The time has come to take your baby by the hand and check out a new compilation from '80s pop hitmakers Wang Chung.

The group will release a new double album of hits and rarities, Clear Light / Dark Matter, on May 9. It'll include the singles "Dance Hall Days," "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" and "Let's Go!" plus tracks from their cult classic soundtrack from the film To Live and Die in L.A. - along with rare material (including the A-side of their debut single) and even a few unreleased demos. It'll be available on two CDs, two LPs (one black vinyl, one white) or an exclusive deluxe set through tech site-cum-label SING, offering the vinyl and CD sets with a bonus 7", an exclusive booklet, a turntable slipmat and more. (The 7" features two new remixes of signature song "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" by French musician Eric Kupper, which will also feature on a four-track 10" that will be available April 12 at participating Record Store Day stores.)

"Our songs often have an accessible front end, but there's always a deeper layer beneath the surface--whether it's lyrically or musically," band member Nick Feldman said in a statement. "Clear Light, Dark Matter reflects that balance between the light and the dark, the yin and yang, or as we like to say, the Wang and the Chung of what we do."

Can you tell us what a Wang Chung is? The British band was formed by singer/guitarist Jeremy Ryder, guitarist Nick Feldman and drummer Darren Costin, having kicked around the London scene for a few years (including a short-lived band with future Bow Wow Wow bassist Leigh Gorman and Heaven 17 singer Glenn Gregory). Feldman came across the Mandarin phrase for "yellow bell" in a book and liked it enough to suggest the group's new name of Huang Chung, under which they released a few indie singles and a 1982 album for Arista Records. (The bandmates adopted pseudonyms on that self-titled debut, but Ryder was the only one to keep using his, working under the name Jack Hues ever since.)

Eventually signing a deal with Geffen Records - one of the label's first outside America - Huang Chung changed their name to a more pronounceable Wang Chung and soon dusted off a non-album track that hadn't made a lot of traction. The re-recorded version of "Dance Hall Days," a hook-rich pop song with an agreeable shuffle and a catchy sax riff that became the centerpiece of sophomore album Points on the Curve, became a Top 40 hit on both sides of the Atlantic, and put them on the map. Costin left the group shortly thereafter, but things were only beginning for the group: director William Friedkin specifically requested they score a standout neo-noir film he co-wrote and helmed from a detective novel called To Live and Die in L.A. With a cast that included William Petersen as a hard-nosed Secret Service agent and a young Willem Dafoe as a ruthless counterfeiter, the sleek darkness of To Live's soundtrack fit the movie like a glove and became a cult classic on its own. (The title track has been the theme to John Mulaney's two live talk shows on Netflix, 2024's Everybody's in L.A. and this year's Everybody's Live.)

But Feldman and Hues weren't just sticking to soundtracks. 1986's Mosaic, produced by Austrian pop producer Peter Wolf, spun off one of the decade's most indelible tracks, the party-starting "Everybody Have Fun Tonight." Powered by a Godley & Creme-directed video full of jarring jump cuts, the track soared to No. 2 and follow-up "Let's Go!" was a U.S. No. 9 hit. Though the duo went their separate ways for awhile after 1989's The Warmer Side of Cool - Feldman formed Promised Land with Culture Club drummer Jon Moss, while Hues and Genesis keyboardist Tony Banks did an album as Strictly Inc. - they found their way back together in the late '90s and became a dependable duo on the '80s touring circuit, while occasionally releasing new material (most recently 2019's Orchesography, featuring re-recordings of their biggest songs with a symphony orchestra.

Clear Light / Dark Matter includes six unreleased demos and outtakes, including at least one track from the To Live and Die in L.A. sessions and another that stretches back to the band's Huang Chung days with newly-finished parts. You'll find the pre-order links below - no need to drive a million miles! (As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.)

Clear Light / Dark Matter (SING, 2025)

2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Deluxe 2CD/2LP/7" Bundle: Sing Marketplace

Disc 1

1. Dance Hall Days
2. Everybody Have Fun Tonight
3. Let's Go
4. Praying to a New God
5. Fire in the Twilight (Live at The El Mocambo, Toronto, Ontario, Canada - 6/11/2024)
6. Don't Let Go
7. To Live and Die in L.A.
8. Wait
9. Hypnotize Me
10. Space Junk

Disc 2

1. Isn't It About Time We Were on TV?
2. Separate Lives
3. Dance Hall Days (Demo)
4. Ti Na Na
5. True Love (Demo)
6. The Waves (Instrumental)
7. This One's for You
8. Ornamental Elephant
9. To Live and Die in L.A. (Demo)
10. Eyes of the Girl (Demo)
11. Everybody Have Fun Tonight (Eric Kupper Remix Edit)

Disc 1, Tracks 1 and 6 from Points on the Curve - Geffen GEF 25589, 1983
Disc 1, Tracks 2-3 and 9 from Mosaic - Geffen 24115, 1986
Disc 1, Track 4 from The Warmer Side of Cool - Geffen 24222, 1989
Disc 1, Track 5 from Live At The El Mocambo - SING, 2024
Disc 1, Tracks 7-8 from To Live and Die in L.A. - Geffen GEF 70721 (U.K.)/GHS 24081 (U.S.), 1985
Disc 1, Track 10 from Everybody Wang Chung Tonight: Wang Chung's Greatest Hits - Geffen 25122, 1997
Disc 2, Track 1 from Rewind Records single 1, 1980
Disc 2, Tracks 2-3, 5, 7 and 9-10 previously unreleased
Disc 2, Track 4 from Huang Chung - Arista SPART 1174 (U.K.)/AL 6603 (U.S.), 1982
Disc 2, Track 6 from "Don't Be My Enemy" single - Geffen A 3529, 1983
Disc 2, Track 8 from "Dance Hall Days" U.S. single - Geffen 29310, 1984
Disc 2, Track 11 from SING digital single, 2024