Greg Pope “Monster Suit”

One of my favorite power pop artists, Greg Pope puts on his Monster Suit for Halloween. We mentioned before that he is making a film called Giant Monster Playset. This is the soundtrack album, and in typical Greg Pope fashion – its got a pile of great songs. The music follow the films narrative and like his last album Blue Ocean Sky, it has a fair amount of fuzzy guitar and pysche-pop pastiche. The faux Hendrix opener “Modern Plaything” gives way to a Soundgarden styled wall of dense guitars. A bit more impressive is the soft vocal of “Soulless Heart” that leads us to a strong hook in the chorus. And there’s more, “The Chance You Don’t Take” is another gem with guitar strum and double tracked vocal.

Some nice guitar work is part of the long intro on “Place On The Hill” and it’s  comparable with The Who’s Tommy. The 70’s band Free is another point of reference on “The Last Time” as the slow march builds up to a satisfying crescendo. Some of the tracks are just wonderfully atmospheric like the instrumentals “There May Be Thousands” and “Monster Chase.” The crashing cymbals on “This Is Goodbye” makes this mid-tempo love song bounces along its warm melody a la Badfinger. The song “Your Love” feels more like Robert Pollard’s style, but the underwater vocals don’t quite fit here. Since it’s a soundtrack and not a singles collection there are less hooks than in previous works, but any Greg Pope album is a worthy investment and will satisfy your craving for crunchy guitar pop. Can’t wait for the film!

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Rhode Island and Ex-Norwegian

Rhode Island “Light The Windows In These Places Let Through”
Rhode Island are three dudes (Dave Brown, Jeff Johns and Will Turner) from Leeds, UK. They are unsigned and did all the work themselves… its starts with the interesting “War With Iran.” The vocals are a bit muddy, but the composition is solid with a bass driven melody. You’ll hear a little Bowie in “I Lost My Mind,” but the harmonies on “Articulation” are quite impressive, and fans of Queen will really love this. The album gets better as it continues – “A House” is a wonderful pop composition with shifting melody lines that reminds me of bands like Jukebox The Ghost or Field Music. The band plays with atmosphere on the instrumental “Franck’s Plantation,” and check out the album’s latter half with “Alcoholics,” “Good Morning, Captain John Lerro” and the very Apples in Stereo styled “Change In Repetition.” Although not every tune here is great, there are many highlights that make this band an undiscovered gem.

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Ex-Norwegian “Sketch”
Last year the Miami band Ex-Norwegian produced a pretty good pop album that touched many bases and had lots of influences.  On it’s latest LP Sketch it takes a big step forward musically. Opening with “Jet Lag” it almost goes retro-grunge here, but Alice In Chains never had a horn section. The band has solidified it’s sound with the late 90’s and 60’s as basic touch points, and the crunchy riffs of “Smashing Time” showcases the energy and great potential. With singer Roger Houdaille improving his game we get to the best track here,”Sky Diving” with Shazam-like catchy guitars, and grand choruses similar to Sloan. I wish the whole album took this approach – but it then switches to a lo-fi “You’re Elastic Over Me” with bassist Nina Souto doing her best Liz Phair. The melodic gems pop up in spots here, “Seconds” and “Acting On An Island” are excellent psyche-pop tunes and the bleak “Upper Hand” is a proper counterbalance to the raucous Who-styled “Turn Left.” This is a band that is on the cusp of greatness, but they aren’t helped by the throwaway lyrics of “Girl With The Moustache.” But still… this is very worthy of your playlist. Fans of Weezer, Greg Pope and other guitar heavy power pop will definitely want to add this album to the collection.

Mike Viola “Electro De Perfecto”

There are only a handful of musicians who when they release a new album, I buy prior to hearing it. And Mike Viola is one of them, as he’s earned my trust over the years. This is a highly personal album, and like Matthew Sweet he lays it all out there – the questions of middle age, regret and more. In interviews, Mike mentions comparisons to the TV show Breaking Bad, where normal life drama comes from raw emotional moments.

It starts of with “Columbus Day” showing a shift from NYC to LA that took “all my energy” in the building chorus and with cultural touch points dotting the melody. The tone is sunny and catchy on most of the songs like “Get You Back” and even a “bad day for the whipping boy” on “El Mundo De Perfecto” finds the optimistic side of things. “Soundtrack of My Summer” is another Viola gem of an earworm, you won’t be able to shake off.  “Me and My Drinking” has a wonderful bass line and delicate narrative about screwing things up. Lyrically it does get very dark, especially on “Closet Cutter” where you blame “The Beatles and The Rolling Stones” for a lack of success and “Here’s The Rub” where a breakup leads to addiction. Aside the fact that this is all great ear candy, each song is a thoughtful and detailed scenario that requires repeated listens to really appreciate. Ever since Hang On Mike, he’s performed at such a high level, and Electro De Perfecto continues this tradition, don’t miss it.

El Mundo De Perfecto by Mike Viola

American Underdog and Matthew Sweet

American Underdog “Always on The Run”
Michigan musician Andy Reed (aka American Underdog) puts together a wonderful follow up to his debut. Each one of these tracks has a short musical formula and it makes for compelling listening, for example “Your Reign is Over” is a solid single that sounds like a Belle & Sebastian doing Jellyfish. The production is clean and the solid guitar strum sets the tempo on the impressive “Portland.” The Jellyfish tendencies continue on other tracks like “Always On The Run” with a super catchy hook in the chorus, although here the vocal seems lightweight. Reed sounds best when he overdubs his chorus, like on “The Day The World Was Lost” with a nice violin assist by Andy Rogers.

Most of the tracks are so drenched in sweetness, you are sure get a sugar overload – and that’s a good thing for power pop fanatics. The fuzz guitar comes out on “Nothing I Can Do” where Andy does his best Robert Schneider (Apples In Stereo) imitation. The gorgeous harmonies on the ballad “Put Out The Fire” recall the best of Pet Sounds, and its a real gem. The sparse roots ballad “Train” doesn’t seem to fit with the other tracks but, not a single note is wasted here. Overall, sure to satisfy fans of McCartney, Roger Manning Jr. and Elliot Smith. Highly recommended for sure and Kool Kat Musik will give a bonus disc with 5 unreleased tracks.

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Matthew Sweet “Modern Art”
“I guess my evil ways turned out to be kind…” is the opening to Matthew Sweet’s latest album and its a fitting combination of power pop, progressive rock and sonic experiments.”Oh, Oldendaze” sets the album’s theme about the passing of time and dwelling on what you have left — as he intones “Memories never stand the test of time.” The guitar work is some of the best Sweet has done in years – and he dons his best Hendrix/Byrds hat on the psychedelic rock of “Ivory Tower.”

The Sweet we all know and love comes back on “She Walks The Night” with a Brydsian pop jangle, and some nice breaks midway through the song. Experiments are compelling too, like the heavy “Ladyfingers” and bongo jam on “My Ass is Grass.” And Sweet pays tribute to the genre’s fans on “Late Nights With The Power Pop,” although it feels strangely artificial.  The emotional “December Dark” and “Sleeping” are more powerful tracks for me, like John Lennon or Big Star’s Chris Bell – he explores deep personal issues. So you get a lot of soul searching from Sweet, so I wouldn’t call it “Modern,” but I would definitely call it “Art.”

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Pugwash “The Olympus Sound”

The amazing Thomas Walsh and company return after a solid “greatest hits” collection, and create The Olympus Sound with an assist from Ben Folds, Andy Partridge and David Gregory (XTC). With such a stellar line-up and mixed at Abbey Road studios I expect nothing less than power pop bliss. And that’s what you get for the most part, as Walsh continues to pick up where XTC left off ten years ago. “Answers On A Postcard” is a snappy single with carnival-like atmosphere filled with kazoos and kettle drums. The mesmerizing “There You Are” builds with a smooth easy synth and a fuzz riff that resembles The Beatles”Rain.”

Gregory scores the strings on the wistful ballad “The Warmth Of You” and “Fall Down” chugs along with its hummable melody and tambourine claps. Folds quietly does the piano on “Dear Belinda” written for a friend of the band – actress Belinda Stewart-Wilson. The guest stars here may help but its Walsh’s vocal that leads everything, including the Patridge written “Here We Go ‘Round Again” and the semi-western mantra “I Don’t Like It But I Gotta Do It.” At this point every track shines bright and then the last few tracks get more pastoral and slower in tempo. “Four Days” is so laid back with it’s Beach Boys harmonies and lazy piano it could have you daydreaming of summer vacation… Needless to say this will stay on my ipod for a while. A “don’t miss it album” and top ten nominee for 2011.