Category: Highly Recommended by Powerpopaholic

The Wellingtons are a fresh new power pop band from down under. This is the follow up to 2005’s brilliant Keeping Up with the Wellingtons which is also available on CD Baby. A lot like classic Tories, Jellyfish and Matthew Sweet this band knows what works and they do it exceptionally well. “Top Ten List” starts off with an infectious drumbeat and lightning quick melodies that sparkle. The group has great energy, usually reserved for a more spunky band like Green Day or Kelly’s Heels. Lead singer Zac Anthony recalls John Faye and Rivers Cuomo from Weezer in his vocal approach. “Girls in Magazines” and “Penny” are great examples of this. “Sight For Sore Eyes” is a another great tune with perfect riffs and harmonies all over it. “Singer in a cover band” has a Cheap Trick like riff and rocks the house down. “If we feel okay” is another Tories-like radio friendly potential hit single. On “The Nice One” we hear Kate Goldby join Zac with the vocals, and I feel she could have been used more on the album. Overall there is no filler on this album, although it plays the same style on all 12 tracks without a slower ballad breaking things up, it is a great summer album. Get your pop fix here and enjoy it.

The Wellingtons Website | MySpace | CDBaby

The Peaces are an NYC trio that concentrate on six part harmonies and clean classic pop. Lead singer Brian Halverson and the group do a perfectly pleasant job of weaving melodies and harmony on highlights like “Oasis” and “She Stands So Close.” If you are a fan of the light touch of the Association, Cloud Eleven and The Curiosity Shoppe, you’ll definitely enjoy this album. “Existential Me” is the best track in my opinion. It is a bit faster paced and has a killer hook similar to The Wondermints with nice harpsichord and guitar breaks. The chorus sings “I’m not so different from you…”. But The Peaces are different from you and me — they’ve got real melodic talent here and thank goodness! “Old Anxiety” gets a little bit harder with a great Badfinger-like track. “Nobody Cares” is a pitch perfect Rubinoos-styled tune that continues the gentle jangle of this album. The guitar work is also first rate as “Something Wrong could be right” contains a nice little solo. The last track “From each other’s eyes” mines a bit of the 70’s, with lounge calypso beats and makes a curious ending, but overall a stellar effort! I really look forward to more music from the Peaces. Listen to streaming samples on The Cherry Bomb records site.

Cherry Bomb Records | My Space | CD Baby | Not Lame

You just have to admire Kelly’s Heels. This is a band that has been in the trenchs of post-punk power pop for a long time. Since the first IPO show in 1999, Kelly’s Heels have been a band that was consistently first-rate with Beatles, Records, Kinks inspired guitar pop. They had Not Lame’s theme song written for Hook Heaven vol.2 pop compilation on top of everything else. And now the band has matured gracefully to this new release. Bob Kelly’s vocal approach can best be summed up as a mix of McCartney and Elvis Costello. And let me tell you the music is full of great hooks and melodies that knock you down after the first listen. If you heard any of the earlier albums, this one just raises the quality level to “11” and makes it a near perfect album. Each song follows a tight arrangement and stays under three minutes for the most part. The tracks later on don’t quite reach the great highs at the start of the album, but there is no filler in here. A great track, “For Always” best speaks with the lyrics, “Some may call it growing up, accepting what life all orders up” and other songs talk about reliving the past and it being hard to let go of old dreams. “The Same Mistake” sounds a bit like a lost Squeeze tune and the ballad “Walk Alone” provides a brief pause in the high energy here. Listen to the entire album streaming on Not Lame! If you never listened to Kelly’s Heels yet, this album is a great place to start!

Kelly’s Heel’s Site | My Space | CD Baby | Not Lame | Itunes

The Singles exploded onto the scene in 2003 as a standout with the excellent album Better Than Before. So this past February, The Singles have switched labels and released Start Again. There is plenty of garage rock on display here, with a liberal doses of T Rex worship on the “The Most Beautiful Girl.” This song sounds like a outtake from T Rex’s Electric Warrior. About half the album has that Marc Bolan vibe, with songs like “When will she be mine” and “Summer.” Then on “Annette” try to imagine Bolan fronting for The Dave Clark Five, complete with fuzz guitar and hand claps. They change pace with “Cryin’ over you,” a 50’s styled tribute to Roy Orbison. Lots of Small Faces influenced mod-styled rock is all over this album as well. “Hypnotized” is a good example of this, and remind me of another power pop group – The High Dials. “Goodbye Little Girl” is an awesome radio friendly track, that is a fitting finale. I highly suggest this album for highway driving this summer.

The Single’s Site | My Space | CD Baby | Not Lame

Listen to “Annette”

For those of you who enjoy your pop on the baroque side, the new Brad Brooks album will definitely be your cup of tea. “Spill Collateral Love” contains a flood of orchestral and harmonic details with those guitar power chords. “Love on my sleeve” is a good track that recalls the hypnotically repeated guitar chords from Beatles’ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).” This is followed by “Lathered in Cream,” a bouncy, hook-filled classic slice of power pop and the obvious “single” on this album – unfortunately that’s it for the high energy songs. The rest of the album takes a rather moody turn. It begins with the melancholic “Ex-stripper Librarian” that sounds alot like a great Stephen Trask show ballad. “The Loon of Altitude” and “Francis of Alaska” mixes a bit of classic piano and Vaudevillian styled narrative rock that recalls Jellyfish’s best moments. In fact, Brooks sings his heart out on this album with an emotional resonance resembling Freddy Mercury or 10cc. I’m sure there is a full story connecting all these songs, with arcane run-on-sentence lyrics like, “..this town is a crazy playground of lost daisies are chaining…,” I’ll need to listen to it more. When we get to “The Sonic Twins” we get back to the classic Brad Brooks sound for a bit, before the album contiunes with the harmonica driven “Pleading Amnesia” that sounds like it would fit well on Pink Floyd’s The Final Cut or any Guided By Voices album. The album ends with “Luxurious Latitude” a fitting music-hall styled ending. It’s good to shake things up a bit and have power pop not so cheery, but very dramatic and visceral. Listen to this album streaming at Not Lame to hear it all.

Brad Brooks Site | My Space | CD Baby | Not Lame