hellojed already mentioned Yaz/Yazoo, so I’ll just add Alison Moyet’s solo work.
And did you know she’s still releasing albums?
I guess the above song is not exactly synthpop, but here’s a remix of it that is (especially when it picks up around the halfway point):
This might be the only thing on this list that I discovered through SB. Shared by @zeno, I believe.
I had a chance to see Maus live just before the pandemic started, but in the end I couldn’t motivate myself to drive to another city an hour away alone on a work night for a show. I later concluded that I should have gone. Maybe next time.
Another one from the U.S.
I’ve always liked the way their cover of this Joy Electric song transitions into a different song that I don’t think is by Joy Electric.
Speaking of which,
Ronnie Martin has experimented with a lot of styles and it’s hard to decide which songs to post here. Last I read, he quit making music to become the pastor of a church somewhere.
I was holding off on adding this one because I thought their new album was coming out the first week of January. Turns out that was just the release of the first single. Their previous album was after a 15-year break and is easily some of their best work.
This song was inspired by Joe Haldeman’s book The Forever War and, years ago, is what drove me to finally read the book.
This is a synthpop side project of the Apoptygma Berzerk guy.
Is Apoptygma Berzerk itself synthpop? Probably, under my broad definition, but if I start adding things like that and VNV Nation this list could get very long. (It’s already going to be very long unless I lose interest or someone takes me aside and says that no one else at SB likes this type of music so I should stop.)
Did you know that the first Ministry album in the early 1980s was synthpop, not industrial? It’s not one of my favorite examples of synthpop but it has some decent songs.
Diary of Dreams, on the other hand, is one of my favorites. They also have a new single this month with an album following soon.
This one takes a minute (actually, two minutes) to really get going but is very good when it does:
This is one of the first examples of “Depeche Mode: The Next Generation” that I came across, back when I was in high school.
Here’s a bonus Assemblage 23 cover:
And, speaking of
Assemblage 23 did a show in my state once, and I briefly talked to Tom Shear.
I asked him what inspired his song 30kft. He said it was based on a documentary he’d seen. (His best song in my opinion, the first one I’ve shared here, is based on his own life.)
Here’s something a little different, synthpop music from Mexico. I’m glad their lyrics are not in English. I get tired of so many things being in English regardless of the country of origin. (Speaking of music in general, not just synthpop.)
This one’s in my top 10, probably. They are from Greece. I was introduced to this band by a contract software instructor that my company hired, many years ago. I still follow him on Last.fm but he hasn’t used it in almost ten years.
Marsheaux covered Depeche Mode’s second album in its entirety. And then they released another version with longer tracks.
Finally, they have a handful of songs in their native Greek. I like this one in particular:
Not all of the good dark synthpop is from Germany. Here’s some from Sweden.
Okay, I hadn’t planned to say anything about Depeche Mode and some of the other synthpop artists that pretty much everyone already knows about. But I was surprised to find that this week they released new music under the Depeche Mode name. I figured that was over now that they are down to just two band members. But I won’t complain.
And, I guess, since I brought them up, I’ll mention some favorites. I’ll limit my selections to just a couple of b-sides.
Bonus Depeche Mode cover:
just wanted to pop in and leave this here since depeche mode was mentioned
Yet another side project by the Delerium/Conjure One/FLA guys? I wasn’t aware of this one.
I guess I forgot about this thread. I certainly haven’t exhausted all the synthpop groups that I like.
Edit: Okay, that song “You Don’t Need to See” is pretty good.
