Category: My Honest Opinion

The Top 25 Power Pop albums for 2011

powerpopaholic 18 Comments

This was an extremely difficult year to pick a top ten, as so many artists produced excellent work. So I expanded the list this year to 25. Even then a handful of really deserving artists didn’t make the list. So here is the whole enchilada for you to chew on this weekend:

  1. Cirrone – Uplands Park Road
  2. The Wellingtons – In Transit
  3. Marco Joachim – Hidden Symphonies
  4. Robbers On High Street – Hey There Golden Hair
  5. Mike Viola – Electro De Perfecto
  6. The Bangles – Sweetheart Of The Sun
  7. Pugwash – The Olympus Sound
  8. The Red Button – As Far As Yesterday Goes
  9. Sloan – The Double Cross
  10. Fountains of Wayne – Sky Full Of Holes
  11. Skeleton Staff – Psychomorphism
  12. Tally Hall – Good & Evil
  13. David Mead – Dudes
  14. Ian Moore & The Lossy Coils – El Sonido Neuvo
  15. Miles Zuniga – These Ghosts Have Bones
  16. Beady Eye – Different Gear Still Speeding
  17. The Davenports – Why The Great Gallop?
  18. Supraluxe – The Super Sounds of Supraluxe
  19. The Genuine Fakes – The Striped Album
  20. The Turnback – Drawn In Chalk
  21. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
  22. Kelly’s Heels – Playing Into Your Hands
  23. The Secret Powers – What Every Rose-Grower Should Know
  24. Michael Oliver & The Sacred Band – Yin & Yanxiety
  25. Peter Baldarachi – Tomorrow Never Knows

Broke* documentary trailer

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As a niche music genre, power pop musicians have been living the DIY life for many years now. So the fact that the major label model is dead is no longer news. But here it is documented with mainstream artist Will Gray through the recording and release of his debut album (featuring production by the Grammy-winning T Bone Burnett). Broke* chronicles the stories of artists and executives searching for ways to thrive in today’s music industry. The film digs beneath the clichés to reveal an industry struggling to find a new identity, and an artist who’s simply trying to establish one. My big problem is with the movie title. Too many documentaries have the same damn name! Like this and that! Anyway here is the real link.

Amy Winehouse death reveals a shocking truth.

powerpopaholic

So even though we have no official cause of death for Amy Winehouse, people are mostly unfazed by it as she was a train wreck from the minute “Back To Black” climbed the charts. The rock landscape is littered with self-destructive artists (Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, etc.) but usually we got plenty of creative output from them before they’d passed on (Curt Cobain being a more recent entry).

Amy Winehouse was a talented singer, no doubt about it — but with only 2 albums to her credit, she falls into the same category as Richie Valens, who had 3 albums before he was gone.  The biggest reveal here is that her albums are selling much better now that she’s dead. Also I’m sure a large pile of unreleased material is now just waiting to be released, and like Hendrix will provide her estate with plenty of moolah.

power pop reviews, power pop and rock and roll opinions. Power pop and even more power pop and rock and roll.

Hosting with The Boogie Man and an exclusive!

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Tonight (Sunday 8/29) I will co-host the a radio show with Dave The BoogieMan – Power Pop Plus Sunday radio show at 7:30pm East coast time. I will give a live review of the the new Paul Collins album, plus we’ll play several tracks from other artists I’ve reviewed recently.


And toward the end of the show, listen to my exclusive interview with Chrissie Hynde and JP Jones of JP, Chrissie and the Fairground Boys. The interview will also be posted in our interview archives next week, but you can hear it first here!



LISTEN LIVE HERE LINKS:   
click here or cut and past into your browser…
http://johnlightning.com/webcast/
http//johnlightning.com:8000/listen.pls – High speed link
http://johnlightning.com:8002/listen.pls  – Dial up link (slow speed)

If you miss it, then you can eventually download the show here: www.johnlightning.com/boogieman

power pop reviews, power pop and rock and roll opinions. Power pop and even more power pop and rock and roll.