Karen Lawrence and the Pinz, Girl’s Night Out, RCA, 1981

I’ve had this record 40 years or so. It is quintessential New Wave—detached, intellectual, ironic. Lawrence has a spiky haircut, a ‘50s dress, sings of a Girl’s Night Out, and covers Sealed with a Kiss, which was a hit in 1960. I was shocked to find out, as I write up this last playthrough, that for the last 30 years she has been singing in Blue by Nature, a blues group. The clips on YouTube are wonderful. The artist changes, the fan and the record are forever stuck. (I think Mann said that in Tonio Kroger.) Some advice from Girl’s Night Out: First, don’t look back, you may not like what you see; then, don’t hold back, you may like what you see; last, don’t look, it might spoil it all. Hard to tell. In So Tough: ‘Build that wall up, make it stronger/stone by stone/Raise your shield up, cutting off all contact, till you’re all alone.’ Hold Me Closer is a faux love song: ‘I got your picture taped on my mirror’ is a hint. Then ‘I wake up to find the windows are steaming’ is someone sleeping alone. I love ‘Wheels are turning, making the machine go/Doing our duty, making that cash flow.’ Also good: ‘I’m scared when I realize I got no leverage.’ Those both sound post-neoliberal to me.