Pugwash-Silverlake

Irish popster Thomas Walsh has been prolific over the last decade or so, releasing albums as Pugwash and cricket-inspired music with The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon as The Duckworth Lewis Method (In fact, the Method's "Third Man" might be my favorite song of the decade to date). Walsh is back as Pugwash, but with a twist. Instead of his regular backing band he's opted instead to record with another power pop luminary, Jason Falkner, formerly of Jellyfish and having recorded with Paul McCartney among others. With Falkner on board, Silverlake is the best Pugwash album this decade and a breath of fresh pop air.

Someone (perhaps me just now) once said that a power pop record is only as good as its opening track, and Silverlake passes that test easily with "The Perfect Summer", its perfection only marred by a late autumn release instead of in June when it could have been summer's soundtrack with its irresistible chorus and handclaps in the verses. Falkner's presence is felt on the album's second single, "What Are You Like", with his backing vocals on the chorus and guitar solo in the bridge, as well as on "Why Do I", whose angular melody recalls some of Falkner's solo work. Elsewhere, "Without You" and "Everyone Knows That You're Mine" are the kind of top-notch power pop tunes which Walsh can make sound effortless but take great effort to dislodge from your brain, and "Sunshine True" recalls the pastoral balladry of XTC, whose Dave Gregory has worked with Walsh as well. And the album closer is a stunner as well - the dreamy ballad "Autarch" sounds like Jeff Lynne producing Brian Wilson.

iTunes

Odds and ends.

I Don't Like Cricket, I Love It!

Pugwash alert! One of the best lines from 10cc's immortal "Dreadlock Holiday" could be the mission statement of The Duckworth Lewis Method, a new band featuring Thomas Walsh (a/k/a Pugwash) and Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy. These two Irishmen have parlayed their love of cricket into a concept album about the sport. Released globally today, this is a must for Pugwash fans (as well as cricket fans, but you don't have to be one to enjoy it). In case you're wary, have a listen below:

MySpace | iTunes

The Duckworth Lewis Method - T...

Your Favorites, free.

Many of you recall Bright Nights, Bright Lights, the outstanding release from The Favorites which placed at #15 on my 2008 year-end list. The band is now making the disc available free, gratis, without charge, yours for the taking, courtesy of NoiseTrade. A deal too good to pass up:

CD of the Day, 5/16/08: Pugwash-Eleven Modern Antiquities

This is a bit of me putting the horse behind the cart - you may recall the latest from Pugwash (a/k/a Thomas Walsh) was #8 on my first quarter best-of list before I had even mentioned it on this site. And Jollity, his previous release, was my #13 disc of 2005. Moreover, odds are if you're reading this blog you already know about this release. Nevertheless, it's so good it deserves a proper review. Eleven Modern Antiquities is a worthy followup to Jollity, and all of the things that made that disc great are present here, perhaps even more so. For example, Jollity had one track co-written with XTC's Andy Partridge; this one has two ("My Genius" and "At The Sea"). Fellow XTC member Dave Gregory is back to play on several tracks; Eric Matthews contributes flugelhorn on "At The Sea", and Nelson Bragg figures into just about every track as well. Plus Michael Penn shows up for a guitar solo on "Limerance". Power pop doesn't get any better than this on paper, and thankfully the songs are the equal of the luminaries on board. Standouts include "Take Me Away", for which I've helpfully appended a video at the end of this post (and on which Jason Falkner adds guitar); "Here", the kind of stately ballad that McCartney and Partridge (and now we can add Walsh) are so expert at; the poptastic "It's So Fine", and "Your Friend", Antiquities' answer to Jollity's Brian Wilson-influenced "It's Nice to be Nice". As I said in so many words about Jollity, XTC may be gone now, but as long as Walsh keeps putting out great discs like this, you won't miss a beat.

Not Lame | MySpace

Cool stuff on eMusic.

Apologies for the extremely intermittent posting over the last 7-10 days, as I've been out of town over the past couple of weekends, and very busy at work. Things should start picking up again. While I was "away", there have been a few significant power pop releases added at eMusic.

Most notable is the brand new disc from The Primary 5, Go!. The band features Paul Quinn, who once drummed for Teenage Fanclub, and the TF influence is quite apparent on this disc as well as their 2005 debut effort, North Pole (also available on eMu.) There's also a jangly Byrds sound to TP5's work as well. A must-grab. Also check them out on myspace.

Jon Yeager, late of the Daybirds, put out a great EP in 2005 titled Truth & Volume, and followed that up with a late 2006 full-length titled Foi (that's French for "faith", by the way). Foi is now on eMu (as well as Truth & Volume), and it's great singer-songwriter pop, not unlike Pat Buchanan or more famously, Pete Yorn.

Finally, the Pugwash catalog continues its eMu rollout with the addition of Earworm, the predecessor to his great 2005 album Jollity.

More eMusic.

Bunch of interesting stuff added.

The Smithereens-Meet The Smithereens. If you ever wanted to hear The Smithereens cover Meet The Beatles in its entirety, well here you go. Fun stuff, and more worth a download than a CD purchase.

Jon Auer-The Perfect Size. This 5-track EP from 2000 is the perfect size if you only have five downloads left for the month. Includes a GbV cover.

Pugwash & Friends-Tinsel and Marzipan. And if you're down to two downloads left, grab this Christmas single from Pugwash (and Friends). Good stuff.

Wisely-Parador. This appeared on a lot of top 20 lists submitted to Audities this go 'round, although I enjoyed it but didn't love it. It also really came out in 2005 in Japan first, so I didn't consider for 06 on that basis as well.

The Nice Boys-The Nice Boys. Aside from being a great human interest story (surviving member of the Exploding Hearts soldiers on with new band), it's a great disc of 70s-style English power pop (Stiff Records and all that).

Pugwash on eMusic.

Haven't done an eMusic update in several weeks, mainly because they haven't added too much lately worth mentioning here. That changed today with the addition of Pugwash's Jollity, which placed at #13 in my top 20 of 2005. Get this one if you haven't already - I know its US distribution was spotty upon its original release.

Also on eMusic today is the latest from the Sprague Brothers, Changing The World One Chick at a Time. The Spragues are a bit on the retro side for me, but I know that a lot of power poppers enjoy them.

Finally, not a new addition, but a new discovery on eMu: The self-titled album from Story, which was featured on Not Lame earlier this week. This is a good one.