After making the #1 spot on David Bash’s extensive top ten list last year for Lies and Fairy Tales, Ryan “Shmedly” Maynes and crew bang out another top notch power pop album. The opening single “Generation Ship” is a majestic ELO styled gem that conjures images of a Jules Verne inspired zeppelin floating across the clouds. Crunchy guitar riffs and Shmed’s growl on “Tarantula” is a loving tribute to your arachnophobia. The title track has some great instrumentation and the lyrics are literally pulled from a horticulture textbook.

The band stretches a bit on western themed “The Desert” and “It Should Have Been Me.” The tracks at the album’s middle are good, but don’t reach the earlier highs. There are still great standouts here like the sublime “Crocodile” and hand clapping goodness of “In The Way.” Shmed goes back to the Lynne playbook ending things with “Blue Thing,” but overall this music is way better than the piles of other bands, and just the amount of gems here demand it makes my top ten list for 2011 (So far each year Shemd has made my list).

Marco Joachim “Hidden Symphonies”
Marco Joachim and collaborator Jon Gordon put together this labor of love, stylistically emulating ELO and The Beatles. Hidden Symphonies is a gorgeous album, thick layers of guitars, synths, strings, keyboards and horns are piled on to give us an alternative universe version of Sgt. Pepper. Not an easy task for even a skilled musician, but Marco takes it on with “And When The World” with it’s looping chords, and Lynne styled vocal approach. On “Things You Do” it builds on a piano riff similar to Randy Newman’s “Short People,” but hooks you with a neat slide guitar accompaniment. “Cellophane Sue” is complete with Stones-like horn section, Penny Lane baroque trumpet, and capped with a wacky, exuberant guitar duel. “Nameless”, performed to a string quartet, is an ironic commentary on suburban life that is touching and yet sarcastic, sung in a sincere McCartney style that evokes the Beatles Revolver. I could continue to gush about the flawless pop atmospherics of “Gramercy Park” and play “spot the influence” on every track here but it’s all superfluous. Just get this album, it shouldn’t be “hidden” for long, as it makes my Top Ten for 2011 list.

My Space | CD Baby | Amazon

The Seldon Plan “Coalizione del Volere”
This is a short follow album up to last years Lost and Found And Lost. Listening to the opener “Fractionation” it was a slow indie drone with a subtle chorus, it doesn’t distinguish itself too much. But the sophisticated lyric and angelic backdrop make “Fool’s Gold” a winner. The album’s punch comes later, in the form of “Love Your Way” and “Millennials.” The fast moving guitars and beats of these songs are needed lift to the melodies. However, the percussive elements on many of the other songs here tend to drown out the vocal performances in spots, despite the excellent harmonies. But the biggest sin here is the atmospherics seem to take over and bury just about all the melodic hooks. Although its more musically complex it just didn’t linger in my memory long. Maybe next time the band will stray closer to power pop instead of ambient indie pop.

MySpace | Official Site | CD Baby (older albums)