Illustration by Jane Kim

This article originally apeared on Noisey Canada.

The dream of the 80s is alive in pop music. Yes, it may be lacking big-budget videos of bands trying to get laid in jungle forests, blockbuster star-vehicle movies that double as soundtracks, and knowing you made it when Weird Al parodied you, but the aesthetic is all there. Canada’s done more than electing a Trudeau again to inject life into the ultimate throwback Thursday. Dan Boeckner’s synthpop group Operators nod to new wave on their album Blue Wave through the title and channeling high bass lines of New Order and Joy Division founding member Peter Hook. Jessy Lanza absorbed the 80s electropop goodness of Japanese group Yellow Magic Orchestra on her album Oh No, producing more joyful bleep bloops than ever. The Darcys reintroduced themselves as a Miami Vice-core pop duo with “Miracle,” a radio-friendly single whose chorus hints to the arpeggiating synth line of The Human League’s 1981 hit “Don’t You Want Me.”

DIANA also returned with the dreamy synth washes of “Slipping Away,” echoing Roxy Music’s atmospheric 1982 classic album Avalon, and Shad revealed his soft-rock alter ego Your Boy Tony Braxton, somewhere between Control Janet Jackson and Reckless Bryan Adams, on Adult Contempt. Tegan and Sara are a prime—and very successful—Canadian example of the 80s pop revival, diving deeper into synthpop on Love You to Death that features bombastic mall tour-worthy singles and videos including the literally animated “U-turn.” While the 80s resurgence isn’t exclusive to the north—Dev Hynes aka Blood Orange is big on drum pad R&B on Freetown Sound, The 1975 evolved into young INXS on I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are… oh forget it, and Shura oozes early Madonna on Nothing’s Real—Canada is leading the way through a mix of profit motive, producer-swapping, and nostalgia at a time when it’s easier to idealize the past than the future.

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It’s not like everyone decided to go 80s pop during a hazy yacht bender with Duran Duran on repeat (but that would be one hell of a party.) Heartthob was a massive success, debuting at number three on the Billboard top 200 in 2013—their highest chart position to date. Heartthrob pushed Tegan and Sara’s total album sales, saw Juno Award wins for Pop Album, Single, and Group of the Year as well as a Polaris Music Prize nomination, and led to lucrative opportunities to tour with Katy Perry, share the stage with Taylor Swift on The Red Tour and Macklemore at Osheaga, and contribute to The Lego Movie soundtrack. That hyper-optimistic collaboration with The Lonely Island, “Everything Is Awesome,” earned Tegan and Sara their first Grammy nom in 2014 and pretty much sums up how their career’s been going since they made a swerve into 80s inspiration.

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Research shows that nostalgia helps us cope with anxiety and loneliness, increasing hope for the future, which is perfect for a time when life currently has nightmares that include Donald Trump failing up the political ladder, Brexit denting the global economy, alarming patterns of terrorism, everything-phobic idiots, and so on and so on. The synth washes, drum machines, and saxgasms of 80s pop is the dance floor escape we deserve, and the one we need right now.

Jill Krajewski is a writer living in Ottawa. Follow her on Twitter.