Early December Roundup.

Various Artists-White Lace & Promises: The Songs of Paul Williams. Andrew Curry has done it again. The man behind some of this decade's best compilations (including the "lite rock" Drink a Toast to Innocence for which I broke my own rules to make #1 of 2013) has turned his attention to 70s songwriter extraordinaire Paul Williams. While Williams' impish blond mop-top and glasses guise is well-known enough from TV and movies to stylize on the cover, the average music fan may not be able to rattle off all the songs he wrote for others which became hits in the 70s and early 80s. His most notable successes came from the Carpenters, whom he put on the map with songs such as "Rainy Days and Mondays", "We've Only Just Begun" (from which the compilation gets its title with the lyric "white lace and promises") and "I Won't Last a Day Without You" among others.

The usual all-star cast of indie poppers contribute here, with Cliff Hillis nailing "Rainy Days and Mondays", Corin Ashley faithfully covering "We've Only Just Begun" and Chris Price's enthusiastic reading of "I Won't Last a Day Without You". But Williams was more than the Carpenters - Cait Brennan turns into a wonderfully trippy version of Three Dog Night's "Old Fashioned Love Song", The Davenports add their power pop style to "Evergreen", Barbra Streisand's smash hit from the 70s version of A Star is Born, and Andy Reed gives the cheesefest which is Kermit the Frog's "Rainbow Connection" his all. But while the covers of the well-known hits by your favorite current-day artists are what pull you in, the real treats here are the covers of lesser-known tracks, some of which Williams recorded himself. Greg Pope's "Waking Up Alone" could pass as his one of his own tunes, and Plasticsoul's "Still Alive" rocks way harder than anything you might associate with Williams.

Given that Williams' métier was lite rock, this compilation makes a great bookend with the aforementioned Drink a Toast to Innocence, so this one is a must-have holiday gift for fans of timeless pop music.

Bandcamp



Hot Nun-Born to Blaze. Hot Nun is Jeff Shelton's vehicle for rocking harder and louder than he does with the jangle-oriented Well Wishers, and this latest EP delivers more of the rawk you didn't know you needed but can't do without after hearing. From "Livin' a Dirty Mind" to "Anyway" to "Back to Now", Shelton & friends live up to their own description of "imagine you're at a weekend kegger and Judas Priest and The Archies are jammin out to some Cheap Trick while Bob Mould and the McDonald brothers from Redd Kross chime in". Their mission statement can be summed up in the title of the final track: "Rock and Roll is My Advice".

iTunes



David Woodard-I Used to Be Cool EP. Nashville's David Woodard has stumbled upon the perfect title for all of us middle-aged power poppers who came of age in the 70s and 80s (although I myself was never cool), and his debut EP reminds me of the godfather of Nashville power pop, Bill Lloyd (who himself has a great new album out which I may or may not get to before it ranks very high on my year-end list). Opener "We Didn't Know" is a wonderful wistful song which looks back on lost youth, while the title track is a jangly delight and "Chase After Me" recalls the kind of smart pop Lloyd is known for. Woodard closes out the EP with a quality cover of The Beatles' "Help!" and he also has a pretty good Christmas single out as a separate release.

iTunes

A pair of old friends.

Today it's a pair of new releases from artists who've been releasing new music almost every year since I started this blog in 2006.

The Well Wishers-A View from Above. Jeff Shelton is back with his ninth Well Wishers full-length (not counting last year's covers album) and ho hum, it's another top-notch collection of jangle pop/rock. What sets it apart from recent Well Wishers albums is that it's a bit more folk-rock oriented, hearkening back to mid-2000s WW albums such as Under the Arrows. You won't notice right away as the rocking "Gravity Waits" opens the proceedings but the acoustic guitars come out for the mid-tempo "In Another Life", the tres jangly "April is Only a Lie" and perhaps the album's best track, "Ways & Means". But fear not, rawkers: there are plenty of loud guitars here on "I Like You Better", "There Goes My Gun" and "I'm Not the Enemy", a track first heard on last year's Trip Wire album with Shelton being a part of that collective. And "The New Fade Out" is a terrific album-closer, 5 1/2 minutes of Shelton at his melodic best.

Bandcamp



Dropkick-Longwave. The boys from Edinburgh are back in town with their annual release (technically the first since 2016 but last year saw an Andrew Taylor solo album which differed in name only) and Longwave is what you've come to know and love from this Scottish band. Opener "Out of Tune" is anything but, and it only takes a matter of seconds for their Teenage Fanclub-inspired pop to take hold of your ears and "I Thought it Was OK" with its dreamy melody is an instant Dropkick classic. And while nobody's going to mistake them for Led Zeppelin, a few of these tunes do rock harder than others - most notably "It's Still Raining" and "Fed Up Thinking of You", both of which retain the band's trademark melodies and harmonies. Their amazing consistency over what is now 15 albums is worthy of note, and even if there's a strong element of predictability to their music, having new Dropkick music fall into your lap or pop up randomly on shuffle is always a welcome thing.

iTunes

Late August Roundup.

Trip Wire-Cold Gas Giants. Trip Wire (not to be confused with beloved Seattle pub-rockers The Tripwires) is a San Francisco band/collective that has a couple of pretty good power pop albums under its belt (which you can listen to here), but on their third release they've taken a couple of big steps forward. First, their new album is being released on the imprint of one of the top power pop labels out there, Kool Kat. Second, they've added The Well Wishers' Jeff Shelton to the lineup, and not just to play bass. Of course original members Marty Schneider and Bill Hunt are no slouches either and their "Long Days Gone" is an insistent guitar pop tune with a nifty riff hook, while "Signs" is first-rate jangle pop. Shelton takes the mic for "I'm Not the Enemy", a hard-driving rocker that's of a piece with his Well Wishers output, and other standouts include the strings-and-12-string of "Winter Song", the Byrdsian "These Are the Days", and another Shelton-led raucous rocker, "Growing Old".

Kool Kat | iTunes



Darryl Rahn-Everything is Fine. About the highest compliment I can pay the latest album from Utica, NY singer-songwriter Darryl Rahn is that I've had it in rotation for over a month now and every time one of its songs pops up randomly I get a little smile on my face. Everything is Fine is highly melodic folk/pop/rock that fans of The Jayhawks, pre-Spain-move Josh Rouse and site favorite Shane Lamb would enjoy. The joyous, catchy leadoff track "Running Back" breaks through the line into the open field like a good running back, while "Even as a Ghost" and its "ooh-ooh-ooh" hook is an absolute earworm. Elsewhere, the midtempo "Worry" recalls the prime early days of Ryan Adams, "Souvenirs" is a lovely ballad, and "Look at Her Now" treads into power pop territory. One of the better albums of its kind I've heard lately.

iTunes



The TimeWhy?s-Autumn of Love EP. The oddly-punctuated TimeWhy?s is a Pennsylvania band who unabashedly make 60s-inspired music, leaning to the Beatlesque. Their 4-track debut EP is a treat. "Paint Me Happy" is Herman's Hermits-meets-The Association, "Lying Through Your Lipstick" sounds like a mid-Beatles Lennon track, "I Said Hello" seems inspired by "Penny Lane" and "All I Know" draws from George Harrison via The Beach Boys. Definitely a year-end contender for the best EPs of 2017 list.

iTunes

Late June Roundup.

Cupid's Carnival-Everything is Love. This London band appears to have sprung up out of nowhere - I can't find a website, Facebook page or anything else for them. Given how Beatlesque they sound, perhaps the Fabs have resurfaced in the lowest-key way possible (remember those Klaatu rumors from the late 70s?). OK I know that's ridiculous but whoever they are, they've dropped the best Beatles-influenced album of 2016 to date on us with Everything is Love. It opens with the McCartney-esque "Girl" complete with Harrison-like slide guitar, "Working Girl" has a driving melody, and "I Was the Boy" drifts into psych-pop territory. There's even a cover of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" here. But the real fun comes at the end with the title track, a Lennon-styled ballad that sounds like a Beatles outtake, and "Sunny Days", the latest variation on "Mr. Blue Sky". Whoever these guys are, they should take a bow.

EDIT: As helpful commenter Rick notes below, some of these tracks were released in 2008 under the band name Cherrystone (which in fact I reviewed on these pages). So before you buy, check the recesses of your mp3 collections - you may have some of these songs already.

iTunes



The Well Wishers-Comes and Goes. I believe this is Jeff Shelton's eight full-length album as The Well Wishers (plus an EP), and they've all been so consistently good that I've just about run out of things to say about them. So in other words this is less a review and more of a notification that there's a new Well Wishers album out there you need to pick up. The differences between this one and the others is slight; it's a bit more consistently rocking than 2014's A Shattering Sky. "Impossible to Blame" opens the album and from the first few notes you know you're listening to The Well Wishers, while "It's On" has a classic AOR sound to it. Only "In Love With" and "Nobody's Dancing Alone" slow things down a bit from the norm, and the closer "Nature's Son" belies its pastoral name with some of the hardest rock Shelton's undertaken. But as I said, it's a new Well Wishers album - you really don't need me to describe it.

Bandcamp



Bill Lloyd-Lloyd-ering. Nashville's Bill Lloyd is essentially one of power pop's elder statesmen, a songwriter's songwriter who's written for some big names over the years, been one-half of the great 80s duo Foster & Lloyd, did a one-off album with The Spongetones' Jamie Hoover, was part of the power pop supergroup Swag and released several outstanding solo albums this century. Many of my readers probably know this already, but somehow this is the first time I've featured one of his releases here so I'll pay him his proper respects. Another thing Lloyd is known for is his penchant for covers, and it seems as if there hasn't been a tribute album in the power pop community that he hasn't contributed a song to. Lloyd-ering is an attempt to collect these scattered covers (many of which are out-of-print) in one collection and even though it misses a few, this is an excellent 12-song sampler. He leads off with the Bobby Fuller Four classic "Let Her Dance" (also memorably covered by Marshall Crenshaw), captures the spirit of the Byrds with "The World Turns All Around Her" and gives John Lennon a run for his money with his version of "Across the Universe", among others. My only quibble is that "When Time Stood Still" from the Jeff Lynne tribute Lynne Me Your Ears was omitted, but maybe that'll be on the Lloyd-ering box set someday.

iTunes

Mid-March Roundup

VA-If it Feels Good Do It-A Sloan Tribute. Keith Klingensmith & co at Futureman Records have put together one of the best power pop tribute albums I've heard, and given how long Sloan's been out there I'm kind of surprised it took until 2016 to get one. What makes Sloan such a great band for this kind of compilation is that they're the rare band that has four legitimate singer-songwriters. Specifically, you have the 70s AM radio pop of Jay Ferguson, the traditional Shoes-style power pop of Chris Murphy, Patrick Pentland's classic/hard rock-influenced tunes, and the Pink Floyd-esque art-pop of Andrew Scott. So that gives the contributors some extremely fertile ground to draw from, and the results here are pretty great. I'm personally partial to Ferguson's tunes, and here Stereo Tiger and Klingensmith open and close the comp with fine covers of "C'mon, C'mon (Let's Get it Started)" and "I Wanna Thank You" respectively (both from Sloan's career-great Navy Blues album). Another Ferguson track that finds the perfect match of artist and material is The Well Wishers' version of "The Lines You Amend", which sounds like one of Jeff Shelton's creations to begin with. Nick Piunti rescues "Right or Wrong" off Sloan's somewhat forgettable Action Pact and also makes it his own, while other standouts include The Anderson Council's take on Pentland's great rocker "Iggy & Angus" and Andy Reed's fine reading of Murphy's "I Love a Long Goodbye" from the underrated Pretty Together. The only misstep here is an odd version of Ferguson's "Don't You Believe a Word" which Hidden Pictures chose to cover with processed, synthesized vocals (I'm hoping there's a version of that track where they sang it straight as they looked a good match on paper for the tune). The only omission that disappointed me here is that nobody covered Murphy's brilliant and complex "Fading into Obscurity" from the song-medley album Never Hear the End of It. I make rare exceptions for compilations on my year-end lists (like 2013's #1 Drink a Toast to Innocence), but I just might be doing so again in 2016.

Bandcamp



Cheap Star-Songs for the Farrelly Brothers. The French band with my favorite power pop legend-based hybrid name is back with their first full-length since 2009's Speaking Like an Elephant, and it's an excellent return. They're kind of an auxiliary Posies, as they've toured with them and Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow play on all their records (including this one) and have produced them as well. So yes, there's an obvious Posies influence here, as well as bands like Nada Surf and Teenage Fanclub. Just about all the tracks here as equally as good, with the moody, driving "Memories", the very Posies-like "Separated from You" and the rocking "What's the Point" more equal than others. (NOTE: I was too lazy to reach out to them to see if these were tracks actually written for a Farrelly Brothers movie, but if not it's a helluva random title).

iTunes



Propeller-Fall Off the World. First of all, let's talk about that cover. It's an homage to the classic K-Tel album covers from the mid-70s, specifically Music Express, which I once owned and you can see here, so they grabbed my attention there. And the San Francisco band has backed it up with ten seriously power-poppin' tunes, any of which would have proudly found their way onto one of those K-Tel albums. Their sound is kind of a more rocking Teenage Fanclub or a poppier Replacements, and tracks like "Can You Hear Us Now" and "Mismatched Shoes" will have your head bobbing and toes tapping right along, while "Wish I Had Your Picture" channels The Raspberries to great effect. No gooey ballads here, just one kick-ass track after another that can serve as the soundtrack to summer 2016. And it's "name your price" at Bandcamp.

Bandcamp

Halloween roundup.

Latvian Radio-For Love & Spite. These New Yorkers return with their latest full-length, another collection of their joyous power pop that will appeal to fans of indie poppers like The Shins as well as traditional power poppers like Brendan Benson. There's plenty to love here, from the jangle pop of "To Find You There" and "On Display" to more reflective numbers like "North of the Keys" and "Stand Clear of the Closing Doors". And with the uptempo melodies of the title track and "Oh No", For Love & Spite is like an instant party you can attend whenever you put on the album. With autumn in full swing, this is perfect record to listen to while enduring the drudgery of raking leaves.

CD Baby | iTunes

The Well Wishers-A Shattering Sky. Consistency, even when at a high level, can sometimes be a curse. This comes to mind whenever it's time to review a new Well Wishers disc because Jeff Shelton is so good at what he does that it's hard to say anything that hasn't be said over the previous five albums and an EP he's released since I started this blog in 2006. And to a large extent A Shattering Sky, Shelton's latest, is "more of the same". But to paraphrase Animal Farm, some Well Wishers album are more equal than others, and I'd say this is his best release since 2005's Under the Arrows. What made that album my favorite of his were the slower, midtempo numbers like "Only Sky" and "Before the Race Was Run". While all of the WW albums in the interim had the top-notch, driving jangle pop tunes, A Shattering Sky stands out for me with the quality of the slower tracks like "The Last to Fall in Love" and "Right Here at Last". Of course there's plenty of the "full-bodied power pop" (as Shelton describes it) to go around here too, and those tunes are great as well, including the jangly "Bring it Back" and "Goodbye" and the rocking "I Believe". This is the Well Wishers album to get if you only have one (and you should have them all).

CD Baby | iTunes

Quick notes on new stuff.

New Hot Nun single! Jeff Shelton and the guys (including the legendary Nash T. Habit) are back with a new single by way of follow-up to last year's rocking good album. This one's called "A Little Too" and can be found on Bandcamp.

Bandcamp



Jay Gonzalez-The Bitter Suite. When he's working his main gig playing keyboards for Drive-By Truckers, Jay Gonzalez plays power pop on the side as we saw with 2012's Mess of Happiness. Inspired by Abbey Road, Jay's put together a 13-minute song medley called The Bitter Suite, which he wants to release on vinyl. Hence his Kickstarter project which is about 2/3 of the way to its goal. Support his muse, readers of Absolute Powerpop, and check out the video below:

Pre-Thanksgiving Roundup.

The Well Wishers-Dunwoody EP. You just had to know the prolific Jeff Shelton couldn't go too much longer without a new Well Wishers release. Oh sure, he released the Hot Nun project at the beginning of the year, but it's been almost an interminable two years since the last Well Wishers album. So he's back with Dunwoody, which sounds like the place The Governor ran on The Walking Dead and actually is a suburban enclave outside of Atlanta. So while this EP isn't about a post-apocalyptic world overrun with zombies it does, as Shelton states, "chronicle the imaginary lives of those trapped in Southeastern suburban bliss...or misery, depending on how bad the heat and humidity might be." And as one who himself lives in Southeastern suburban bliss/misery, I guess I'm qualified to review it. The EP does find Shelton in a more laid-back mode but not in full retreat from his customary uptempo jangle rock. And his sense of melody remains completely intact as well as demonstrated on the opener "Peel Away", and "Real Today" and "Open Up Your Eyes" are vintage jangly Shelton/Well Wishers. Just released today, we should all give thanks for more Well Wishers music.

CD Baby | iTunes



Nathan Roberts & The New Birds-Nathan Roberts & The New Birds. Before this album, Toledo's Nathan Roberts had a couple of EPs to his name which I found enjoyable, but his debut full-length is a revelation of pop songcraft. The best way I can describe his music is Wilco-meets-Oasis, and if that sounds incongruous to you I make the comparison because he has a buoyant pop sound that's grounded to some extent in Americana and indie rock. The driving leadoff track "In Stereo" recalls Wilco's "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" (but thankfully doesn't run as long), only to be followed by the slick Pearlfishers/Silver Seas-styled pop of "No Trouble" and "Dead on Arrival". The 70s-era classic rock stylings of the bluesy "Step into the Light" are a nice touch, while the Oasis comparisons come in with "Heaven Knows" which has a bit of "Champagne Supernova" to it (and which is also thankfully not as long). Throw in the lush pop of "Two Dreamers in One Dream", and you have an audacious pop debut on your hands that will be more than worth your while to check out.

CD Baby | iTunes

Monday Roundup.

Kevin Lee & The Kings-Breakout. Kevin Lee is back. The classic rocker/power popper in the Cheap Trick mold has given his first full-length with his backing band after a 2010 EP and it - to put it simply - rocks. "Tell Me Why" is the kind of melodic rock with crunchy guitars that sold a lot of records in the 70s and 80s, and the title track has a Butch Walker kind of swagger to it. But while Lee can crank up the amps, he also has a way with the power ballad as "Outside Looking In" and "Hope in a Hopeless World" will have you holding up your metaphorical (or real) cigarette lighter. If those classic rock bands of the 70s and 80s still perk up your ears, you'll want to break out with Kevin Lee & company here.

CD Baby



Hot Nun-Hot Hun. Also back is Jeff Shelton, whom you are accustomed to seeing release records as The Well Wishers. Hot Nun is a somewhat different project for Shelton, in which he teams up with Braden McGraw and the two (with help from the mysterious Nash T. Habit) put out a record that shows their shared love of 70s glam rock, not unlike what Valley Lodge did with 2009's Semester at Sea. Still whatever the genre, Shelton's irrepressible sense of melody comes through. Opening tracks "Brave New World" and "Thank You for That" will appeal to fans of Shelton's earlier band, Spinning Jennies, while "Spirit of 76" pays tribute to the type of music people like us love ("used to be on the radio/used to be on the stereo"). The topper here is their cover of David Bowie's "Queen Bitch", which is faithful down to Shelton's faux-English accent and is an enjoyable romp. Don't know if this is going to be a one-off for Shelton & Co., but I wouldn't mind seeing a Hot Nun II.

CD Baby | iTunes

The Well Wishers give you a head start on 2012.

As we teased over the summer, Jeff Shelton and The Well Wishers are back with Dreaming of The West Coast, their sixth full-length release. It's not scheduled for actual release until January, but thanks to the magic of Bandcamp you can listen to the whole thing right here, right now (sorry, no Jesus Jones cover included). As usual Shelton doesn't let us down, so have a listen now and pick up the CD when it comes out.

(Also make sure you stop by their actual Bandcamp page to get a free download of leadoff track "Escape the Light".)

New Well Wishers on the way.

Jeff Shelton's at it again. Perennial site favorite The Well Wishers are due for another new album. It's called Dreaming of the West Coast (where else?), and should be out by year's end.

As a sneak peek, here's "Escape the Light", which I'm sure you'll agree is vintage Well Wishers:

Well Wishers do ABBA!

Had a very busy week and plan to get back to normal posting this week, but for now I give you Jeff Shelton and The Well Wishers covering ABBA's "Knowing Me, Knowing You":



And Jeff has offered up an mp3 of this track (which was also covered by Marshall Crenshaw on his live album My Truck is My Home) as well.

Two for Tuesday, 6/15/10

The Well Wishers-Post Modern Romantic. When it comes to certainties in life, there's death, taxes and Jeff Shelton. For over a decade now you can count on a quality new Jeff Shelton record, be it the Spinning Jennies or his current band, The Well Wishers. But if for some reason you need an introduction, the easiest way to sum up the Wishers would be say that they're the Posies of the 21st century. Post Modern Romantic continues the string of excellence, as it cranks up the amps a bit. The opening triumvirate of "Run Away", "Hanging On" and "All or Nothing" are crunchy guitar pop as good as you'll hear this year. It's not until "Someone Else" that we hear the "classic" midtempo, slightly jangly Shelton sound, and "Consequence of Love" also fits this bill. But it's the slightly heavier edge that dominates here, and tracks like "Grammareater", "Sorry About Your Politics" and "Flatlined" manage to capture that edge without sacrificing melody.

CD Baby | MySpace | iTunes

Snakehips-Month of Sundays. It seems that lately I've been stumbling upon more and more bands out of Memphis. After finding The Bulletproof Vests a few months back, I've now come across Snakehips. They've been around since 1993, and Month of Sundays marks their fifth disc. This is straight-up melodic rock'n'roll, and while there is an Alex Chilton/Replacements element to their sound, I also hear a lot of Willie Nile and Ike Reilly as well. Frontman Mark Harrison does sound vocally a lot like Nile, and the infectious opener "Walk Away" sets the tone for some enjoyable classic rock. "Time to Cry" and "Sheena" are a couple of more assured rockers, "Wonderland" is vintage power pop, and the spare, lovely "When I'm Blue" shows that Harrison & Co. can pull off the slower numbers. Rock 'n' Roll (and power pop) needs the true believers who stay faithful to the sound while keeping it fresh, and Snakehips fight the good fight.

CD Baby | MySpace | iTunes

CD of the Day, 12/1/08: The Well Wishers-Jigsaw Days

If power pop were like a sports league, Jeff Shelton might be the frontrunner for MVP. From his work in the The Spinning Jennies to his current role as frontman for The Well Wishers to his work in keeping the power pop flame alive through active participation in Audities and his podcast (The Power Pop Show), Shelton does it all in our neck of the woods. Although it seems like yesterday when Shelton formed The Well Wishers, the newly released Jigsaw Days marks the band's fourth full-length release and as usual, he delivers the goods.

The dominant sound for the Wishers is a midtempo jangly pop that finds its closest match in The Posies, especially as Shelton sounds like a cross between Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer. "Heroes" jumps off the disc in much this manner, and if you have their previous releases, it's like putting on your favorite comfortable sweater. "All The Suckers" rocks harder than the average Well Wishers track, but that's a good thing here; "Conscience Breaking Down" throws a few melodic curves, with a light 80s britpop influence, and Shelton goes largely acoustic in "Florida", his ode to my home state, which is greatly appreciated if for no other reason than it's not the 48927898099th song about California. Elsewhere, the one-man-and-his-disorted-guitar sound of "Drunk on the Tilt-O-Wheel" recalls The Replacements' "Answering Machine", and Shelton really lets loose on his axe in "Moving Mountains" and "Love Lies" is pure jangly bliss. By the end, I really couldn't help but starting chanting "M-V-P", "M-V-P". I got some funny looks, but you had to be there.

CD Baby | MySpace | eMusic

CD of the Day, 5/23/07: The Well Wishers-How I Won The War

If there's anyone in the power pop community you can count on to consistently deliver the goods, it's Jeff Shelton. From a great run with the Spinning Jennies to his current band, The Well Wishers, you know before evening listening to the album that it's going to be good. And the Well Wishers' latest, How I Won The War, is no exception to this rule; it's more of the Posies-meet-The-Shoes-with-a-modern-twist sound that propelled their previous release, Under The Arrows, to #5 in my best of 2005 list.

However, there is a slightly darker, less sunny feel to this disc, as it draws upon some Smiths/Cure influences, and the unbilled cover of The Chameleons' "Nostalgia" that closes the disc makes the point clear; opener "Grey Skies Black" trades the Wishers' normal jangle for more of an 80s britpop sound as well, yet remains true to their melodic vision. But there are still plenty of what might be called "classic" Well Wishers tracks here as well, especially "Seashells", "I'm In Love (Slight Return)" and "Merilee", and tracks such as "The Optimist" and "It's True What They Say About Girl" up the rock quotient a bit. All in all, Shelton has done a masterful job of making a great Well Wishers record without making a carbon copy of Under The Arrows in the process.

CD Baby | Not Lame (with full stream)

Updates & Miscellany.

By way of follow-up on some earlier posts, and some other things that I've been meaning to mention over the week or so since I last posted:

* I made reference a few weeks ago to a new David Grahame album becoming available through downloads from his official site. It now turns out that Grahame is only releasing individual tracks as he completes them, and not only are they going for $2 a pop, he's not making any previews of them available before purchase so as to preserve the surprise element. This business model of Grahame's has created quite a lengthy discussion on Audities, with the general consensus being that it's too steep a price, and even those who feel they could justify spending $2/track are put off by the lack of ability to sample the tracks. It is kind of a "pig in a poke" type of setup here, especially with Grahame's hints of a departure from his earlier sound. If anyone here has heard the tracks, please post a comment with your take on them, and if by some reason you're reading this Mr. Grahame, feel free to send me the mp3s on a promo basis and I'll be glad to write up my thoughts on them. :)

UPDATE WHILE PREPARING THIS POST: Apparently bowing to semi-popular demand, Grahame has made samples available. After listening to the five 20-30 second snippets, I'm not detecting that radical a change in his sound, with the exception of "The Slide", which has a horn section and sounds kind of bluesy. The others sound nice enough, assuming the snippets are representative of the tracks as a whole. I'm a bit more tempted to shell out the $2, but I'm not quite there yet.

* Contrary to earlier reports, Derby is not imminently releasing their sophomore disc, Posters Fade. It will probably be out later this year, according to their publicist. Nevertheless, the three new tracks are still playing on their site (click on "music") and I remain eager to hear the rest.

* I'd be remiss not to mention that Jason Falkner has a new disc out, but only in Japan. It's titled I'm OK, You're OK, and if you want it now before it gets a US release (if ever), Kool Kat has it for $32. I may have my power pop membership card taken away for saying this, but I've never really gotten into Falkner that much. It's not that I dislike his music, and maybe it's also due to his very spotty track record of solo releases, but for whatever reason his stuff has never jumped out at me. I'll certainly be glad to give the new one a listen, but not for $32.

* Not Lame put up some new discs today, and one of them looked particularly interesting: This Is Grand Atlantic, by the Australian band of the same name. Although this new full-length is not available yet on eMusic, their EP Smoke and Mirrors (which features several of the same tracks on the full-length along with a cover of Abba's "The Winner Takes It All") can be found there.

* Speaking of Not Lame, they've also rolled out the red carpet for the new disc from The Well Wishers, How I Won The War. So head on over and listen away. You know I'm stoked for this, since their previous release, Under The Arrows, was my #5 disc of 2005. I just got the disc in, so I'm not ready for a full report yet, but it sounds like more of the same goodness.

My Top 20 of 2005, #5: The Well Wishers-Under The Arrows

I know what you're thinking: Where did #6-#11 go? Don't worry - they're coming. But exigent circumstances led me to go out of order here for the Well Wishers' brilliant sophomore release, Under The Arrows. Specifically, Not Lame (who released this on their own label) is currently streaming the album in its entirety from their main page, and they usually focus on a release in that manner for less than a week. So by the time I would have normally rolled around to this one (in about a week), the streaming might have been gone.

Why all the fuss? This release has it all - jangly guitars, Beatlesque melodies and harmonies, choruses that won't quit, yet it retains a modern sound and doesn't sound like a tribute album. Plus, it appears that Jeff Shelton & Co. have a soft spot for Foreigner, as two consecutive tracks are titled "Double Vision" and "Break It Up". The latter is maybe the most rocking of the bunch. Meanwhile, the 4th of July holiday gets the theme song it deserves with "Fourth of July" (take a seat, Neil Diamond). My personal favorites are some of mellower ones: "Before The Race Was Run", which sounds like solo Ken Stringfellow, and "Only Sky", whose "is it meeee/is it youuuu" refrain burrowed its way into my head and still can't get out. Not Lame is offering up a 96kbps full-length mp3 of this track here:

Only Sky

Similar to the Golden Apples, who put out a better Big Star album last year than Big Star itself, The Well Wishers put out a better Posies album than the reformed Posies did. So take this limited opportunity to preview this great album in full over at Not Lame, and buy it if you like it.