Beebe Gallini is the newest garage rock, girl pop hybrid and they can shred like nobody’s business. The new LP Pandemos is her first full-length album, made up of demos she cut earlier in the pandemic. Nashville’s The Nobility delivers a theme of celebration and The 1957 Tail-Fin Fiasco doubles down on the quirkinesses, with key changes everywhere! Gentle Hen‘s freebie channels They Might Be Giants here with every parents’ cry for help. Plus, Mo Troper is doing a cover of the entire Revolver album. Darn good too! Speaking of covers Finnish-born talent Janita gives us a solid cover of Peter Gabriel’s classic “Digging in the Dirt.” With WandaVision in the rearview mirror, Timmy Sean did a quick cover of the jingle “Agatha All Along” and it’s his biggest viral post yet! Where is Reed Richards?
MoTroper is back with his third full-length album, where he opines on relationships, obsessions, love and does it with an unmistakable vocal style. “I Eat” opens the set as a slow-building gem about self-destructive habits. The jangling “Your Boy” has a little DNA from The La’s “There She Goes” and it’s every bit as infectious. Each tune builds this picture of a hopeless romantic like “In Love With Everyone” and the multi-tracked acapella “Everything.” Mo goes on about long-distance relationships in “Jas From Australia” and the catchy jealousy of “Your New Friend.”
Few I know can make regret and loss sound so bright and sunny in under two minutes. “Potential” is another lush melody with strong guitars “we had so much potential when
we were young and stupid/but nothing ever came of it/we left it there and now it’s dead.” You almost wish there were more verses here to fill it out and keep those hooks fresh in your head. Eventually, Mo comes crashing back to sober reality on the church organ dirge of “Business As Usual.” Overall a wonderful album, that will get many repeats on my playlist. Highly Recommended.
After his stint in last years hit The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness, Andrew Taylor returns to his home-band Dropkick to continue making great indie-pop. The band sounds like Elliot Smith fronting for Teenage Fanclub on the jangling opener “Feeling Never Goes Away.” Taylor’s light vocal floats above the rhythms on “Catching On” and the mid-tempo ballad “I’m Over You, Goodbye.”
The slower tempo rockers “For Too Long” and “Disappearing” emphasize the guitars a bit more, but overall as the title suggests, the band’s tone is mostly mellow here. After the up-tempo catchy “A Matter of Time,” the songs slow considerably. The ballad “Broken From The Start” boasts great guitar solos between the verses and helps make this an above-average album that deserves to be heard all the way through. Highly Recommended.
On their 7th studio release, The Perms have hit their stride, concentrating on hook-filled rock and roll. “Julie” opens things up with a catchy chorus, and the bands punk roots show through on the anthemic “Be Alright,” with a positive attitude that flows through the song. But the big hit here is a grand mid-tempo love song “Lose Yourself” with a combination of fuzz guitar and bright synth rhythms. The songs are all short and sweet, with plenty stylistic variety. The band gradually delivers a harder rock sound on “Think Less,” “Wanted You To Know” and “Busy Izzy.” Fans of Cheap Trick will appreciate much of this.
The immediacy of the music is evident, and on “Now November” lead singer Shane Smith intones “I know it’s tough, I know we suffered, but life is short. What do we have to lose?” And this album embraces carpe diem throughout its nine tracks. And not a wasted note here, with even the jazzy acoustic ender “Gone.” This is a rare instance where I felt they could have added a few more songs. But quality is more important than quantity and musically this is damn good. Highly Recommended.
Portland songwriter Mo Troper is a skilled power pop musician with a real gift for catchy melody and biting emotive lyrics. Fans of both Superdrag and Wyatt Funderburk will find a lot here to love. Here the hooks are flying fast and stick in your head quickly. The album is a bundle of demoralizing frustrations and cynical solutions, starting with the choral harmonies of “Rock and Roll Will Change The World,” it’s hope is dashed by the next song “Your Brand.” A rich mantra, where marketing your tragedy is all part of being a musician.
The centerpiece here,“The Poet Laureate of Neverland” adds horns and strings to the mid-tempo guitar chorus that states the conceit that artists can’t grow up and “never have to reminisce if you never move on.” Some of these tunes are just too quick (under 2 minutes) but they still stick; “Tow Truck” is a quick gem, “Wedding” is a Beach Boys parody, “Jumbotron” sounds like a lost Teenage Fanclub demo and the self-critical “Clear Frames” is another fantastic ear-worm. Troper stated in an interview, “I want my songs to get stuck in people’s heads.” Mission Accomplished. Makes my top ten list this year.
