Collection proudly proclaims itself “a music snob’s who’s-who of ’80s obscurities.”

When love reigns over Northwood High out in the Chicago ‘burbs, it happens underneath the soft, pink spotlights illuminating that most special night of the year—prom night! And when that happens, it’s bound to be called… Passable In Pink. That is, if it’s a laughably inept 1984 teensploitation movie that made John Hughes look like Orson Welles. And if that movie never actually existed.

Omnivore Recordings will soon unveil the Passable In Pink: Official Motion Picture Soundtrack in conjunction with the release of Passable in Pink, a cinematic audio experience from Audible Originals. The Digital-only release will be available on November 15, 2019.

Concocted by the bestselling author Mike Sacks (Poking A Dead Frog), who wrote Audible’s 2018 hit Stinker Lets Loose!, Passable In Pink sends up the 1980s with an epic cast: Gillian Jacobs, Bob Odenkirk, Adam Scott, Justine Bateman, Judd Nelson, Rhea Seehorn, Laraine Newman, and more. The soundtrack from Mark Rozzo (who created the Stinker Lets Loose! soundtrack and who has played in Champale, Maplewood, and Bambi Kino) channels every ’80s subgenre imaginable: blippy New Wave, swanky U.K. pop, bratty Twin Cities punk, Winston-Salem jangle, Swiss techno, New Agey electronica, even some break beat and a high-school pep-rally band in overdrive.

With 13 lost gems from such mythic bands as Zebra Trucks, The Spurts, Klub Zurich, The Celibates, Café Racers, The Zero Hour, White Noiz, and more, it’s music snob’s who’s-who of ’80s obscurities. Well, imaginary ones, anyway. Teaming up with Dennis Diken (Smithereens), Doug Gillard (Guided by Voices), Lee Wall (Luna), Ira Elliot (Nada Surf), Joe McGinty (Psychedelic Furs), Geoff Blythe (Dexys Midnight Runners), and other friends, Mark has created a parallel-universe John Hughes-movie soundtrack, one echoing the alternative music that record-obsessed teens actually listened to during the Reagan Era, on seven-inch singles, fanzine flexi discs, wee-hours college-radio, and third-generation cassettes.

“It’s like finding that favorite mix tape from 1984 you thought might be gone forever,” writes Sacks.

According ding to producer Rozzo: “My 1980s were more Replacements and Dream Syndicate and Young Marble Giants than Tears for Fears and Simple Minds and David Foster. So Mike Sacks and Audible—the makers of Passable In Pink—basically said to go and make a parallel-universe version of a John Hughes-movie soundtrack, plugging into every genre imaginable. It’s kind of a reverse-engineered ’80s soundtrack, imprinted with idiosyncratic tastes combined with references to the bands my music-obsessed friends and I actually listened to. Thirteen songs barely seemed like enough—there were so many more I wanted to write, so many other great bands I wanted to pay tribute to, i.e., rip off. This soundtrack is a progression from what I did last year with Stinker Lets Loose!,

Digital Track List:

1. Here Comes That Heartbreak – The Spurts
2. Into The Pink – Café Racers
3. Trying To Reach You – White Noiz
4. Pop Collar Nites – The Zero Hour
5. Tangerine Skies – Atlantis Mantis
6. Empty House (John Peel Session) – The Celibates
7. Yeah Right – Klub Zurich
8. Do The Yarnkin – The Drive Ins
9. Addy’s Break – Backbeat Crew + 2 with DJ Blapp
10. Binary Code – Zebra Trucks
11. Into The Pink (Reprise) – Café Racers
12. God Damn School – The Hurricane Boys
13. I Need At Least Five Boys – Northwood High School Pep Rally Band