Mobiles - Drowning In Berlin: The Best Of (2006)

The Mobiles were a short-lived oddity of the new wave era, an arty British synth pop band fronted by vocalist Anna Maria, who had precisely one hit: the lurching, slightly eerie "Drowning in Berlin," a U.K. Top Ten that also became the title of their lone album and this 2006 hits collection. This CD contains all of their 1982 debut and the accompanying B-sides, along with some other odds and ends and latter-day singles, making it a complete recorded works. "Drowning in Berlin" is unsettling enough to suggest that the Mobiles ventured into other dark alleys but that's not quite the case: much of the rest of this is perkier and quirkier, a bit of clenched drum machines matching cool neon keyboards and Anna Maria's dramatic flourishes. They got sillier after the album "Skeleton Dance" is bad British Oingo Boingo, "Build Me Up Buttercup" is a parody of new wave one-offs, while its flip, "Don't Pay the Axeman," works overtime to achieve the off-kilter sway of "Drowning in Berlin" but the LP has its moments of synth bliss as it conjures memories of better-known (and sadly, largely better) bands.