Fall Singles Roundup.

Michael Carpenter-The Start of Being Alone. Michael Carpenter may have "retired" from straight-up power pop, but he remains busy writing, producing and collaborating and his sense of melody and songcraft isn't retired. He bills this new single as alt-country but to these ears it's more rock than twang and in the vein of Tom Petty.

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Dave Sheinin-The Lies of Summer. The debut album from longtime Washington Post sportswriter Dave Sheinin was perhaps the most pleasant surprise of 2018, finishing #8 on my year-end list, and he's back with this fine Andy Bopp-produced track.

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Andrew Stonehome-I Am King. Normally I don't seek out singles from artists I'm unfamiliar with, but this tune from Portland's Andrew Stonehome caught my ear and hasn't let go. Bright, crunchy power pop that sounds like Cheap Trick crossed with Big Star. This song is apparently a teaser for an upcoming full-length album due in 2020, and I for one can't wait for it.

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Peter Baldrachi-The Suffering. My last singles roundup several months back featured his great tune "Breathe", and Baldrachi continues to release new tunes in advance of his upcoming full-length next year as well. This is one is 2:19 of his usual ear candy, and despite the title no suffering is involved.

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The Hangabouts-Who Wants Cilla?/Mrs. Greene. One of our favorite Detroit pop bands returns with a double-sided single, which I'll let them describe for you: "A throwback to Phil Spector pop backed with a Kinks-ish ode to your favorite teacher". Can't go wrong there.

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Dave Hill-Parking the Moose. Comedian/author/rocker Dave Hill, best known around here as the frontman of Valley Lodge, has a new book out which provides his unique twisted perspective on Canada, and his promotional theme song for it is pretty much what you'd expect: a fun tune with goofy lyrics name-dropping everything Canadian.

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Adrian Whitehead / Dave Sheinin

Adrian Whitehead-Nerd from the Suburbs. I got heavily into indie power pop in the mid-2000s and started this blog shortly thereafter, so a lot of the discs I grew to love in those first few years still stand out in my memory. And when I'm reminded of one of those albums and then realize the artist hasn't released anything new since then I figure to myself that he or she has moved on to other, likely better-paying pursuits and I'm just thankful for the music they did make. So it was truly a "whoa" moment when I noticed that Adrian Whitehead, who had my #3 album of 2008 with One Small Stepping Man, has released his first new album in ten years. Nerd from the Suburbs isn't quite a rerun of the debut, which was heavily Beatlesque. Instead, it's more like Elliott Smith when Smith was at his Beatlesque. "Folie a Deux" (French for "shared delusion" and the title of a great X-Files episode) is a wonderful album-opener and the prime example of this slight shift in sound, driven by acoustic guitar but with an electric solo all in service of a pretty melody. The E.Smith comparison also applies to the darker yet baroque combo of "Blaming the Snake" and "Sigmund Freud" both of which feature trumpet, tuba and trombone. Other standouts include the piano ballad "Shades of Grey", the gloriously melodic "Gilded Cage", and the title track which isn't the autobiography its title implies but an honest plea for love and friendship. Unlike some artists who sound the same even after a decade+ absence, Whitehead has clearly evolved, going from the boyish Beatle-pop of the debut to a richer, more mature set of songs both lyrically and musically.

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Dave Sheinin-First Thing Tomorrow. In the Adrian Whitehead review above, I spoke of musicians moving on to other pursuits but here's a case of someone more prominent in another field making music. Dave Sheinin is the national baseball writer for the Washington Post (you can read his articles here), and his debut album is one of 2018's best to date. Sheinin gets help from the Myracle Brah's Andy Bopp among others, but these are his songs and they're uniformly good. With its staccato guitars and catchy melody, "Lies" kicks things off with a definite 70s AM radio vibe while "Oh Amelia" boasts a jangly, chiming riff at its center. "Little California" sound as sun-kissed as its title and features backing vocals from Bopp, and "City You Left Behind" sounds like a lost Posies track. Throw in a couple of fine piano ballads ("A Warm February" and "You Love the Sunrise") and First Thing Tomorrow is the rare debut album that sounds like the work of a long-time professional. And it's easily the best album from a sportswriter since J.P. Cregan's Man Overboard.

P.S. The album art looks like it was inspired by the opening credits of The Leftovers, which earns it bonus points in my book.

iTunes

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