Synthwave:: A Bizarre genre. Mostly a meta-nostalgic musical style at first; its artists have evolved lately and taken their earlier sounds, inspired by 80's music, movies, and pop culture and even combined with other genres such as house, industrial, ambient, and beyond, creating an entirely new world. The following albums are my favorite. Anything marked with a triple asterisk (***) are especially dark ones that may likely appeal to the audience of this page who leans to the more sinister side of music,
20. Steve Moore: Pangaea Ultima (2013)
One of the few American godfathers of synthwave and few non-French members of the pioneering Valerie collective; this is heavy on the spacey/sci-fi side of the genre. Moore's music would be a fitting soundtrack to a late 70's/early 80's artsy sci fi by someone like Tarkovsky. This album of his, especially, is the one you slap on the headphones and get completely lost.
19. Perturbator: I Am the Night (2012) ***
Pert is as dark as synthwave gets. It's the black metal of the genre. Visually, full of post-apocalyptic, demonic, horrible, slightly kinky imagery. Sonically? Also full of post-apocalyptic, demonic, horrible, slightly kinky imagery. If there's one overlap between goth and synthwave, Perurbator is the artist that's right there in the middle. He would go on to do some soundtracks and even collaborate on a dark, ambient, metal album with Johannes Persson which was phenomenal and practically invented a new genre (check out the album FINAL LIGHT). As far as synthwave goes, though, this is Pert's Peak.
18. FM Attack: Deja Vu (2013)
FM Attack is one of the few artists on this album twice, and they absolutely deserve to be. This particular album can be a bit cheesy at times, but that's the point. It's super uplifting and a great jumping off point to try out the genre if you're into lighter synpop 80's music.
17. Trevor Something: Archetypes (2024) ***
Miami's TS is the R&B of Synthwave. Trevor's later albums get dark... like... "I'm worried about his mental state" kind of dark. His early work, though, is romantic and his debut, Synthetic Love, is a perfect example.
After some bizarre concept albums where he dies (fictitiously, don't worry) I was wondering where he would go from there. The answer: One of the coolest albums of cover tracks ever: Deftones, Nine Inch Nails, Bowie, Depeche Mode, and uhhh.. (checks notes)... Justin Timberlake. Each track gets the sythwave treatment.
16. Miami Nights 1984: Turbulence (2012)
Speaking of Miami, this album is peak synthwave. If you had to pick one album to describe the pure essence of the genre, this is the one. This is the album that introduced me to the entire genre, actually.
In 2013 I was on a nostalgia kick and created a Spotify playlist full of 8-bit covers of popular songs and a handful with 80's tracks. I clicked on the "Listen to Radio" option to get some inspiration and before I knew it, tracks from this album started playing and I was blown away. This was my intro to synthwave and I've never looked back.
Cheesy but not too cheesy. Literal, but with its own 8-bit synthy flavor. Quite upbeat, but not too happy. If you have a vague feeling of watching the end of a particularly life affirming movie as a child during the 80's, this album would be the music as the credits rolled.
15. Anoraak: Chronotropic (2013)
Anoraak is one of the godfathers of synthwave... one of the OG's. He only released a couple of full length LP's, this being his first, but he's been quite prolific with EP's and singles since. Mostly synthwave at first, he's one of the many of the genre's artists who has branched out into other genres, dabbling quite a bit in tech house lately. This album is probably the most accessible and pop of the entire list.
Confession: I am a lover of deep house music. I have quite a collection on vinyl, and I've spun it constantly for 25 years. This is the synthwave album for deep house and tech house lovers.
14. Teeel: Amulet (Remixed) (2011) ***
That's TEEEL with THREE E's. Teeel is one of my favorites, alternating back and forth between dark, creepy tracks and pop sounds. It's fun stuff. He encapsulates the full spectrum of the 80's vibe and absorbs everything that came after up until now. The original album was released earlier in 2011 and I give it all due respect. This remix album hits me more in the feels and includes some reworking from Jim himself and one by the legendary Datasette. If you're into the darker side of music, give "Dark Passenger" and "Amulet" a try.
And while not on this album, I'd also recommend his track: Crystal Lake (yes, that's an 80s reference)
13. Jordan F: Slipstream (2014)
Another one that is all over the spectrum: Darl, futuristic, sexy. It sounds like it might be the soundtrack to your favorite 80's sci-fi jazzercise horror film.
This album is much heavier on the bass than most of the other recommendations and very well mastered. Make sure you've got some good speakers or headphones.
12. Valerie and Friends: Self Titled (Collective) (2009)
Valeria and Friends isn't an artist. They're like the WuTang Clan: A collective of originators. Technically a compilation and one of the earliest albums of the genre, it contains early tracks from the forerunners, mostly French artists (Steve Moore being the American exception) of the genre. Anoraak, College, Maethelvin, Futurecop!, Steve Moore; These are all artists you should give a shot and have albums worth of being on any "Top Synthwave Albums of All Time" list. This is sort of a "greatest hits of the time" in the salad days of 2009 synthwave before the genre busted open.
11. Com Truise: Galactic Melt (2011) ***
Some music-genre purists may complain and call Com Truise a Chillwave or Glitch artist. IMHO if it sounds like it may be the music that plays during the opening production title credits of an early 80s film... then it's F*#*%#KING synthwave. And no artist sounds more like someone who made entire albums from the title sequences from rented early 80s VHS movies from pre-Blockbuster video stores than Com Truise. And I mean that in the most amazing way possible.
Com Truise is the biggest artist on this entire list, by far, even more so than The Midnight (who we will talk about later). This guy had a remix of Daft Punk's work on the Tron Legacy Remix soundtrack for God's Sake... right up there with Moby, M83, Paul Oakenfold, Photek, Avicii, Pretty Lights, and Kaskade, There's a reason for that. He's one of the best, most innovative electronic music artists of the last 15 years hands down.
10. Mitch Murder: Current Events (2011)
Ahh, the top 10. You know you're special when you've gotten to this point. Mitch Murder is a Sweedish musician who started off as a hip hop artist (hence the name) who quickly flipped to electro and sythwave. You may know him as the artist who scored the soundtrack of KUNG FURY.
This album is Nostalgia at its finest. It's very literal as it includes samples of news broadcasts from the 80's. It's the most meta of this bunch. If you walked into the 1986 Cronenberg movie, The Fly, but instead of a fly, Jeff Goldblum accidentally went into the chamber with an Atari and a sheet of LSD, this album is what Jeff would have slowly turned into. I think Geena Davis would have preferred the latter situation.
9. Chromatics Cherry (2017) ***
One of the artists from the Drive movie soundtrack (from a different album). Portland's Chromatics is more indie rock and synthpop, but this particular album strayed deep into the synthwave territory and even contains a unique cover of New Order/Joy Division's Ceremony. The title track is extremely moving, and you'll find it shoehorned into many of the vinyl mixes I do online (check Soundcloud and Twitch).
This is an epic double album. There's nothing to compare it to that has ever crossed my ears. It's more than just synthwave. In fact, this was an unintentional sythwave album. But it counts. Just listen to the title track and tell me it didn't pop straight out of a time machine.
8. Kavinsky: Outrun (2013)
The album that coined the term for a synthwave subgenre; Kavinsky is another artist that shows up on the Drive soundtrack. Most famous for "Nightcall" which appeared on the film, I find this album more listenable as a whole than his other work. It also explains the lore of his persona; the alter ego of a French DJ who died in a car crash and posthumously created all this beautiful music as a zombie. What's more goth than that?
7. Lazerawk: Visitors (2012) ***
This is an absolute beast of an album. Lazerhawk is a master of creating the darkest, most futuristic, haunting, emotional synth riffs. I can't explain why, but I consider this album to be the DJ Shadow's Entroducing of synthwave. Dark. Mysterious. Chill. Beautiful. The older I get, the harder it is to recreate that feeling that I had in me teens and 20's when I heard something new and was blown away by the idea that "Music Can Sound Like THIS?". Visitors is one of those albums. Sit down in the dark and listen to it in full.
6. The Midnight: Endless Summer (2016)
It was SO HARD to pick a "best album:" by The Midnight.
Ever since I started Gothy way back in 2020 I've hosted many tournaments: Greatest Industrial Arist, Greatiest Trip Hop Artist, Greatest David Lynch Work, Greatest John Carpenter Movie, etc. In late 2020 I hosted the tournament: Greatest Synthwave Artist. I was hoping for LazerHawk to win. I expected Gunship or Mitch Murder to win. I didn't know much about The Midnight, but they absolutely destroyed their way to winning the entire tournament.
I was a big tiffed. I didn't see the appeal at first. Over time, it became clear: This is what synthwave is all about. I don't know how big they are, but I do know they recently played one of the BIGGEST venues here in Washington DC and boasted Chromeo and Ruth Radelet (of the afore mentioned Chromatics) as opening acts.
I was torn between this album and Monsters (2020), but this album was really what cemented their status as the most popular sythwave artist, taking the reins from Com Truise and taking the genre to the masses.
5. Gunship: Self Titled (2015)
I don't buy a lot of vinyl nowadays, but this is one of the few synthwave albums I absolutely had to have on physical media.
In the last decade, Gunship has to be the artist most featured on other artists' albums, even including Kat Von D. They're a hot item and made it to the final four in the synthwave tournament.
Leaning heaving on the vocal side, they are quite dark and futuristic. There are so many amazing tracks on this album, I don't know where to start. The vocala are great... probably the best of anyone in the genre. There's a reason everyone wants them to make a cameo on their albums lately. Start with this album and work your way forward
4. FM Attack: Dreamatic (2009)
Much like Miami Nights 1984, I feel that FM Attack captures the overarching feel and intent behind the genre, and this is the one album that I think is the most accessible of all Synthwave albums.
It's slightly cheesy. Let all who do not have a guilty pleasure cast a stone..
This album is great. It's smooth and 80's to the core. Any movie would have been lucky to have uuse it on their soundtrack had it existed 30+ years prior.
Most of the pre-2010 synthwave artists were from France, so I'm not sure how a group from Vancouver, Canada made such a genre-defining and seminal album. Then again, I'm not surprised given that Vancouver has given us such trailblazing artists such as Skinny Puppy, DOA, and Front Line Assembly,
Not that FM Attack is ANYTHING like those artists. But they were ahead of the game in their own way. The walked so others could run.
3. Gunship: Dark All Day (2018)
Another artist listed twice on this list. Dark All Day is a refined version of Gunship's previously listed work.
You can't deny the craftsmanship of this album, which includes a cover of a popular Cindy Lauper album. I could go on and on but... if you gave the previous album a shot, you MUST try this one.
2. Judge Bitch: Gridiron (2014) ***
Even most synthwave fans haven't heard much of Judge Bitch, but this album is PHENOMENAL. It's more late 80's, early 90's influenced than most synthwave albums, including many samples not just from obscure 80's films but 1993's Demolition man.
No album masters the trippy, wobbly, synthy dark sound of the synth than Gridiron does while adding a touch of acid. I emailed Judge Bitch once, just curious about where some of his samples came from. It didn't take long for them to email back with details. An artist that loves the genre and is accessible to fans? What more could you want?
This album is dark and futuristic, which I've said before. If Terminator 2 was an album I feel like this would be it. Their other albums were a bit too "Outrun" for me, but this one is special. It feels like the one true concept album of all the ones on this list. It's a story... a movie.
And by the way, it has a cameo from Perturbator... the track which is probably their second best on the album (behind Anaconda, the clear winner here).
1. Lazerhawk: DreamRider (2017) ***
Hands down; the greatest sythwave album of all time.
I followed the elusive Lazerhawk on social media for some time; Originally from Austin, he put out albums every 2-3 years. Not just any albums, but the most well-crafted emotion-inducing ones. He released 2017's Dreamrider and then dipped to the Pacific Northwest of the USA, posting pictures of his home studio.
Then he disappeared.
Over the next few years, he partnered with Dynatron to master his records for vinyl on Electric Dream Recordings (EDR). I bought a couple myself. Other than that, he's a ghost. A phantom.
I don't understand how someone could hit their apex with an album like DreamRider... one of my top 10 albums of all time (OF ANY genre, including Radiohead, Orbital, Portishead, Joy Division, etc.) and then just....
... VANISH.
Every year I post a comment on this facebook page to tease him. No reply. No clues. No nothing.
I can't really articulate how it sounds or feels in words. Each tracker gets better and better. It goes beyond any attempt at trying to "feel like the 80's". It is its own beast. It lives its own life. It is its own creature.
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Honorable Mentions:
Dance With the Dead: The Shape, Makeup and Vanity Set: 88:88, Timecop 1983: Running in the Dark Anything by Tesla Boy, The Weeknd: After Hours, Datasette (anything), Maethelvin: Cs005, Electric Youth: Innerworld, Daniel Deluxe: Corruptor (really dark)
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