That early to mid 80s jangly sophisticated pop sound (think Aztec Camera, Postcard Records, The Lotus Eaters, etc)

(LOL, you can tell I rarely swear on here, I can't even spell curse words right)

quite world-weary/alternative

reminds me that discussions over on Roxy Music Live - S/D went in this direction when Roxy was coming back to tour last year:

Siren, Manifesto, and Avalon all worked for me as their idea of the new mainstream, para-everything else that was going on there, and with a mid-70s-as-hell toward and into early 80s, w/o seeming too trendy, just increasingly smoov,catchy, romantically pessimistic to new-married hopeful, reasonably committed to being good in the late night hotel bar-to-supermarket-to-drugstore. Not the creative peaks, but ageing or aging gracefully

― dow, Thursday, September 15, 2022

the late night hotel bar-to-supermarket-to-drugstore.

xps R.E.M. is a definite influence I'd say and in fact they could probably get onto the compilation themselves, even if that period was actually their commercial peak (it would be a bit like putting the Beatles on a toytown comp but it can be done). Crowded House, Costello and Terry Hall (I still haven't heard Home so I should do that) are great suggestions also

Re:Edwyn Collins I was thinking 'Make Me Feel Again' would work better. Also something from Nick Lowe's The Impossible Bird, Weller's Wild Wood and others I've forgotten.

quite world-weary alternative/guitar/whatever adult pop made in the early 90s by 30 somethings who were also in some way famous in the previous decade.

If being in Young Marble Giants counts as being in some way famous I would definitely put the Stuart Moxham and the Original Artists stuff in this category

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd-_Z3Z1CWY

tbh I love this album more than anything by YMG but I recognize that's an idiosyncracy

Since you're going there, I'll seize the opp to mention Alison Statton w Weekend and duet Devine and Statton, haven't heard Statton & Spike.

(she's also in there w Stuart and Original Artists is why I thought of it)

if we're talking about post-YMG stuff, then the Gist definitely need a mention:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc0SXW1fd6U
The Gist - Love at First Sight

Oh yeah, and Statton was on there too!

I totally should have given more quality time to The Gist.

Some days the Weekend album is the best popular music long-playing record I've ever heard. Fruity instrumental interludes and all lol. (Especially that issue with stray single sides and demos tacked on.)

How about something from the third Martha & The Muffins album, This Is The Ice Age which I sometimes think is the most underrated album of the decade.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T-z23yWHf4

Also a song by The Passions that isn't I'm In Love With A German Film Star.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93ctM9g0_gI

Martha & The Muffins album, This Is The Ice Age

I spent the day at the cottage immortalized in "You Sold the Cottage" (before it was sold)

Apologies for spamming the thread, this one just popped into my head as well. My friend made a couple of compilations called The Lost 80s which were full of this kind of thing. Abandon Ship by April Showers took over my life last year and is the most I've ever spent on a 7" single. It's such a beautiful song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWoEYChr5AU

Now I see that April Showers have been mentioned on this thread a couple of times already. Glad to see some other fans here. Just catching up with the thread and checking out the songs I don't know. That Hey! Elastica single is fantastic.

kp- that passions song is a f'kn jam! i keep a "radio station" playlist on my spotify and that's been on it for the past month or so. they're one of my favorites for sure.

Nice! I love the whole album, but that track in particular is so good. I feel like if that had been put out as a single after German Film Star they might have not been a one hit wonder.

This post-Josef K Paul Haig single is one of my faves, especially 'Soon':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkVCojnvHnc\

My friend made a couple of compilations called The Lost 80s which were full of this kind of thing.

Coincidentally was just going to say I feel like there’s a lot of this sort of thing on the Gary Crowley’s Lost ‘80s comps that came out a few years ago.

the siddleys - my wet wednesday afternoon (1987)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXPD1S1BXPA

YES. That song threatens to make me weep for reasons I can't explain. I feel like the Siddeleys might be even more conspicuously related to the 'tradition' in question when the guitars are wispy and they add horns lol.

Fairground Attraction - "Perfect" (1988)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txapREGWHp0

Speaking of Scots, how about Danny Wilson?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hqgC3W9GUI

Danny Wilson are great, some brilliant hidden gems on the first album

I think it's funny that the band members ended up mad that people thought they were a guy named Danny Wilson rather than a band. Like, what did you think would happen? But yeah, both albums are good.

I gave my tape copy of Bebop Moptop, which I had purchased for 99¢, as a farewell gift to a guy I knew whose actual name was Danny Wilson; he was unusually grateful.