Mid-February Roundup.

Today's a bit different as we feature one brand new album, one from last year, and a gem from six years ago that I just recently discovered.

Scott Warren-Good Love. Between his stellar work with Signal Hill Transmission and his solo output to date, Scott Warren has gone down in my book as an underrated pop genius. Good Love is his first album since 2012's brilliant Dyed in the Wool (my #3 album that year) and a bit of a throwback to his Signal Hill Transmission days in that's more of a straight-ahead rock album. "Good Love" and "Cold Feet" offer a melodic 1-2 punch that puts the "power" in "power pop", "Why Won't You Come Around?" finds Warren more reflective, and "I Love You, I Love You" has a rollicking, vaguely honky-tonk feel to it. Elsewhere, the lovely country-tinged ballad "Fall in Line", and the gentle McCartney-esque "Life" are standouts, and Warren closes with a nice cover of Lindsey Buckingham's "Trouble". While there's nothing here as mind-blowing as "A Sinking Feeling" and "Tongue-Tied" from his last album, Good Love is a great collection of pop/rock tunes and an early best-of-2016 contender.

Bandcamp



Eugene Benjamin-Life. Eugene Benjamin's Photograph was of 2014's nice surprises for me, and late last year he followed that up with Life, another fine collection of roots-influenced rock in the style of Tom Petty, George Harrison and John Hiatt. Tracks like "His Town", "She Got Soul" and "Reunion" go down smooth and easy as well as the louder rockers like "Baby Grace". You can slot this in somewhere around the middle of my 2015 year-end list had I heard it in time.

iTunes



Ray Pearen-Everything is Spinning. I don't normally seek out albums from six years ago, but I stumbled across this album after a track from 2007's The Holy Fields EP came up on shuffle and got me to wondering if they'd released anything since. Typically, bands I don't hear from in many years have broken up, so I'll Google the frontman and see if he's released anything under his own name or with a new band. This led me to finding out The Holy Fields' Mike Gennaro played on this 2010 release from Ray Pearen, a Canadian musician who happens to based out of my home area in Tampa. So I gave it a listen and it's one of the best power pop-meets-Americana albums I've heard in recent years and easily would have made my top 10 of that year. The opening track "Drive" has fast become my new favorite song, one of the best songs Tom Petty never wrote, while the title track rocks in the same vein and "Waiting" has a kind of timeless pop pedigree in which I hear traces of Buddy Holly and The Beatles. "Run Away With Me" is another dazzling rocker, and while the album closes with three ballads, they're all of top quality. It's a shame this got overlooked in 2010.

iTunes

Friday Roundup.

Cliff Hillis-Song Machine EP. It's always a good year for power pop when Cliff Hillis decides to release new material, and his followup to 2012's Dream Good is this new 7-song EP which he crowd-funded. If you weren't among those who already supported the EP you won't want to waste any time adding this to your collection. Hillis is matched by only a handful in the power pop scene when it comes to pure songcraft, and the seven tunes here are confirmation from the pensive opener "Dashboard" (which builds to a great crescendo) to the would-have-been-an-AM-Radio-hit-in-the-70s "Just One More" to the jangly, Beatlesque "Tonight". And Hillis is good for one track that instantly grabs you as a favorite - on 2008's The Long Now it was "Elevator", on Dream Good it was "Keep the Blue Skies", and here it's "Turn on a Dime" with a melody both catchy and effortless. It's going to be a real Sophie's Choice to pick between this and the Peter Buzzelle I review in July for 2014's top EP.

Tallboy Records (CD) | iTunes



Eugene Benjamin-Photograph. This Maryland singer-songwriter's second album isn't precisely power pop, but it's a tuneful mix of pop/rock and Americana that owes a debt to Tom Petty, George Harrison and John Hiatt and will appeal to fans of artists we've featured here like Mike Barnett. The opener "Baby Blue Eyes" is a gem with a great guitar hook in the chorus, "Cindy" reminds me of a typical Petty song about a woman, "Over Me" rocks melodically, and "Good-Bye" is top-drawer jangle rock. Put this one on your music player of choice, and it will be all about the Benjamin.

CD Baby | iTunes