Rita Coolidge - Never Let You Go (1983/2018)

New wave starts to surface on Never Let You Go, thanks to the punchy percussion and jangle of the opening "I'll Never Let You Go," but Rita Coolidge embraces the new wave, covering Squeeze ("Tempted"), Ian Dury ("Stop Wasting Your Time"), Culture Club ("Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"), and Joe Jackson ("Fools in Love"). This is hardly a full-on skinny-tie record, though there are also covers of Al Green and Bob Seger, plus straight-ahead adult contemporary in the form of "Shadow in the Night" but this new wave predilection not only is fascinating, it's also fun. Certainly, the production all by David Anderle, half co-produced by Bernie Worrell dilutes the quirkiness and dulls the edge of new wave, but it's a happy balance of futurism and class and a wonderful little new wave anomaly that deserves to be heard.