OCD Chronicles: Enuff Z'Nuff-"New Thing"

It was the summer of ’89 and I was going off for a weekend of rock climbing and rappelling for the weekend. On the way to Backbone State Park, I stopped by and picked up a pair of cassette singles-cassingles, I think they were called-perhaps the second most retarded music format of all time, right behind the 8-track.
I don’t know what possessed me to buy a deuce of cassette singles, but it wasn’t the first time and it wouldn’t be the last. I suppose I still had some affection for the 45 single, but since the record company told me that I couldn’t have a 45 anymore, I was forced to spend money on their tape equivalent. Yeah, maybe I could have bought the cd single of the songs, but the record company told me that since the two or three songs were still on a shiny aluminum disc that they’d have to charge me $5.99 for each one of them. That’s $12 for six songs, two of which were just repeats of another one under the guise of “single version” and “album version.”
Fucking pricks.
One was Madonna’s “Express Yourself.” The other song was E’Nuff Z’Nuff’s “New Thing.”
The appeal of Madonna’s “Express Yourself” is pretty obvious: the song is one of her best, the message is timeless, and the video was awesome.
So what the fuck is up with “New Thing?”
Enuff Z’Nuff had just released their debut album-a stupid looking thing with a Day-Glo peace symbol-and the first single, “New Thing,” began to get a few spins on MTV. The video was a lot dumber than Madonna’s and I remember them looking so stupid that I didn’t want to get caught actually possessing an Enuff Z’Nuff album in my collection.
A few years later, they were labeled as “metal’s answer to the Beatles,” but the reality was that they were just another pop-rock band from the Midwest (like Cheap Trick) that made the critical error of dressing like a bunch of hair-metal dumbasses.
And that’s something you can’t dig out of.
They never did, but this fucking song has remained in my head for nearly twenty years now, that’s a lot longer than that stupid cassette single lasted.
You are warned: the song isn’t that good and the video is even worse.

Enuff Z'nuff - New Music - More Music Videos