Review

Want candy? These sugary 80s hits retain their flavor over decades.
"I know what boys like," the Waitresses sneer on the title track. "Boys like me." Temptress, dumper, escapist, creator and destroyer — boys like those things, too, and this stellar comp casts the '80s ladies in varying roles opposite the fellas in question, who have little chance against the performers' arsenal of synthesizers and sarcasm. I Know What Boys Like largely hinges on the vagaries of love, uniting bubbly classics (Go-Gos, Bananarama, Toni Basil) with the decade's later dance-pop hits (Lisa Lisa, Taylor Dayne, Exposé) and a special bouquet of wily new wave under-heards. The obscurer numbers are odd but delightful gems; on "Witch Is Witch," the Gloo Girls ask in simple jump-rope melody if you're a "good witch or a bad witch" — subsequently rhyming the line with "magic sandwich." "I Eat Cannibals," by here-and-gone art pop group Total Coelo, mesmerizes with its cave-womanish assertions, while plainly challenging transgressors to step into their stew. Though many of these artists were dunced into the one-hit-wonder corner, this comp reclaims their rightful star-power, ensuring that their talents — and great, quirky moments, like Lisa Lisa's classic mispronunciation of "que serra" — shan't be lost to the ages.