Pleasure Victim

Even though Giorgio Moroder briefly made them the biggest band in the world with a massive hit single about asphyxiation for a military propaganda film, Los Angeles synth-poppers Berlin initially made a splash with their own take on the Moroder sound: the cheekily explicit (for the ’80s) dirty dancing ditty “Sex (I’m a…).” They knew what sold. It was all a put-on, of course — singer Terri Nunn was literally an actress — but a fun one. Side B contains the two bona fide new wave classics. “Masquerade” thrills as a bombastic Duran Duran rave-up, while the Gary Numan minimalism of “The Metro” still chills. Not a lot of original ideas but Nunn’s charisma makes the listener a willing victim.