The Power Popaholic Top 25 albums of 2019

powerpopaholic Power Pop Review, Top Ten of 2019 Candidate

 

  1. Slumberjet “World of Sound” 
  2. Jordan Jones “Jordan Jones”
  3. Ryan Hamilton And The Harlequin Ghosts “This is the Sound” 
  4. The Bishop’s Daredevil Stunt Club “End Over End”
  5. Jeff Whalen “10 More Rock Super Hits” 
  6. David Brookings and the Average Lookings “Scorpio Monologue” 
  7. Pernice Brothers “Spread The Feeling”
  8. Lannie Flowers “Home”
  9. Nick Frater “Full Fathom Freight-Train”
  10. The Dates “Ask Again Later”
  11. Dave Cope and the Sass “Dave Cope and the Sass”
  12. Liam Gallagher “Why Me? Why Not.”
  13. The Brothers Steve “#1”
  14. Joe Sullivan “Growing Up Schlockstar”
  15. Dan Israel “Social Media Anxiety Disorder”
  16. The Lolas “A Dozen Or Seven Tapestries”
  17. Redd Kross “Beyond the Door” 
  18. Goodman “The Era of Buckets”
  19. Velveteen Rabbit “Velveteen Rabbit”
  20. The Anderson Council “Worlds Collide” 
  21. Sofa City Sweetheart “Super(b) Exitos” 
  22. Geoff Palmer “Pulling Out All The Stops” 
  23. The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness “Dead Calm” 
  24. Jeff Lynne’s ELO “Out of Nowhere” 
  25. The Rubinoos “From Home”

The top 10 Power Pop EPs of 2019

  1. Pugwash “The Olympus EP”
  2. Eric Barao “Obsolete” EP
  3. The Seven and The Six – ep#1
  4. Young Guv – “GUV 1”
  5. Vista Blue “Hit The Floor”
  6. The Skullers “Freight Trains & Party Games”
  7. It’s Karma It’s Cool “Hipsters and Aeroplanes”
  8. The Coolies – “Uh Oh! It’s​.​.​. The Coolies”
  9. The Last Bees “The Last Bees”
  10. Kai Danzberg “Euphoria”

The Highly Recommended LPs #26 through 70

  1. Amoeba Teen “Medium Wave”
  2. The John Sally Ride “Nothing Doing”
  3. The Rallies “Upside Down”
  4. Ulysses “On Safari”
  5. Project Ghost Outfit “Project Ghost Outfit”
  6. Kai Danzberg “Not Only Sunshine”
  7. Extra Arms “Up From Here”
  8. The Successful Failures “Saratoga”
  9. Richard X. Heyman “Pop Circles”
  10. R. Stevie Moore “Afterlife”
  11. The Lunar Laugh “Goodnight Noises Everywhere”
  12. Vanilla “Mystik Knights of Tacoma”
  13. Popravinas “Willy Nilly”
  14. The Jellybricks “Some Kind of Lucky”
  15. The Well Wishers “The Lost Soundtrack”
  16. The Nines “Shipwrecked (Eggers Songbook Vol 1)”
  17. The Junior League “Adventureland”
  18. Shake Some Action “Thirty Nine”
  19. Richard Turgeon “Go Deep”
  20. The Dollyrots “Daydream Explosion”
  21. Eytan Mirsky “If Not Now… Later”
  22. Armchair Oracles “Caught By Light”
  23. Rob Laufer “The Floating World”
  24. Scott Gagner “Hummingbird Heart”
  25. David Mead “Cobra Pumps”
  26. The Pearlfishers “Love and Other Hopeless Things”
  27. Jim Basnight “Not Changing”
  28. Johnathan Pushkar “Straighten Up”
  29. Erk “When Night Meets Day”
  30. Willie Wisely “Face The Sun”
  31. Mothboxer “Open Sky”
  32. The Galileo 7 “There Is Only Now”
  33. The Laissez Fairs “Marigold”
  34. Faux Co. “Radio Silence”
  35. Onesie “Umpteenth”
  36. Coleman Gota “And The Loser’s Choir Sings”
  37. Salt “The Loneliness of Clouds”
  38. Talkie “Everything Matters”
  39. The Maureens “Something In The Air”
  40. The Beatpunkers “Those Years Songs”
  41. Joe Jackson “Fool”
  42. Cloud Eleven “Footnote”
  43. 8×8 “New Data New Day”
  44. Emperor Penguin “Walnut Fascia”
  45. Mike Daly & The Planets “All It Takes Is One”

Final comments: The power pop genre is much less cohesive now than it was 10 years ago. It seems anyone with a retro sound seems to get the label shoved at them. On the other hand, the best power pop this year did not fall into a single style category (“Beatlesque,” “Alt. Roots,” “Psychedelic Glam” ) but took from a variety of styles and influences. This year was a tough one as all the artists did a great job, and I’ve missed so many albums I see at the top of other blog lists. Check out all these artists — you won’t be disappointed and you’ll most likely disagree with my order.