Call of the West by Wall of Voodoo

Call of the West, Wall of Voodoo's second album, came out on I.R.S. in September 1982 with Richard Mazda producing, and it's a record of dusty desert highways seen through a cracked, buzzing synthesizer screen. Following Dark Continent, the band pushed further into their odd, cinematic take on dark wave: cheap-sounding electronics, twangy guitar and a deadpan narrator who sounds like he wandered in from a spaghetti western that ran out of money.

"Mexican Radio" is the one everybody knows, released as a single with a video that picked up moderate play on MTV, all clanking rhythm and Stan Ridgway's nasal, sardonic drawl. It has a lurching, sun-dazed charm that few hits of the day could match.

This was the end of a lineup. Frontman Ridgway and drummer Joe Nanini both left the following year, along with keyboardist Bill Noland, who had joined after them. Chas T. Gray and Marc Moreland carried on, and Seven Days in Sammystown came next.

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