Animotion

Riding the wave of MTV-friendly synth pop of the mid-'80s, Animotion took the coldly catchy "Obsession" to the Top Ten in the beginning of 1985. After that, success was elusive -- the follow-up, "Let Him Go," cracked the Top 40 just four months later. In 1988, over half of the band left the lineup, including leaders Bill Wadhams and Astrid Plane; actress Cynthia Rhodes and former Device member Paul Engemann became the lead vocalists. The new lineup scored a Top Ten hit with "Room to Move," a song from the Dan Aykroyd movie My Stepmother Is an Alien. Despite their brief flash of success, Animotion broke up soon afterwards. Although sporadic reunions occurred over the following decades -- fueled by the enduring nostalgia for "Obsession" -- Animotion would not release a new album until 2016 with their fourth LP, Raise. Featuring the original core lineup, Raise was first issued in the U.K. before being released in the United States in 2017 as Raise Your Expectations. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Neil Z. Yeung