Agreement, there. Love the different "elements" ,new wave was bringing in the late 70's/early 80's. My definition of my favorite new wave albums: Car's debut album, & Candy -0.
New Wave was always hard to define. It had elements of Rock in it but it did have it's own unique sound. It had a tendency to be quirky. A classmate of mine was stationed in England (he was in the Air Force) during that time period and told me that there was a lot of new music heading towards the U.S., and that it had a whole new sound to it.
You just can't fault a group that named itself the CARS. They definitely were one of the best groups from that period. I had Candy-O on 8-track back in the day.