Category: Top Ten of 2011 Candidate

Canada’s best power pop band Sloan returns with a new album on their twentieth anniversary appropriately titled The Double Cross. This time the Halifax quartet brings out every bag of tricks and stylistic varieties to make this a winning album.

The band’s energy and solid melodies sound as fresh as ever with the opener, “Follow The Leader,” as it plays off of thick organ chords, a heavy bass line and impeccable harmonies. Then we seamlessly transition to the sunny “The Answer Was You.” It’s an instant classic, punctuated by a richly orchestrated chorus and shimmering tambourine. The great thing here is the band’s ability to weave a hook that sticks in your head and won’t let go. “Unkind” is a perfect example, and like the Raspberries with a modern spin, it exemplifies what makes modern power pop so enjoyable.

The Beatlesque jangle and sensibilities are visible in the fast-paced gems “Shadow Of Lobe” and “It’s Plain To See.” Then “She’s Going Down Again” invites comparison to the Turtles’ classics of yesterday. With its folk-pop stirrings, “Green Gardens, Cold Montreal” is a wonderful throwback to Canadian classics like Chilliwack’s “Baby Blue.” Sloan has incorporated all these influences into a style that uniquely suits them, and doesn’t linger on one style (although the classic ’60’s-’70’s era looms large) and can appear like a big, fat mix tape of favorites when all is said and done. Overall I highly recommend this album, and we can only hope Sloan continues along its merry, melodic way.

Article first published as Music Review: Sloan – The Double Cross on Blogcritics.

Sloanmusic.com | Amazon | eMusic

Famous fans of Sloan look back on the bands 20 year history in a 10 part video series featuring members of Broken Social Scene, The Dears,Billy Talent, Jason Falkner, Jason Schwartzmann, The Stills, Buck 65, K-OS, Kids In the Hall and more.

Supraluxe “The Super Sounds of Supraluxe”
After a few albums finding their sound, this Minnesota band has found its sweet spot. The lush melodies and classical influences are on unabashed display from its simple acoustic and xylophone opener “Every Little Piece.” The pastoral chord structures on “Lester Bangs” are just infectious. The soft baroque vocal and arpeggio on “When You’re Down” recall The Left Banke at its most winsome. Fans of the 70’s California sound will really enjoy “Go Nowhere,” it’s a real gem of steady rhythm and twanging guitar.

The band goes retro most of the LPs second half. On “New York City’s Not Alright,” its a tune that recalls both The Animals and The Doors. Every song has an angle, and a solid catchy hook as well. A really great epic tune is “Nail Biter,” with its combination of organ, synths, guitars that lead to a gorgeous instrumental outro. My only critique here is that the vocals seemed pushed too much to the background. But the emotions and lyrics for each song shine through and make this release a huge success.

Alan Hampton “The Moving Sidewalk”
Fans of David Mead should really get a closer look at Mr. Hampton. The lush melodies and a simple acoustic guitar is basically all he needs. “Staring At The Sun” has some light strings to support his sweet voice and sunny rhythm.  A certain single is “Change Your Mind” with its halting strum and cascading chorus. “Loud and Clear” introduces some rock riffs into the chorus, and some nice vocal harmonies too. “Where Did You Go?” has a slow Spectorish hand clapped beat with some nice guitar distortions in the main hook.

A few songs don’t quite make it, but are easy to skip. There are plenty of gems here like “Oh My God” which may be the best Paul Simon song he never wrote. This is sophisticated pop with a slightly jazzy feel that makes it easy to recommend.

From Sicily, Italy with power pop love, we meet three brothers: Alessandro (vocal, guitar), Bruno (vocal, bass) and Mirko Cirrone (vocal, guitar) joined by Ferdinando Piccoli (drums) to form the band Cirrone. Formerly The Apple Scruffs, the band has successfully blended the retro influences to today’s rock sound. Full of tight harmonies and strong guitar riffs, it’s one of the best albums I’ve heard this year.

The band’s Beatlesque sound is leveraged with strong composition on the opener “Here Is My Song.” The next tune is the glorious title track, and echos of both Badfinger and The Hudson Brothers will give chills down your spine for sure. “I Still Remember” is a power ballad with a slow build to a riff heavy ending and “Let The Wind Blow” chugs along with it’s Big Star/Wings slide guitar solo and delicate chorus. Every track here is a winner with no obvious weak spots, as we hit the albums second side “Brand New Life” is a majestic uplifting ballad that ends with a solid guitar outro. “How Does It Feel” adds some horn flourishes to this sunshine-filled tune. I could keep going, but odds are if you read this blog, you’ll love this album. Easy spot near the top ten of 2011 for best album of the year.

P.S. I also got the opportunity to interview Mirko Cirronefor the occasion.

Jim Bianco “Loudmouth”
With St. Patrick’s Day almost here, I’ve got a brilliant drinking song for you. If “Sinners” doesn’t get the bar singing along, nothing will. Bianco has that great Tom Waits meets Peter Gabriel whiskey soaked croon. On “Talented” it’s almost a gospel number with it’s slow majestic chords and honest biting lyric. The stripped down Stones like blues of “But I Still Want You” charms quickly. The anthemic “OK, I Suppose” shows a deep understanding of human pathos on a gut level. It’s not all slow tempo stuff either, as “Take You Home” is a bouncy pop gem. Bianco’s wry approach will appeal to fans of both Bob Seger and Randy Newman.  Amazingly, this release was funded by his rabid fans. Some advance copies are under $3 on Amazon, this is the best value a music fan can ask for. Otherwise wait til official release on April 5th.

Beady Eye “Different Gear, Still Speeding”
And life after Oasis moves on, in the form of Liam Gallager’s new band Beady Eye. Liam’s signature vocal and sliky smooth riffs permeate every track, notably the Lennon-like “The Roller” and obvious tribute “Beatles and Stones” which is a rant about how he’ll play the way he wants, damn the trend. Well if classic rock and blues is what he serves up, then I’m all in here. Excellent tunes include the Creedence-like guitar riffs on “Wind Up Dream” and mod rhythm of “Millionaire.”

This nothing less than a rebirth and clearly Liam has found his mojo as most songs here hit the mark perfectly. Even psychedelic ballads like “The Morning Son” shows a new maturity and the amount of gems here land it in my top ten list. And if this is what it takes to bring Brit pop to a new generation of listeners, so be it.

All you need to know about the Geniune Fakes is this quote: “The Genuine Fakes are proof of Sweden’s seemingly inexhaustible font of pop genius. Hitting all the right marks, they walk you thru the major required classes in the school of pop – Ken Stringfellow (The Posies)“ Johan Bergqvist formed the band in Södermalm (part of Stockholm) with like-minded musicians. They start the album with their own theme song! It reminded me of the much loved band, The Merrymakers with it’s optimistic “Have you heard, there’s a brand new band in town!”

The bright shiny tone continues on “The Promise” and fans of Swedish pop will be thrilled by the loud melodic chords and big harmonies. “Something New” and “When Reality Hits You” have classic power pop structures and incredibly catchy choruses. The production is very Jellyfish-like, polished and worth many repeat listens. Although the compositions suffer from a lack of variety in the albums middle, they still manage to belt it out with plenty of thematic energy. Johan even managed to redo the Beyoncé ballad, “Irreplaceable” and make it a power pop song as well. However, the album could have used a ballad as the bombast here might wear down the average listener. That mentioned this is a superior power pop album, that easily gets a Top Ten nomination for 2011. Kool Kat is offering an additional 5-track bonus disc when you order here.