December mega-roundup 2.

Before we head into the year-end lists next week, here are some more new releases worthy of mention:

Lannie Flowers-Home. After going several years without a new album of studio material, power pop mainstay Lannie Flowers has made up for lost time in 2019. He first released a series of monthly non-album singles throughout the year (all of which were outstanding, naturally) and now caps off the year with the full-length Home. Opener "Running" is the kind of "instant hit" (at least on your hit parade) that he's always good for, but much of the rest of the album isn't the classicist power pop he's been known for but a more introspective singer-songwriter collection of songs. With a lyrical maturity not often found in the genre, Flowers gives us a song cycle of an aging rocker looking at his career and where he stands today as "Just Go to Sleep" tackles post-tour boredom, the bouncy, vaguely Beatlesque title track celebrates the stability of home versus life on the road, and the lovely mostly-acoustic "In Time" finds peace in the dichotomy. Flowers takes his songcraft to another level here, and with its December 6 release date it shows why you never make year-end lists in November.

iTunes



Braden Bodensteiner-Lived in Sound. Rochester, New York's Braden Bodensteiner just might win 2019's Truth in Advertising award with his album title as he features a lived-in sound on this collection of sophisticated adult pop that recalls the likes of Michael Penn, Neil Finn and Salim Nourallah. The album's 10 tracks are equally good, but more equal than others are the opener "Beautiful Line", "While Dreaming" and the George Harrison-esque "Don't Need a World".

iTunes



Brady Harris-Keep Your Cover EP. After dabbling in some mostly country music side projects, Brady Harris is back in pop mode on this four-track EP which features three originals and a cover of Spoon's "Me and the Bean". The originals are outstanding - "Tell Me Why" is 2:18 of pop bliss, "Say Hello Wave Goodbye" has a slinky melody, and "Mistake to Make" recalls early Beatles in mid-tempo mode. Not giving this a listen would truly be a mistake to make.

iTunes



Eric Crugnale-Time Kills. Back in 2010 Eric Crugnale placed #13 on my year-end list with his debut Carol Was Here, and nine long years later he's released the followup. I called the debut "fully-realized mature pop in the vein of David Mead and Seth Swirsky" and that applies to Time Kills as well. "Don't Give Up" is a lovely, piano-based opener, "Turning This Damn Car Around" with its soft verses and crashing chorus has a bit of a Queen/Jellyfish feel to it, and "Wagon" deals in smooth 70s-influenced R&B. This is pop with a capital "P" the way it was in the '70s and '80s.

iTunes



The Boolevards-Real Pop (Remix). Those of you who have the memory of an elephant will probably recall I featured this album ten years ago, but I bring it up again because The Boolevards have re-released and remixed it with bonus tracks. And I'll quote myself again: "Real Pop is just that, assuming the year is 1965. Two and three-part harmonies, Rickenbacker solos, Merseybeat melodies - it's all here in an expert re-creation of the era," I wrote on its initial release. The six new tracks are of the same feather, and the band hopes to help finance a new album with sales of this reissue, so if this kind of thing is up your alley and you missed it the first time around, remedy this right away.

iTunes



Andrew Taylor-Somewhere to Be. Dropkick's Andrew Taylor has dropped his second solo album, and like the first it doesn't vary too much from the jangle/folk-rock of his band (perhaps it's a bit more laid-back). Which of course is a good thing, as he and Dropkick have released album after album of highly consistent quality. The top tracks this time around are the title track, "Make a Difference" and the very aptly-titled "More of the Same". I just remain astounded at how prolific he is, as I just saw today that there's a new Dropkick album due out in a couple of months.

iTunes

Quick singles update.

As I've noted on many occasions, I don't normally review singles. But as I've also done on others, when artists of note have singles out I'll make an exception.

Bryan Estepa-Rattled and Rolled. It's been over 10 years since Estepa had Michael Carpenter produced his outstanding debut album All the Bells and Whistles, and the two got together last month, jammed a bit and came up with this single in a day. It's an excellent midtempo tune that will appeal to both, and proceeds go to The Heart Foundation.

Bandcamp



Lannie Flowers-Kiss a Memory b/w Everything a Man Could Want. We haven't gotten new music from Lannie Flowers in quite a while - his last release was 2012's New Songs Old Stories, but that itself consisted of full-length versions of several of the snippets that made up his 36-song Same Old Story medley. So it's great to hear these two new tracks, and they're vintage Flowers which means classic power pop melodies with a bit of a Texas twang.

iTunes



Radio Days-I'm in Love With You, Haruka. Italy's Radio Days are heading out on their first Japanese tour, and in promotion of it they've released a 2-track single with the new title track and a cover of the Undertones' "Teenage Kicks". It's of a piece with their existing catalog so it has their typical 60s Merseyside sound.

Bandcamp

CD of the Day, 5/9/13: VA-Drink a Toast to Innocence: A Tribute to Lite Rock

Perhaps the most anticipated release of 2013 to date has been Andrew Curry's "Monsters of Lite Rock" project, funded by Kickstarter, to assemble a compilation of those sort-of-cheesy "lite rock" (also known as "yacht rock") hits of the late 70s and early 80s covered by today's power pop artists. The Kickstarter was successful, and the fruits of Curry's (and the artists') labor is here with the double-disc, 28-track Drink a Toast to Innocence. The lineup Curry has assembled is impressive, featuring the likes of Bleu, Mike Viola, Willie Wisely, David Myhr, Michael Carpenter, Linus of Hollywood, Seth Swirsky and so many more of my (and your) favorite artists.

As with most covers compilations, Toast features the usual mix of faithful re-creations and bold re-imaginings. To what degree you prefer either is always affected by the level of your fondness for the original and the covering artist, but there are plenty of each to choose from here. To me, however, my favorite covers have fallen into a third category: covers that sound like they could have originals by the covering artist. In other words, they make the cover their own. The two here that stand out in that regard are Greg Pope's cover of Poco's "Crazy Love" and Lannie Flowers' version of the Orleans staple "Dance With Me". In Pope's case, it's a great match of cover and artist; by taking the original and speeding it up just a microsopic bit it sounds like one of his typical slightly off-kilter pop gems, while Flowers turns "Dance With Me" into one of his usual rollicking (and rocking) power pop numbers by adding a honky-tonk piano to the mix in contrast to the highly laid-back original.

In the re-imagining department, there are several standouts. The Davenports turn Randy Van Warmer's borderline treacly "Just When I Needed You Most" into a driving power pop track, Lisa Mychols speeds up the David Soul (of Starsky & Hutch fame) ballad "Don't Give Up on Us" and gives it the full-band treatment, while Willie Wisely takes the sexual subtext of The Atlanta Rhythm Section's "So Into You" and makes it the text, complete with moaning female vocals in the outro. Also rocking things up a bit is Vegas With Randolph and their version of Little River Band's "Cool Change". Plus I give them credit for keeping a straight face while singing lines like "The albatross and the whales/they are my brother".

As for the faithful covers, there are plenty to choose from here. Kyle Vincent, whose style is pretty much 70's lite rock and would be a natural to cover any of the songs featured here, is perfect on Ambrosia's "How Much I Feel"; ex-Merrymaker David Myhr captures the spirit of 10cc with "The Things We Do for Love", and the two halves of The Red Button play to their strengths - Mike Rukeberg with the power poppy "Believe it or Not" (theme from "The Greatest American Hero") and Seth Swirsky's eerily channels Henry Gross almost note-for-note on "Shannon", the ultimate tear-jerking dead dog song. Boston buddies Bleu and Mike Viola take on "Baby Come Back" and "Steal Away", each of which sound exactly you'd hear them in your head singing these tracks, but I'll give Viola kudos for starting to sing "What a Fool Believes" at the end of "Steal Away", since the latter was pretty much a rip-off of the former.

Ironically there's no cover here of "Same Old Lang Syne", the Dan Fogelberg lite rock classic from which the title of the compilation derives. Curry has said it was on the list of songs submitted to the artists to cover, but nobody took it up. Hmmm...sounds like an opening for a Volume 2. The lack of Fogelberg notwithstanding, this is without doubt the best covers compilation since Not Lame's Right to Chews from 2002, which had power poppers covering early 70s' bubblegum classics, and it deserves to be highlighted outside the immediate power pop community.

CD Baby | iTunes | Bandcamp

Midweek Musings.

Lannie Flowers-New Songs Old Stories. I wanted to like Lannie Flowers' 2008 debut album Same Old Story, but it was really a tease - one short snippet after another in a medley of thirty-something overall song fragments. In 2010, he released Circles, which consisted of proper full-length songs and it was a revelation, placing #8 on my year-end list. To follow that up, Flowers went back and resurrected nine tracks from Same Old Story to record as full songs, based on requests from his fans. Having done that, he's bucking for a return trip to my top 10 as he continues his mastery of power pop. The Who-like "Another Weekend" opens things in rocking fashion, "Come on Girl" has an early-Beatles/Merseyside feel to it and "Give Me a Chance" is picture-perfect jangle pop. Now he just needs to do a few more volumes of the remaining 25 songs from Same Old Story.

CD Baby

The JAC-Faux Pas. Aussie Joe Algeri has been around a while, as a member of Jack & The Beanstalk and most recently the power pop supergroup The Britannicas, as well as several solo records to his credit. His latest is a solo effort, but he's chosen to go by "The JAC" here. Faux Pas is a pop record through and through, full of the various styles Algeri has shown throughout his career, ranging from the ramshackle 60s pop of opening track (and mission statement) "Play All the Instruments" to the straight-ahead power pop (if not straight-ahead lyrics) of "I Just Want to Be Weird" to the almost punk-pop of "Julie Got Angry". There's plenty of good ol' goofy weirdness here with fun tracks like "I'm a Glass of Orange Juice" and the Ray Davies-esque "Romano the Dog". And just to make the whole experience extra fun, Algeri includes a bonus disc of 10 covers titled Drugs, Trucks & Jesus. You can't say you won't get your money's worth from this one.

Kool Kat | Bandcamp

Two for Tuesday, 11/16/10

The June-Green Fields and Rain. Rainbow Quartz has had a great second half of 2010, with new releases from the likes of The Volebeats, The High Dials, The Parties and The Gurus, but the cream of the crop is Green Fields and Rain, the sophomore effort from Parma, Italy's The June. This is a Grade-A mix of psychedelia and Beatles-pop not unlike some of Noel Gallagher's more poppier offerings in Oasis. The sitars and "Tomorrow Never Knows"-like opener "Feel the Sunshine" is a treat, as is the Merseyside pop of "Good News" (replete with a Beatles-like "oooo" in the chorus). "Pete on the Street" is an irresistible pop confection, and "I'm Looking Out" recalls "Strawberry Fields Forever", favorably. I'm not always the biggest fan of bands going blatantly retro, but these guys have the songs to back it up. You have my permission to swoon over The June.

MySpace | iTunes | eMusic

Lannie Flowers-Circles. A couple of years ago, Texas' Lannie Flowers released "Same Old Story" which was essentially a medley of 36 songs of about one minute each. It received a lot of love in the power pop community but didn't make my lists since it didn't lend itself to my preferred listening habits of shuffling the most recent two months of albums I come across. It was either listen to it all the way through to the exclusion of other stuff, or have one-minute out-of-context snippets pop up randomly in my playlist. It was more my problem than Lannie's, so I'm thrilled to report he's released a new album which consists of 15 proper 3-4 minute tracks. And the talent he showed in 60-second bursts has transitioned nicely to full-length songs as Circles is another year-end contender for me. The title track is killer power pop in the vein of Jason Falkner and Jim Boggia, "Turn Up Your Radio" will have you doing just that (assuming it played stuff as good as this), and "Not in Love" might just be the quintessential power pop track with its straight-up hooks and handclaps. Circle this one on your shopping list.


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