Category: Power Pop Review

Metropolitan Farms and Wondernaut/Less Love

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Metropolitan Farms “Our Hero Pleads His Flimsy Case”
That Portland band Metropolitan Farms have an alt. pop sound that veers close to Guided By Voices is no surprise. Lead singer Josh Mayer plays in a GBV cover band (Giant Bug Village) and on the opener “Stars All Fall” it immediately reminds us, although this band has less of DYI quality. Several early tracks are fairly forgettable, but the song quality leaps forward on “Tear Me Apart”  with its Posies-like guitar attack. They hit their stride with the excellent “I Could Be Anything.” The gentle acoustic of “Just Below The Clothes” ignores the fact that we are not porn stars, and the melody is super catchy.

Another highlight is the synth-guitar Weezer like “Beer Commercial” which is a teenage fanatasy about life in beer commercial (Coors Light, is my guess). A few more gems are buried here, like “If You’re Asking” with its the Mod-era Who styled harmonies and the easy going “Don’t Wait Up For Me, Katie” with its hummable chorus. Worth discovering for sure.

CD Baby | Amazon

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Wondernaut/Less Love “Paradigms In The Design”
It is not often two bands share an album release, but Oklahoma City bands Wondernaut and Less Love team up to give us Paradigms In Design. These bands play well together, the starting duet “Like Shaking Hands” feels authentic and compelling. Then Wondernaut give us a mid-western Coldplay alternative on “No One But Me” and Less Love go ’80s syth and crashing percussion on “Lollygagging,” like a Bauhaus-Joy Division clone.

The style shifts are jarring and I found myself skipping the hard stuff for soft collaborations of male/female duet in “If You (UK Surf).” The electro-beat version of the song ends the album. Wondernaut benefits from the slower guitar compositions “Mountains In The Sky” and the solid mid-tempo “The Man Who Hated Man.” I found Less Love a tougher sell and tended to skip those tracks, maybe because they sounded like art-pop, or possibly they just didn’t have any consistency.

Amazon | CD Baby

The Nines “The Nines”

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This is the first major release of new material since the Nines’ critically acclaimed album Gran Jukle’s Field. Amazingly, Steve Eggers has come a long way from his 1998 debut on EMI, to working with a Who’s Who of power pop music gods including Andy Partridge (XTC) and Jason Falkner (Jellyfish). This new self-titled album is another pop masterpiece.

Starting with a disco funk bass (shades of Bleu here) intro, Eggers works magic on “Backseat” into an ultra hooky single. With the crowd noise, you almost feel like you’re attending a revival of Frampton Comes Alive! The piano rocker “Far Away” is a perfect segue full of contradictions like “Leave. Please stay. Doesn’t matter now” with an ELO styled middle eight. “Jackie Smokes” is a tonal shift with a heavy guitar and synth, but full of intricately layered vocals – sounding both modern and classic all at once. A few more songs heap on synths and elctro beats, but Steve’s melodies are underneath it all.

“The Virtuous Man” multi-layers the vocal and acoustic guitar with Andy Partridge, and it’s such a great song it makes me miss XTC even more. A fully orchestrated, slickly produced “Seasons” will please McCartney fans, but Steve feels most at home at the old piano with mid tempo ballads like “On The Slidelines” and “Martin.” No one could sing these songs with more earnest. “Goodbye” is another sweet ear confection that would’ve fit neatly on Macca’s Tug of War. Not a single misstep or filler track, and an easy nominee for my 2013 top ten year end list. Welcome back Nines!

CD Baby | Kool Kat Musik

Richard X. Heyman “X”

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Power Pop veteran Richard X. Heyman returned this year to give us “X,”  aka his tenth album. Starting out similar to the biographical Tiers, “When Denny Dropped Out of the Scene” describes a friend who slowly fades from the friendship. Next “Please Be Mindful” is an orchestrated piano epic and a little bit of The Doughboys garage style rubs off on the rocker “Compass.”

Heyman delivers with his jangling guitar on “Firing Line,” and “Somebody Has Finally Found Me.” The ballads slow things down a bit and it loses some momentum after the mid-point, but then “If You Have To Ask” is a classic melody that compares with the best he’s ever done. More gems include “Hangman Smiles” and the finale “Will To Go On.” Overall, this is a terrific return to form and an essential album for fans. Like other DIY “one-man-bands” (Paul McCartney, Emitt Rhodes or Todd Rundgren) Heyman is a master of melody and he proves it over and over again.

Amazon | richardxheyman.com

Tommy Keene and C.L. Blake

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Tommy Keene “Excitment At Your Feet”
Tommy Keene’s new album, Excitement at Your Feet, is a new and exciting approach to covers. Picking several favorite classic bands (The Who, Rolling Stones, Big Star, etc.) but don’t pick the best known tracks. In fact, these songs are downright obscure, and allow Keene to operate without the original lingering in your head for comparison.

Opening with the exciting Flaming Groovies’ “Have You Seen My Baby?” it really rocks and Keene goes to town. The jangle is heaviest on Echo & The Bunnymen “The Puppet” and even the little known Mink DeVille gets covered. With the skillful arranging it makes them all sound like Keene originals. Highlights include “Choking Tara (Guided By Voices)” and “Out Of The Blue (RoxyMusic).” My only pet peeve is that he doesn’t cover The Who’s “Listening To You,” as its lyric is in the albums title! This is further evidence that if you dig deep into your favorite albums, you’ll find a gem or two that can be re-discovered.

Amazon

 

C.L. Blake “george” EP
C.L. Blake (Ira Katz, lead singer/songwriter of The Greenberry Woods) recently teamed with producer/drummer Ken Coomer (Wilco, Will Hoge) to record this EP last year, and its worth discovering. While it has more in common with Wilco stylistically than his old band, Blake still delivers compelling melodies with “All We Are” and the jangling guitar of “Say What You’re Thinking.” Another gem is “Waiting on a Lover (Tressa).” It makes for a polished and effective showcase for his talents. It would be great to hear more “up” tempo tunes, and hopefully Blake is working on a follow-up.

Amazon | CD Baby