Late April EPs & Singles Roundup.

Steven Wright-Mark-Wake Up! This EP is the first new music from NYC's Steven Wright-Mark since 2012's Plastic World, and it's great to have him back even if it's only four tunes. But it's a case of quality over quantity as all four tracks are pop gems that will appeal to fans of Cliff Hillis and Michael Carpenter. "Just a Dream" features a great call-and-response chorus, "Runaway, Baby" adds some Tom Petty influence to the mix, and "Whisper in the Wind" is a top-notch ballad. But the lead single "Underground" is worth the price of admission alone, one of 2020's best songs to date. It's a thinly-veiled commentary on the state of things today, but is anything but preachy and features handclaps and an irresistible chorus. A shoo-in for my year-end EP list.

iTunes

Steven Wright-Mark · Wake Up!

Mitch Linker-I'll Take My Chances EP. Speaking of long absences, Hartford's Mitch Linker brings us his first new music in 13 years. Perhaps best known for the short-lived power pop band The Day Traders, Linker serves up a slick four-track EP that could be called adult contemporary in the vein of Josh Rouse or David Mead. "Given Everything" and "I'll Take My Chances" are the standouts here, mellow gold for a new decade.

iTunes



The Explorers Club-Ruby/I Wonder What She's Doing Tonite. Like presidential elections and Summer Olympics (though maybe not this year), The Explorers Club has been releasing new much precisely every four years since 2008. This two-song single is a preview of the two albums they have coming out this summer, one consisting of originals and the other all covers. We get one of each here, with the original "Ruby" a great example of their glorious sunshine pop finding the mean between 60s California pop and Merseyside. "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonite", meanwhile, is a cover of the 1968 Boyce & Hart top 10 hit that's of a piece with band's sound. This is all making me eagerly await the full-length releases.

iTunes



Creamer-Hideaway. Phillip Creamer's debut album was one of my favorites of 2018 as it perfectly captured the early 70s Big Star sound, and his new single is more of the same - a gentle ballad that builds to an operatic crescendo. Hoping this heralds a new album.

iTunes



Bleu-I Wanna Write You a Symphony. Another artist from whom new music is always welcome is the irrepressible Bleu, and his new single is as a grandiose undertaking as its title implies with all of his trademark bells and whistles.

iTunes



Salim Nourallah-Building a Case. The man who brought us my favorite album of 2012, Hit Parade, otherwise has released several albums I've enjoyed but haven't been over the moon about. But this catchy new single about his lover "building a case against our love" demonstrates his clever charm and wit and wouldn't have been out of place on Hit Parade, so I'm highly recommending it.

iTunes

Fall Singles Collection

Quite a few power poppers of note have singles out, so it's time to round them all up in one place.

Bleu-Love You So. Bleu McAuley has proven to be a pop polymath over the years and his latest is an ultra-catchy slice of pop in the true sense. In fact "Love You So" is so catchy it's been featured in a ubiquitous eBay commercial you've probably heard. iTunes



Bryan Estepa-No Ordinary. Great to have new music from one of power pop's most reliable performers over the last decade-plus, and while I want to say "No Ordinary" is no ordinary Bryan Estepa track, it kinda isn't but that's a good thing. iTunes



Andy Reed-Truth to My Love. Andy Reed's been busy making music with The Legal Matters and brother act The Reed Brothers so this is the first release under his own name in some time and it's another example of his fine pop songcraft. iTunes



Downstate Darlings-King James/Ordinary Kind. While the name Downstate Darlings may not have a familiar ring, it's the new project from New York rocker Chris Abad, featured here before. This double-sided single is a great introduction for the project. "King James" is a Fountains of Wayne-type tune with crunchy guitars and synths, and "Ordinary Kind" is a melodic rocker. iTunes



Timmy Sean-In California. After his exhaustive 52-track Song of the Week project in 2015, Timmy Sean is back with some new music and "In California" has all the big hooks and big guitars you remember from his previous work. iTunes



Michael Simmons-This is Most Certainly True. Simmons has been a standout over the years in bands such as sparkle*jets u.k. and The Yorktown Lads, and his recent solo work. His latest applies his knack for melody with political protest as he takes on our increasingly toxic political culture.

Nick Piunti / Danny Wilkerson

Nick Piunti-Temporary High. Over the past five years Nick Piunti has established himself as one of the scene's preeminent power poppers (his last three albums finished at 7, 6 and 2 in my year-end lists) so it's not an understatement to say this was one of the year's most anticipated releases. Which leaves a couple of questions: Does it disappoint? Hell no. Is it his best? That's like asking which of your children are your favorite. Suffice it to say there will be 9 releases fighting over the top 10 this year because Piunti's accustomed spot is spoken for. Endlessly catchy and endlessly rocking, Temporary High finds Piunti at his best from the opening title track through the Elvis Costello-like "You Invented Hell" through the poptastic "If This Was Right" to "Contagious", the closest thing here to a classic power ballad. The high here may be temporary, but it's one you can return to whenever you want.

iTunes



Danny Wilkerson-Wilkerson. July 20 may go down this year as Power Pop Christmas because in addition to Nick Piunti's gem above, Danny Wilkerson has today released his debut album and it's also a very strong release. Wilkerson, who has worked with Lannie Flowers in the Pengwins among others over the years, has teamed up with Bleu who produces and co-wrote the songs here, in addition to providing backing vocals. And the power pop royalty isn't limited here to Bleu - Roger Joseph Manning Jr. plays on the record, along with New Pornographers drummer Joe Seiders and Pat Buchanan, formerly of Idle Jets and a couple of outstanding solo records of his own. And it sounds as good on disc as it looks on paper. The bouncy, catchy "Everyone Loves to Love" opens things, sounding like a cross between Bleu and Jellyfish as might be expected, "Enough for Somebody" throws horns and glockenspiel into the mix and is a bombastic delight, and first single "Let it Go Tonight" is an anthemic beauty. And the hits keep on coming: the McCartney-esque "Endless Haze" boasts a wonderful string arranagement, "Too Much of a Good Thing" almost brings to mind Bleu's L.E.O. project, and "Carry the One" is some fine power balladry.

CD Baby

CD of the Day, 5/9/13: VA-Drink a Toast to Innocence: A Tribute to Lite Rock

Perhaps the most anticipated release of 2013 to date has been Andrew Curry's "Monsters of Lite Rock" project, funded by Kickstarter, to assemble a compilation of those sort-of-cheesy "lite rock" (also known as "yacht rock") hits of the late 70s and early 80s covered by today's power pop artists. The Kickstarter was successful, and the fruits of Curry's (and the artists') labor is here with the double-disc, 28-track Drink a Toast to Innocence. The lineup Curry has assembled is impressive, featuring the likes of Bleu, Mike Viola, Willie Wisely, David Myhr, Michael Carpenter, Linus of Hollywood, Seth Swirsky and so many more of my (and your) favorite artists.

As with most covers compilations, Toast features the usual mix of faithful re-creations and bold re-imaginings. To what degree you prefer either is always affected by the level of your fondness for the original and the covering artist, but there are plenty of each to choose from here. To me, however, my favorite covers have fallen into a third category: covers that sound like they could have originals by the covering artist. In other words, they make the cover their own. The two here that stand out in that regard are Greg Pope's cover of Poco's "Crazy Love" and Lannie Flowers' version of the Orleans staple "Dance With Me". In Pope's case, it's a great match of cover and artist; by taking the original and speeding it up just a microsopic bit it sounds like one of his typical slightly off-kilter pop gems, while Flowers turns "Dance With Me" into one of his usual rollicking (and rocking) power pop numbers by adding a honky-tonk piano to the mix in contrast to the highly laid-back original.

In the re-imagining department, there are several standouts. The Davenports turn Randy Van Warmer's borderline treacly "Just When I Needed You Most" into a driving power pop track, Lisa Mychols speeds up the David Soul (of Starsky & Hutch fame) ballad "Don't Give Up on Us" and gives it the full-band treatment, while Willie Wisely takes the sexual subtext of The Atlanta Rhythm Section's "So Into You" and makes it the text, complete with moaning female vocals in the outro. Also rocking things up a bit is Vegas With Randolph and their version of Little River Band's "Cool Change". Plus I give them credit for keeping a straight face while singing lines like "The albatross and the whales/they are my brother".

As for the faithful covers, there are plenty to choose from here. Kyle Vincent, whose style is pretty much 70's lite rock and would be a natural to cover any of the songs featured here, is perfect on Ambrosia's "How Much I Feel"; ex-Merrymaker David Myhr captures the spirit of 10cc with "The Things We Do for Love", and the two halves of The Red Button play to their strengths - Mike Rukeberg with the power poppy "Believe it or Not" (theme from "The Greatest American Hero") and Seth Swirsky's eerily channels Henry Gross almost note-for-note on "Shannon", the ultimate tear-jerking dead dog song. Boston buddies Bleu and Mike Viola take on "Baby Come Back" and "Steal Away", each of which sound exactly you'd hear them in your head singing these tracks, but I'll give Viola kudos for starting to sing "What a Fool Believes" at the end of "Steal Away", since the latter was pretty much a rip-off of the former.

Ironically there's no cover here of "Same Old Lang Syne", the Dan Fogelberg lite rock classic from which the title of the compilation derives. Curry has said it was on the list of songs submitted to the artists to cover, but nobody took it up. Hmmm...sounds like an opening for a Volume 2. The lack of Fogelberg notwithstanding, this is without doubt the best covers compilation since Not Lame's Right to Chews from 2002, which had power poppers covering early 70s' bubblegum classics, and it deserves to be highlighted outside the immediate power pop community.

CD Baby | iTunes | Bandcamp

Two for Tuesday, 4/2/13

Eric Barao-Eric Barao. If you're familiar with Eric Barao, it's most likely due to the fact that he was the frontman of The Cautions, a Boston-based power pop band which gave us the fine 2006 album Proceed With...The Cautions. Barao was also involved the L.E.O. project around that time and has been a staple of the Boston power pop scene. On his solo debut Barao enlists the help of Bleu, who co-produces, and it's reflected in the style of the album, which is more reminiscent of Bleu's eclectic pop stylings than the straight-up Weezer/Rooney-styled power pop of The Cautions. There's a lot to like here, beginning with frenetic piano pop of "On Holiday", which recalls Bryan Scary and is quite the nifty little tune. The power balladry of "Trying Too Hard" and "In Love With a Broken Heart" bears Bleu's touch, and the midtempo "New Earth" has a Jon Brion sensibility. Elsewhere, the jaunty pop number "Alive (But Barely Breathing)" is another standout, as is "Scratch Ticket" which is catchy enough to be theme song for the Massachusetts Lottery, but probably won't. And the tracks not mentioned here are exquisitely well-crafted, immaculately crafted pop tunes as well, making this an early contender for the power pop album of the year. Take a listen through Bandcamp below and I'm pretty sure you'll agree.

CD Baby | iTunes




The Incurables-The Fine Art of Distilling. Jimmy Griffin and the boys are back with the followup to 2007's Songs for a Blackout, which was one of my favorites of that year but seemed to be largely overlooked in the power pop community. The Fine Art of Distilling is a worthy successor for this St. Louis band, boasting a further refinement of their Wallflowers-meet-del Amitri sound buoyed by Griffin's endearingly raspy vocals. Opener "16 Lives" starts things off in an interestingly melodic fashion, veering from slow verses to a catchy chorus backed by stacatto guitars. Meanwhile, any disc this year will be hard-pressed to match the 1-2 punch of "Famous Last Words" and "F M". The former is an outstanding Tom Petty-styled rocker with jangly guitars, and the latter is an earworm of the first order with its "is there anyone alive/on the other side of my radio" chorus hard to shake in a good way. Also of note is the barroom noir of "I Will Burn", the hook-laden "Break the Heart of the World" and the lovely, largely acoustic romp "A Proposal" that closes the disc. This is the kind of pop/rock that actually made the radio Griffin refers to in "F M" as recently as the late 90s, and thanks to the internet we're no longer reliant on the FM dial to find music of this quality.

Amazon | iTunes

More Bleu for you.

Bleu's A Watched Pot, which I told you about a while back, has finally hit retail this week. I never did a formal review of the disc, because, well it's Bleu, and it's great, and if you're a power popper it's essential. Anyway, your Bleu experience is not complete without this bonus EP of outtakes from the Watched Pot sessions, which you can either get free or for the amount you're willing to pay from the good folks at Noisetrade:

Stream the new Bleu album!

It doesn't hit the street until July 14, but you can stream the new Bleu album, A Watched Pot, at his official site. The album has been in the can for a couple of years now and is finally seeing the light of day. It's quite good, especially the anthemic "Go", and for those of you who loved his slower stuff on the LEO disc, "There's No Such Thing as Love" is a great Jeff Lynne-esque ballad.

(If you're wondering why there's a "parental advisory" sticker on the cover, just take a gander at one of the song titles.)

Freebie of the Year!

Bleu and Mike Viola are at it again. The last time they teamed up was for the L.E.O. project, and we all know what a success that was. Now they've joined forces as The Major Labels, and their disc Aquavia is available for free download at noisetrade.com if you give them three email addresses to pass on, or you can "pick a price" to pay for the download. (And to be ultra-helpful, I've included a widget for it in this post).

Like some other recent releases, this is as meta as it gets (the band title, many of the tracks), but that's OK. I don't need to get into a track-by-track thing, because it's Bleu. And it's Mike Viola. And it's not Gregorian chants or dissonant electronic music, it's the two of them in their pop milieu. And it's free. So why are you still reading this and not clicking below?