Powerpop / New Wave
The Spongetones – Beat & Torn (1994)
20/08/10
Now combined on one CD, Beat Music and Torn Apart represent the band’s earliest recordings and some of their finest. These two albums are simply Southern power pop at its best, and this package is essential for fans of pure pop. ~ Chris Woodstra, AMG
My Rate: 8.8/10
Vídeo de “Here I Go Again”
The Greenberry Woods – Big Money Item (1995)
21/07/10
The Greenberry Woods’ instrumentation and yearning vocal style tend to the emotionally manipulative, heart-on-sleeve side, but lyrics often rise above the vacuous boy-girl stuff that defines the genre. “Love Songs” surveys the cliched landscape with a sly, knowing eye while working completely within the musical formula. At 18 tracks, most hovering under the three-minute mark, Big Money Item serves up a dizzying over-abundance of sugary riches. While some selections remain lightweight trifles, enough substantial moments overflow the cone to coat the listener in captivating sticky goo. “Invisible Threads” combines sudden gear shifts with a phased, baroque pop underpinning. There’s the stately soft-psych of “Parachute,” and a dew-eyed tip of the hat to Crowded House balladry in “For You.” “Nervous” pumps up the fuzz for some garage-y power-pop while “Go Without You” breaks into Bay City Roller handclaps. “Oh Janine”‘s soaring chorus recalls both The Beach Boys and Eric Carmen’s Raspberries. Even at its most superficial and derivative and unapologetically nerdy, Big Money Item is just so chock full of fatal hooks that…well…life almost starts to feel that fresh and innocent again. ~ Roch Parisien, AMG
My Rate: 9/10
Áudio de “Love Songs”
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The Scruffs – Wanna Meet The Scruffs? (1977)
21/07/10
Power pop bands who worship at the altar of Big Star are a dime a dozen today, but the Scruffs were doing that long before Alex Chilton became a cool name to drop, and Wanna Meet the Scruffs?, the sole album they released during their lifetime, is that late-’70s rarity, a slice of classic power pop that doesn’t sound “new wave,” unlike most of smart pop’s class of 1978. Using Big Star and the Raspberries as a starting point, vocalist and songwriter Stephen Burns blended an Anglophile’s sense of melody with a very American feel for crunchy guitars and the occasional power chord. And Burns‘ songs about dreams of rock stardom (“Break the Ice”), his vast array of romantic problems (“My Mind”), and his multitude of other anxieties (“I’m a Failure”) suggests the neurosis of the early Modern Lovers sides without Jonathan Richman‘s willful childishness; in a genre where aggressive cheerfulness or good-natured arrogance were the order of the day, Burns‘ intelligent angst was something new and distinctive. And the band, anchored by David Branyan‘s tough, concise guitar leads, made music that was bright and hooky but still had backbone and plenty of punch; this is pop that earns the prefix “power.” That so strong an album could slip though the cracks is both sad and puzzling, but the 1997 CD reissue of Wanna Meet the Scruffs? (augmented with two bonus demo tracks) thankfully restores a lost classic to circulation, and anyone who loves a good hook with an interesting idea behind it ought to seek this out. ~ Mark Deming, AMG
My Rate: 8/10
Vídeo de “Break The Ice” (audio only)
VA – Yellow Pills Vol 2: More of the Best of American Pop! (1994)
09/06/10
Tracklist
1. Thing of the Past [Electric Version] – Shoes
2. Nothing at All – 20/20
3. Something’s Happened to Catherine – Material Issue
4. Bazooka Joe – Parthenon Huxley
5. Little Bird Told Me So – Brian Stevens
6. Situations – The Sighs
7. Tonight – Jim Basnight
8. Just Kidding – Randell Kirsch
9. Saying Sorry to Myself – The Posies
10. You’re Gonna Save Me – Nicoteens
11. Just a Matter of Time – Kyle Vincent
12. Sisters – Gladhands
13. Carnival of Souls – The Wondermints
14. Switchblade Sister – Redd Kross
15. There’s a Lot of Love in This Room – Bill Lloyd
16. Call Out My Name – Chris Von Sneidern
17. Bovine Connection – Matthew Sweet
18. Empty Boy – Lane Steinberg
19. Head First – Underground Cartoons
20. Watching the Headlights Burn – 20/20
21. Stop Before We Start – The Rubinoos
My Rate: 8.7/10
Grass Show – Something Smells Good In Stinkville (1996)
30/05/10
ALLMUSIC Never mind the title. Grass-Show’s debut album Something Smells Good in Stinkville is an infectious fusion of stylish Brit-pop, quirky new wave, punchy ’70s power-pop and breezy Euro-pop. The band’s strength is their melodic sensibilities, and while their clever lyrics can come across as smug, the light, frothy hooks and melodies are positively effervescent. [by Stephen Thomas Erlewine]
My Rate: 4.5/10
Vídeo de “Freak Show” (audio only)
VA – Yellow Pills Vol. 1: The Best of American Pop! (1993)
28/05/10
ALLMUSIC A dynamic power-pop collection featuring new and old tracks by some of the leading groups of the last ten years, including Dwight Twilley, the Shoes, the Rubinoos, and Tommy Keene. The music on Yellow Pills is strong enough to convert casual fans into hardcore power-pop fanatics. [by Stephen Thomas Erlewine]
Tracklist:
1. Dwight Twilley – Remedies
2. Shoes – I Miss You
3. Adam Schmitt – Speed Kills
4. The Cowsills – Is It Any Wonder
5. 20-20 – Song Of The Universe
6. Enuff Z’Nuff – Fingers On It
7. Devin Hill – Stars
8. Critics – You Can’t Lie
9. Jim Basnight – Rest Up
10. Chris Von Sneidern – Open Wide
11. The Spongetones – Skinny
12. The Rubinoos – The Girl
13. Tommy Keene – Disarray
14. Ken Sharp – Break Down The Walls
15. The Flashcubes – It’s You Tonight
16. Elliot Kendall – No Romance Today
17. The Vandalias – Get To Know You
18. Wallop featuring Wally Bryson – When Is Your Dreams
19. Buddy Love – Why Can’t We Make Believe We’re In Love
20. Three Hour Tour – Love Sick Trip
21. Mark Johnson – I Like The World
My Rate: 9.8/10
Áudio de “The Cowsills – Is It Any Wonder”
The Posies – Dear 23 (1990)
27/05/10
ALLMUSIC Ken Stringfellow and Jonathan Auer, the leaders of the Posies, expressed genuine big-league pop ambitions with minor-league budgets on their early releases, so it’s not especially surprising that their first album for a major label, Dear 23, found them laying on all the baroque textures that they couldn’t afford on their own dime. Sounding a bit like a modernized version of the Hollies with a studio sound that crossed The White Album with Big Star 3rd, Dear 23 kicks off with two pleasing slices of glossy power pop, “My Big Mouth” and “Golden Blunders” (the latter of which was covered by an actual Beatle, Ringo Starr, doubtless a major thrill for these guys). But by the time track four rolls around (“Any Other Way”), power has taken a cigarette break, and the album drifts into a mid-tempo dreamland where everything is either pretty and contemplative or pretty and a bit morose. (Though in all fairness, the rocking “Help Yourself” does pop up in the later innings to punch things up). Dear 23 is packed with too much good stuff to escape the notice of any true pop obsessive — Auer and Stringfellow write great songs, their harmonies are nothing short of superb, and the arrangements and production (by the band in collaboration with John Leckie) are imaginative and flawlessly executed. However, for all the craft, there isn’t a lot of passion or heart in this music; the long hours in the studio getting the sounds right seem to have squeezed out the soul of the music. Dear 23 offers all the proof you could ask for that the Posies were major talents. [by Mark Deming]
My Rate: 9.5/10
Vídeo de “Golden Blunders”
Teenage Fanclub – Shadows (2010)
20/05/10
PREFIXMAG.COM Released shortly after the untimely death of power pop’s reluctant prince, Alex Chilton, Teenage Fanclub’s Shadows couldn’t have arrived at a better time. This, the 10th full-length of the band’s career, offers the perfect salve for mourning aficionados of smart shimmering pop in the vein of the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and, of course, Big Star. Shadows was handled by the Fannies’ own PeMa label in Europe and the U.K. and by Merge in the United States. [by Nate Knaebel]
DOWNLOAD (removed by request) | BUY
Tracklist:
01. Sometimes I Don’t Need To Believe In Anything
02. Baby Lee
03. The Fall
04. Into The City
05. Dark Clouds
06. The Past
07. Shock And Awe
08. When I Still Have Thee
09. Live With The Seasons
10. Sweet Days Waiting
11. The Back Of My Mind
12. Today Never Ends
Deleted Waveform Gatherings – Ghost, She Said
23/03/10
Genre: Powerpop / Neo-Psychedelia
Based: Norway
Label: Rainbow Quartz Records
Year: 2009
My Rate: 8/10
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SOUNDSXP Ghost She Said is the third album from the Norwegian psych-pop band indebted to the 60s and 70s. We reviewed their second album in April 2009 and this is more of the same, but better. Listen closely and you’ll hear traces of the Who, T-Rex, REM and Teenage Fanclub. If you like melodic guitar rock this will be straight up your tramline, from the T-Rexy, riff-heavy ‘Hate Waiting In Line’ to the almost parodic REM-like ‘What You Trying To Prove’ and the TFC-resembling ‘This House’, which has a similar line in epic guitar riffs. There’s more going on underneath though, with acoustic moments and a subtle suggestion of theremin on the title track. It’s a bit naughty to quote lyrics when their second language English is better than my first language anything, but ‘Shaman’s Tambourine’ has an odd point of view full stop: “god made a woman/ god made a man/ he sent the man to war now…left the woman at home, sweeping all the floors”. But otherwise it’s a strong set of psych-pop songs as long as you’re not expecting anything revolutionary. [by Ged M]
The Telepathic Butterflies – Wow & Flutter!
19/03/10
Genre: Powerpop
Based: Canada
Label: Rainbow Quartz Records
Year: 2009
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ALLMUSIC Sometimes originality is overrated in rock & roll. There are plenty of bands who have labored hard to reshape the formal conventions of the medium and accomplished little more than giving their audience a headache and forcing a few bloggers to make sense of their experiments. On the other hand, there’s a band like the Telepathic Butterflies, who have clearly embraced a sound and style that’s been knocking around for a few decades but create something tuneful and satisfying from these traditional building blocks each time out. Wow & Flutter!, the group’s fourth album, is another exercise in fresh and enthusiastic pop in the manner of the Beatles and the Hollies (with a bit of the Raspberries thrown in for good measure), which is to say it doesn’t stray far from the Butterflies’ previous work or the influences they’ve drawn on in the past. But boy, Réjean Ricard sure knows how to write a great pop tune; these ten songs are built around melt-in-your-mouth melodies and near-perfect hooks, and anyone who has a taste for vintage pop sounds should all but swoon over this material, which is clever without sounding stuffy and superbly crafted without showing off.
And the band is a superb vehicle for Ricard‘s ideas, with the bright, chiming guitars, tight harmonies, and solid rhythms making this music sound as joyous and enthusiastic as it deserves. And the crisp, sympathetic production is all the more remarkable when you consider the band cut this in Ricard‘s home studio using semi-pro gear — plenty of bands have gone to far greater lengths to make records that don’t sound half this good. On Wow & Flutter! the Telepathic Butterflies aren’t doing much you haven’t heard before, but chances are it’s been a long time since you’ve heard it done this well (unless, of course, you picked up their 2008 album Breakfast in Suburbia), and they’re good enough to make old ideas sound as thoroughly enjoyable as when they were brand-new. [by Mark Deming]
Vídeo de “Circle Man”
