Synth Pop Saturday! NOW That's What I Call An Era: (feels like) heaven 1978>>1985 – essential synth-pop [2026]

After issuing the four Era collections above, the fine folks at NOW Towers turned their gaze towards the golden age of synth-pop, 1978-1985, with (feels like) heaven 1978>>1985 – essential synth-pop. Released on March 13, 2026, the set features 80 tracks in the same formats as the NOW Yearbook series: Special Edition 4CD, regular 4CD, and 3LP coloured vinyl featuring 43 songs.

When I began buying compact discs a long, long time ago, I (mostly) bought my favorite older albums on the shiny new format. Once I had the disc, I gave away its vinyl counterpart to friends. In hindsight, this was both very charitable and more than a little foolish. They say what goes around comes around, though, and a month or so back around my birthday, an anonymous Hideaway viewer sent me a copy of (feels like) heaven 1978>>1985 – essential synth-pop via Amazon. If my generous benefactor is reading this, thank you very, very much.

There is nothing rare or out of the ordinary here. This is a very NOW project. (If you're after less mainstream offerings, try the Musik Music Musique series.) After listening to the album, I'd say it holds together well and actually sounds pretty good. I'd have chosen different songs to represent some artists, and probably would have left Queen, The Pointer Sisters, and Joe Jackson off entirely, but those are tiny criticisms. Here's a simple guide to help you decide if this is the right synth-pop compilation for you:

• Do you own a synth-pop compilation album?
• Do you own 2022's NOW That's What I Call Electronic?
• Do you own all of the NOW Yearbooks, Extras, and  Vaults?

If you answered YES to any of the above questions, then (feels like) heaven 1978>>1985 – essential synth-pop is probably not for you. If you are a synth-pop or NOW collector/completist, it's probably already on your shelf.