits her voice. I'm certainly not ashamed to admit that I often play Elaine Paige's version of "True Colours" and describe it as how the song would sound if Cyndi Lauper actually could sing, and here Cyndi has put together a whole album of songs that sound great with her voice. I wouldn't be surprised if songs from it hit my list of top songs of the year, which hasn't had a song from Cyndi on that list since "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough" Not to insult any of the Cyndi Lauper fans out there, but Cyndi is very much like one of my other favorite artists, Laura Branigan, where both Cyndi and Laura are so incredible on songs that suit their voices that it's like pure heaven on Earth to listen to those songs, but any songs that don't quite suit their voices, make them both sound as good as fingernails dragged across a chalkboard. I'm just glad I finally own a Cyndi Lauper album I will be able to enjoy playing.

I would personally love to rave about Donna Summer's new album "Crayons" but I found it to be just okay. Like Cyndi Lauper and the B-52's I would consider myself just a hits package fan of Donna Summer. My favorite album she's ever done was the live album she did for VH1 which focused on the hits. Since I've not really ventured into many of her albums, I thought it was worth a try and I certainly feel like I got $10 worth of entertainment value out of the album. It had a couple of good songs, but nothing I would write home about and there were a number of songs that I'd be okay with never hearing again. Since it didn't seem to be much of a hit album, I don't think I have much to worry about with those songs.

As for tours by 80's artists, the only one I currently have tickets for is Dolly Parton. Ever since I won tickets to see her in Las Vegas back when she was promoting her "Halos And Horns" album, I've become a big fan and have seen her in concert two times since. So it didn't take much to convince me to buy tickets for her current tour, even though I was a little miffed over the spreading out of exclusive bonus tracks on her current album that ended up with me buying four copies of the album to get all the bonus tracks. At least one thing is truly guaranteed, she puts on a fun show, and I'm excited to see her. The upcoming concert will bring the number of times I've seen Dolly perform into a tie for the most times I've seen an artist or group in concert at four concerts. The artist who currently hold the position of the number one artist I've seen the most times in concert is also a fellow 1980's artist, Corey Hart, and its likely he's going to be tied by not only Dolly Parton this year, but a possibility of Celine Dion also tying him. Maybe if Olivia Newton-John comes to town I can make it a four way tie.

As for tours by Yazoo and New Kids On The Block, I think I'm going to take a pass on the experiences even though I know people excited about each one. In a way it's quite amusing to see new ventures from blast from the past names. It's like everything old is new again, as evidenced by Mamma Mia! being the movie event of the year for ABBA fans, but that's more of a 70's revisitation. It seems that now all we need is Universal to haul out the Back To The Future movies for Blu-Ray this year and make sure that the Delorean doesn't get left out of this return of the 1980s in 2008.

Ryan