Category: Highly Recommended by Powerpopaholic

A group of Italian power poppers named their band “Canadians.” Brilliant! Although not so search engine friendly, Canadians debut album has lots of great guitar jangle, humming synths and pounding beats. Alot like Death Cab for Cutie with an Italian accent, it’s sweet indie power pop with a West Coast influence. The high quality production comes through as well. The big Beach Boys-influenced single here is “Summer Teenage Girl” and you can download it for FREE. The sound marries the classic 60s influences with big indie stadium anthems that usually are reserved for bands like Oasis. “Find our 60s” is a song that perfectly finds that sweet spot and has a bit of a Teenage Fanclub guitar-filled chorus. The songs lyrics are a tribute to those great bands that influenced power pop as well. Singer Duccio Simbeni’s accent and voice sometimes gets lost in the wall of sound here. Notable is the indie epic “Last Revenge of The Nerds” – it carries a melody along, similar to the groups Field Music or the Shins, but with a long echoing chorus and ringing guitars. Every so often an acoustic guitar peeks through on a song like “The North Side of Summer” with force. The album is very consistent in delivering good quality songs. Even a little twee multi-tracking vocal flourish and synth help keep this release memorable. If you miss the classic Supergrass sound from “We’re in it for the Money” era you’ll appreciate the bombast this album provides. For emusic subscribers, here’s another no brainer.

The Canadians Main Site | My Space | E Music

Listen to “Love Story On The Moon”

Listen to “Good News”

Listen to “Summer Teenage Girl”

Hurry! Hurry! Step right up and be the first on your block to listen to Devon Reed’s soundtrack to “Songs from The Bigtop.” Not only does he produce a major film, ladies and gentlemen, but he wrote all the songs on the album to be performed by some of today’s greatest indie and power pop artists. Featuring songs performed by Doug Martsch (Built To Spill), Matthew Sweet, The Clientele, The Marbles (Robert Schneider of Apples in Stereo), Tullycraft, and more. Reed wrote each song custom based on the sound of each artist, and it’s sounds pretty good. Most of the album is full of lush ballads that speak wistfully of Devon’s love of circus life. Highlights include Michael Leviton’s “I Only want Sky” and Matthew Sweet’s “Wild” as mid tempo pop songs with just the right touch. Like a good box of chocolates, sweet suprises are to be found, for example the excellent “I Just Can’t Keep Up” by The Owls. A few tunes here didn’t thrill me, but that’s to be expected on a compiled soundtrack of artists with such unique styles. The link that ties it all together is Devon Reed’s songs, and the album evokes warmth and a hint of melancholy. Hopefully the film itself is as well crafted as the soundtrack. It’s only available on itunes. And who doesn’t love the circus?

Devon Reed Main Site | IMDB profile on the movie | Itunes

Listen to Michael Leviton’s “I Only Want The Sky”

Listen to Damien Jurado’s “Ashes”

Fans of Rainbow Quartz bands rejoice! The Marmalade Souls are a band that will warm the heart of anyone who loves Beatlesque power pop. Fans of The Spongetones and The Winnerys will gobble this release up. Some critics will attack this kind of power pop as too derivative of late 60’s bands, lacking any originality. That’s like calling all country music derviative of Hank Williams. Coming up with catchy melodies and using this style to do it is not so easy and I appreciate the effort. Many Rickenbacker guitar fans do too. Marmalade Souls add a good female vocal into the mix in Johanna Klemme, and some notable tracks are the excellent single “My Heart Belongs to You” and “Belly Butterfly” – songs which any Beatle fan can relate to. Other songs also are worthy of attention, like the Kinks-like “Fall Into The Sky” and The Byrds meets 10,000 Maniacs in “Daydreams.” Even the faux blues attempt “Baby Come Back” is a welcome track. No duds on this album. A guilty pleasure if ever there was one.

Marmalade Souls Site | My Space | Not Lame | E Music

Listen to “My Heart Belongs To You”

Once in a while, a mainstream album comes along that deserves attention from me. Collective Soul are back with their 7th studio album in 13 years. The public stopped paying attention to this band after “Blender” in 2000 and it’s a damn shame. With “Afterwords” Ed Rolland and the band have come full circle back to the sound and style that put them on the map. It’s those big clean hook-filled rock anthems that they did so well in the late 90s. Things kick off with the blistering “New Vibration”, a powerhouse tour de force that is anchored by new drummer Ryan Hoyle and a killer guitar riff. Next up is “What I Can Give You” a catchy tune with layers of guitars, a pounding backbeat, and smooth vocals. “All That I Know” continues the hit parade, and although it’s very good, it’s nothing new for this band. “I Don’t Need Anymore Friends” tries a new vocal here and Joel Kosche does a decent job. “Good Morning After All” has steady rhythm section and inspiring lyrics (“But you swear there’s always hope/Always hope from above/Now everything starts to fall into place”) and it is my favorite track. If you are a Collective Soul fan, tracks like this feel like a favorite pair of comfortable old sneakers. The next track “Hollywood” is a very Cars inspired track – it’s pretty good, but ultimately sounds like a throwaway tribute track. “Adored” and “Georgia Girl” close the album nicely as inspirational ballads. No tunes here are really throwaways (unless you count “Hollywood”). Overall it’s good, solid power pop that isn’t heard much nowadays. Go to the band’s site to hear the whole album streaming.

Collective Soul’s Main Site | My Space | Itunes

Listen to “New Vibration”

Listen to “Hollywood”

Let me start by saying The Trolleyvox are consistently good. They have produced four albums, each with the smooth professional vocals of Beth Filla, and the Byrdsian guitar work of Andrew Chalfen. And to add to this rarity, we have a double CD album. The discs are musically from different worlds, “Your Secret Safe” is power pop, and “Luzerne” is ambient folk instrumentals. If you’re familiar with this blog, you’ll understand as I will put aside “Luzerne” and talk about “Your Secret Safe.” After the success and positive critical reception of the last album “The Karaoke Meltdowns,” the Trolleyvox have accelerated to the forefront of the Philadelphia indie scene. Chalfen’s songwriting and pacing has only improved with time here. Unlike earlier records, the melodic guitar stylings are more prominent and early Peter Townshend seems a bigger influence than Roger McGuinn. This is evidenced by an awesome cover of “Our Love Was” (from The Who Sell Out). Beginning the album with “I Call on You” it sets the tone as jangle pop similar to REM, Dream Syndicate or especially, The Blake Babies. The band’s combination of moody sixities guitar and free form lyrical approach works well for songs like “Rabbit in the Sun” and “Jean Jacket.” Both are standouts here and with great hooks that warrant repeat listens. Beth’s vocals are hypnotizing and carry every tune along. There are plenty of nods to psych-pop lite with the understated brilliance of “Fume of Sighs” – a gentle mid-tempo song with wonderful harmonies and lyrics, it’s my favorite song on this album. Toward the end of the album it mellows a bit with songs like “Can you find a way down?” and the 11 minute jam of “Cricket in Euphoria” after which you could easily put on the “Luzerne” CD and sip coffee and read a novel in your favorite Starbucks. It beats the “song of the day” any day of the week.

My Space | Emusic | Not Lame | Kool Kat Musik | Transit of Venus

Listen to “Jean Jacket” from “Your Secret Safe” CD

Listen to “Call on You” from “Your Secret Safe” CD