Category: Highly Recommended by Powerpopaholic

Jon Paul Allen has graced us with another Slingsby Hornets album. That means it’ll ooze glam guitar and thickly arranged melodic rock. Opening with pomp and majestic orchestral synths, “Way Of The World” is almost like Trevor Horn meets The Sneetches, with layers upon layers of jangle, upon a layer of dense rock guitars. Jon has dialed up the Brian May meter up to “11” here as those chiming guitars are front and center on the next track, “Rock N Roll Love Letter” and is the one of the best songs here. It’s dense and well suited to the slick production, so Queen fans will want to get this album for sure. The Hornets album still has plenty of covers, with the over-produced touch that makes T-Rex’s “Children of The Revolution” a lot of great fun, although Jon’s vocal gets buried here. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work as well with the ballads, “Flying Tonight” and the Cars-like “The Long Way Home” plods along and could use a lighter production touch. This is done much better with the heartfelt “This Song,” and the best cover here is the spacey “Suspension,” the theme from the old Buck Rogers TV show (Jon exposes his geek cred here)! What’s extra cool here is the bonus EP “Knee Deep In Glitter” – the songs here really shine, as Jon lets his Glam flag fly and does Abba’s “Does Your Mother Know” in the style of Sweet. The other tracks here are excellent, from strutting guitars on “My Coo Ca Choo” to the awesome slick version of Cliff Richard’s “Devil Woman.” With only 5 originals, the covers here make this 2 disc combo worth the wait.  

Slingsby Hornets website | My Space | CD Baby | Not Lame | Kool Kat

All Day Sucker is a band with a big California sound that grabs it’s influences from several places, but is more a great melodic rock than power pop album. The big opener “Life In The Passing lane” is a bit like The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Weezer combined. The very Rundgrenesque “Santa Ana” is another great song with a big chorus and hook that won’t let you go. “The Picture (That Took Me)” is a catchy song with a laid back Sugar Ray-like feel and a vocal performance that bringing to mind Elvis Costello. Core members, singer Morty Coyle and keyboardist Jordan Summers gives us an inspired take on the sounds of sophisticated classic rock with both muscle and heart. The guitars of “Land of Canyons” rip through the chorus like banshee – it’s another great rocker along the lines of Guns N’ Roses early work. “Strange Orbits” is a piano ballad with a little Elton John and ELO, and Coyle’s vocals here really soar. The latter half of the album sags a little but, it still has a few catchy fresh surprises with “Riddles and Rain” and the funky “The Man (From The Big Pretend).” The concept of the album, is a series of life’s observations in modern LA. Blessed with great songs, sharp chops, a cunning attitude and a mature sense of self, All Day Sucker is ready to venture into the seen-it-all music scene and emerge as a fresh, clever and unique musical presence.

All Day Sucker website | My Space | CD Baby | Not Lame

With a common love of 60’s pop and early psychedelia, Ideal Free Distribution has released “Then We Were Older” and it sounds like a lost classic from that era, right down to the last detail. The strong influences from The Pretty Things, Zombies, Moody Blues and The Yardbirds are all over every track here. You know you’re doing something right when Robert Schneider of The Apples in Stereo happily joins in to mix the album. Opening with “Cold Wind Blows” it gets the mojo early on, pulling every sonic trick out of the hat including dreamy vocal harmonies and fuzz guitar. “Something I Know” then goes in a vintage Kinks mode with Tony Miller’s sad vocal and slow shuffle. “Carol Anne” then goes into a jam closer to Syd Barret-era Pink Floyd, with a dense layer of instrumental goodness. “Turn To Find You” adds a bit of Radiohead vocal angst to the mix and makes it one of the few songs here that isn’t rooted to the psychedelic sound. A great tune here is “William Buss” with its hand clapping go-go beat, organ intro and hook filled melody, it’s the poppiest of the songs here. The Powerpopaholic has a link to an authorized MP3 download below. “Trip Inside” and “Strawberry Crush” are rich psych-pop that has lush sonic landscapes that will carry you off to hookah dreams. It takes a garage nugget turn on “Anne Maria” with blaring guitars and roaring vocals similar to The Creation. Throughout the album the textures of the song often overtake the melody. And that’s the problem here – as wonderful the atmosphere is, the melody is often of secondary importance, especially in the album’s second half. Some fans of this genre will not mind it a bit. In fact, fans of Olivia Tremor Control and The Pillbugs would welcome this into their music collection with open ears. Turn on and tune out with your headphones, man.

Ideal Free Distrib. Website | My Space | Kool Kat Musik

DOWNLOAD “William Buss” here
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FYI: The poll on the top 200 power pop albums of all time is here. You can probably shuffle them around a bit, but I would have pulled up a few that were lower in rank, like Pugwash (#189), You Am I (#181) and The Dukes of The Stratosphere (#141). In any case, this is a great primer for those just getting into the genre.

Higgins does a pretty credible job of mining the Emitt Rhodes/Beatles/High Llamas sound and then twisting it around so it no longer resembles a retro one trick pony. Lead singer Kevin Fish has a vocal timbre that recalls both Andy Partridge and Ray Davies at once. The Opener “There He Is” sounds like it fell off of Badfinger’s “No Dice” with it’s warmly laid down harmonies and memorable laid back riffs. “Always Something” then mixes a few other influences here, like a Kinks ballad, a lamented Fish intones “There is always something to keep someone from loving me.” Using bits of McCartney-styled piano flourishes in “Wall of Dumb” it also evokes the Bearnaked Ladies self-effacing humor in a gentle baroque way. “Jamy” uses its horns and banjo in that subtle Beach Boys nod with lazy sounding percussion section that ends the song off like it was played by a group of stoned musicians. Up to this point, Higgins does it’s best to keep the sound intimate, and that’s when it’s pure pop master stroke is revealed in “Yes I Know” with it’s XTC styled dualing guitar parts, and multi-part harmonies. It dials down to a sentimental violin lead in “Write it Down” – one thing for sure, this album is not predictable at all, because it drives off the Prog Rock cliff with a psyche-pop drum solo in “Prelude To Charly” and then the trippy “Charly” with it’s meaty riffs and wild bass lead melody. Mixing all these dramatic elements is the last song “Everybody (Thunder Mountain)”  and like the ending of “Strawberry Fields Forever,” I half expected to hear “I buried Paul” buried somewhere…  Overall this is a very special album, that will please retro pop enthusiasts, like a puzzle box of influences that requires multiple listens to appreciate fully.

E-music | My Space | Itunes

Just listen to “Everybody (Thunder Mountain)”