CIRCA 80 [Starbucks 2006-2009]

The series of three discs featured today was originally planned for '80s Compilation Week in July and August 2013. They stayed in the Drafts folder when they didn't make the cut. We've updated and rewritten the posts, found additional graphics, and are proud to finally publish them.

I don't drink coffee but nearly all of my friends and family do. And some of them splurge occasionally at their local Starbucks. Sometimes while getting themselves a beverage they would kindly pick me up an exclusive Starbucks CD. That's how the three CIRCA 80 CDs featured today ended up in the HERChives. Because people loved me as much as they loved their coffee. I am grateful.

Timothy Jones compiled Senses Working Overtime, released in 2006. It's not a traditional 80s new wave compilation but it is a enjoyable listen all the way down. With licensing and manufacturing assistance from Rhino Special Products and liner notes by David Legry, the disc is topped off with a D.I.Y. cut-and-paste ransom demand graphic sensibility that avoids the stereotypical angular neon-colored graphics usually deployed for such compilations. But, as always, we are all about the music, and the majority of the songs land right around our sweet(est) spot, the year of our Lord 1982. The only nit we would pick with this wonderful playlist is the chosen track to represent Peter Gabriel. Two songs out of the dozen we'd have preferred to "Shock The Monkey": "Intruder" or "I Don't Remember". We would have bet a whole dollar that the little CIRCA 80 below the disc title on the cover was a subtle announcement of a series and two years later, we were proven right. And wrong.

In 2008, The Second Wave hit the HERChives. Despite the similar graphic sensibility and identical production team (Timothy Jones/Starbucks/Rhino) that were responsible for Senses Working Overtime, The Second Wave was subtly different while being very much the same as the previous disc. Graphically speaking, there was no CIRCA 80 on the cover so maybe there was not gonna be such a series after all but the added checkerboard stripe along the cover's left side was an improvement in our book. Between when Senses Working Overtime was released in 2006 and the arrival of The Second Wave in 2008, something had changed at Starbucks Corporate. While the first disc has a Hear Music logo, the second disc bears a Starbucks Entertainment badge. But we're all about the music and man oh man The Second Wave's playlist is somehow even sweeter than Senses Working Overtime. The breadth and depth of the artists and sounds under the new wave banner are exemplary. One thing became apparent after just a couple listens: The Second Wave is noticeably shorter by two songs and twelve minutes, clocking in at almost exactly one hour. Nevertheless, The Second Wave quickly established itself as a go-to listen here at The Hideaway.

I was still regularly listening to and loving The Second Wave when my sister-in-law (a Starbucks consumer of the highest level) handed me Up Down Turn Around one sunny day in 2009. (Full disclosure: On average, there are more than 350 sunny days a year here at The Hideaway so who the heck knows when she gave me the CD.) We were instantly smitten with Up Down Turn Around before even playing one track because I saw the CIRCA 80 on that stylistically familiar cover. And rather than a HEAR Music or Starbucks Entertainment logo adorning the rear cover, it's a simple Starbucks Coffee badge. Opening it up, I saw Timothy Jones was once again credited as the compilation producer while Steven Stolder provided the liner notes. Once I played the disc, the promise of the printed tracklist was fully realized. Another solid disc in the CIRCA 80 series but was it volume two or three in the series? Didn't care as the album quickly became part of a playlist with Senses Working Overtime and The Second Wave discs.

Timothy Jones was once referred to by The New York Times as "one of the quiet shapers of American culture" and he had a hand in the daily in-store mix of music at Starbucks as well as guiding the company's dalliance in compact disc compilation and retailing. Jones retired in 2014 after helping compile the tracklist for the company's very last CD (below right) which bore the exact same title as their very first CD (below left), Blue Note Blend. Timothy Jones, whose name appears on at least two dozen CDs here in the HERChives, passed in 2021 leaving an enduring musical legacy behind.