With apologies to VH1, I love the ‘80’s. More specifically, I love the music of the 1980’s – basically the music of my youth – a fact that is readily apparent from one glance at my CD collection. Recently, on both coasts there’s been a rash of new bands making the rounds that lovingly recreate the sound of the best of that era and one of them is the Los Angeles band World Wide Spies.

On their second release, Undercover, an EP featuring six studio tracks and one live performance from one of their many club shows, the band continues its efforts to reenergize the New Wave form without simply duplicating the work of their predecessors.

Anyone that spent time in school listening to bands like U2, The Cure or Midnight Oil will automatically recognize some of the elements of those college radio favorites. To their credit though, World Wide Spies manages to give a fresh spin to the familiar. The primary reason is the unique voice of lead singer JFK (aka James Kingston), which makes the band’s sound slightly harder to categorize. You end up feeling as though you might have heard the music before but you’re sure you would’ve remembered that voice.

There’s a winking irony in the band performing a song like “Individual,” declaring they “Don’t want to be like nobody else,” when most of the songs would sound right at home on a Simple Minds or Joy Division album. Meanwhile, the stomping anthem-like beat of “The Heart” practically begs to be played on the grounds of an Irish castle. As is the case with a lot of this genre, after the muted beats that dominate most songs, when the band goes up tempo and pulls in a reggae beat on “Moving On” it’s cause to rejoice and ask for more. The live track – “Up To The Valley” – suitably captures the enthusiasm of a club performance, while also working in a Bowie shout-out. Listening, you can almost imagine a few lighters being held aloft.

The U2-like rhythms that drive most of the songs would do Clayton, Mullen and The Edge proud, but the real star of the show is JFK. His voice fits the style to a T, evoking the feel of working class London just as the post-punk movement was finding it’s legs. The band might find its roots in the past, but it never feels as though the songs are being done for nostalgia’s sake. Instead it comes across more like a band simply playing a style of music they like.

I don’t know how easy it is to convert a younger generation to this type of music, but at the very least World Wide Spies can provide a fresh outlet for aging Gen X-ers that like to feel they’re keeping in touch with new music. Let’s face it; anything that can deter you from listening to “Head On The Door” for the 3,000th time is a good thing.