Highly Recommended by Powerpopaholic Archives - Page 227 of 330

The Brigadier and Bryan Estepa

June 7, 2011June 7, 2011 powerpopaholic

The Brigadier “Holiday Special” EP
Once again Matt Williams returns with his latest seasonal themed EP. “When The Sun Comes Out” is a sweet summer song with jangle filled melody, rock riffs and multi-tracked chorus. Once more Matt’s soft vocal plays to the narrative strengths in “Swansong” with a thick reverb guitar. On the sparse, but brilliant “A Holiday Romance” it’s both corny and compelling, you picture a resort-romance montage.

“Ogmore-by-Sea” is an jaunty surf-styled guitar tune and “Time To Go Home” wraps up the theme in a neat bow. The subtle orchestral touches make the melody display the dichotomy of wanting to stay on holiday and being drawn home, it plays like a Moody Blues meets Aztec Camera epic. Overall, this Brigadier EP is reliable casual fun.

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Bryan Estepa “Vessels”
Sydney singer-songwriter Bryan Estepa grows up here, and has moved fully into solid adult pop bliss. The wonderful pop hooks and solid song craft are evidenced in the opener “Won’t Let You Down,” with the chorus bridging together complex multiple harmonic lines. The worldly theme and breezy charm here is similar to The Jayhawks and Michael Carpenter on “Hard Habits.” The best track is next, “Tongue Tied” is classic Estepa, full of memorable rhythms and wonderful harmonies.

“Purple Patch” is another standout here, Hammond organ, guitar and vocals combine like a vintage cabernet for the ears. “Alone” is similar to Tom Petty in tempo and feel. When things get serious like on “Pull Ourselves Together” and “Let It Go,” Estepa let’s his soul shine through each verse. The albums second half is decidedly sober with more of an alt-country bend to it. No matter your mood, Bryan creates an essential music album for your playlist.

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The Nines "Polarities"

June 1, 2011June 1, 2011 powerpopaholic 1 Comment

The Nines are one of a very few reliable power pop artists who’ve produced consistently great music since 1998. Lead by Steve Eggers, over the course of 15 years and 4 full length albums, a few gems tend to slip through the cracks. Polarities gathers these unreleased tracks for public consumption.

The Nines clearly fall in the McCartney/XTC/Ben Folds realm, but the band has its own unique sound and a solid command of melodies and minor chord shifts. The opening track “Anything” is a catchy dance number lead by an ELO styled synth line. Another up-tempo tune is “You Can Get High” with its awesome cascading chord structure in the chorus, although the vocals are slightly buried. The winsome ballads “Goodbye Janine” and “Vanessa” were likely an outtakes from Gran Jukle’s Field. The rolling rhythms of “A Series of Shots” is very similar to Sugarplastic, and the slow guitar strum of “Orange of Summer” is another fantastic ballad. Because each track isn’t related to the others, you’ll find several favorites here. It’s a good thing, too – as this album is chock full of great music to choose from.

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The Turnback "Drawn In Chalk"

May 16, 2011February 6, 2023 powerpopaholic 2 Comments

The Turnback is the talents of Todd Giglio (vocals, guitar and keyboards), Kenny Sherman (vocals, guitar, bass) and Barry Nagel (drums, guitars, keyboards). Drawing inspiration from numerous power pop sources, the album is the primary soundtrack for the film “Drawing With Chalk,” an acclaimed independent film by Giglio about the lifelong pursuit of a career in film and music (view trailer here).

The unmistakable jangle and beat opens up “Beyond Belief” and it is very similar to the Spongetones, with crisp harmonies and solid melody lines in a Beatlesque vein. The next several songs are excellent, “Over and Out of My Head” is full of seamless hooks and the folk-rock harmonies shine on “Outside Again.” Things only slow down a bit with the falsetto-laden “We Become.” But this is a minor hiccup, as the strong timeless compositions make each of these songs memorable. The style isn’t static either, as it gets heavier on “Love Like Bombs,” and lighter on the ballads like “One Day You’ll Be Rich.”

There is no filler here, and all twelve tracks are meticulously crafted to require repeated listens. Also notable is the clean production by Grammy Award winning engineer Jeff Peters (Beach Boys, Brian Setzer, Goldspot) and mastered by Joe Gastwirt (Tom Petty, Talking Heads, Pearl Jam). The album has already won many honors, so to be redundant I am proud to add this to our Top Ten List for 2011.

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Sloan "The Double Cross"

May 15, 2011May 15, 2011 powerpopaholic

Canada’s best power pop band Sloan returns with a new album on their twentieth anniversary appropriately titled The Double Cross. This time the Halifax quartet brings out every bag of tricks and stylistic varieties to make this a winning album.

The band’s energy and solid melodies sound as fresh as ever with the opener, “Follow The Leader,” as it plays off of thick organ chords, a heavy bass line and impeccable harmonies. Then we seamlessly transition to the sunny “The Answer Was You.” It’s an instant classic, punctuated by a richly orchestrated chorus and shimmering tambourine. The great thing here is the band’s ability to weave a hook that sticks in your head and won’t let go. “Unkind” is a perfect example, and like the Raspberries with a modern spin, it exemplifies what makes modern power pop so enjoyable.

The Beatlesque jangle and sensibilities are visible in the fast-paced gems “Shadow Of Lobe” and “It’s Plain To See.” Then “She’s Going Down Again” invites comparison to the Turtles’ classics of yesterday. With its folk-pop stirrings, “Green Gardens, Cold Montreal” is a wonderful throwback to Canadian classics like Chilliwack’s “Baby Blue.” Sloan has incorporated all these influences into a style that uniquely suits them, and doesn’t linger on one style (although the classic ’60’s-’70’s era looms large) and can appear like a big, fat mix tape of favorites when all is said and done. Overall I highly recommend this album, and we can only hope Sloan continues along its merry, melodic way.

Article first published as Music Review: Sloan – The Double Cross on Blogcritics.

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Famous fans of Sloan look back on the bands 20 year history in a 10 part video series featuring members of Broken Social Scene, The Dears,Billy Talent, Jason Falkner, Jason Schwartzmann, The Stills, Buck 65, K-OS, Kids In the Hall and more.

The Bewitched Hands and Chris Marshall

May 13, 2011May 13, 2011 powerpopaholic

Bewitched Hands “Birds & Drums”

Unlike French brethren Phoenix, the Bewitched Hands have a touch of Apples In Stereo and Moody Blues mixed well with a dose of Partridge Family. Compositions have big harmonies in the choruses on “Happy With You” and “Underwear,” both are filled with intricate guitar rhythms and psychedelic retro-distortions. “Birds & Drums” brings to mind Family of The Year with its loose campfire melody. And if you can get past the accents, you’ll have a ball with this album and its faux-punk “So Cool” and clap-along theme “Kings Crown” that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Big Audio Dynamite album. There is a sense of fun and experimentation with pop format that makes listening totally unpredictable, a good example of this is “2 4 Get.” The slower tunes tend to get bombastic and don’t hold interest, with the exception of the lovely glam influenced “Sahara Dream” which builds to a full “Spiders of Mars” styled crescendo. Go to Facebook to hear a sample.

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Chris Marshall “August Light”

Rarely do I tolerate any pure country album that isn’t “alt”, but Portland-based Chris Marshall just grew on me. “Every time The Wind Blows” has a soulful sound that is both genuine and tells a compelling story. A catchy beat is part of “Look Out Your Window,” one of many gems here. The albums theme is on mortality and god (“Thirty Pieces of Silver”) delivered with Chris’ powerful vocal. The messages here resonate just as strongly as the melodies. Highly recommended.

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