Stuff I somehow missed: The Autumn Defense, Bleu and The Silver Seas

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The Autumn Defense “Once Around”
The Autumn Defense, led by Wilco member John Stirratt and joined by Pat Sansone have embraced the 70’s West Coast sound with a gusto that makes the opener “Back Of My Mind” a stunning and unforgettable single. This is manna for fans of Bread and The Eagles at their mellow finest. The production and musicianship here is flawless, and the songwriting is lovingly ernest on the title track and the up-tempo “Swallows of London Town.” Echoes of early Fleetwood Mac and Neil Young are visible in most of these tracks, but nothing comes close to that dynamic first single.

Bleu “Four” 
Bleu returns after last year’s “Watched Pot” to this self funded fourth album. “Four” does not disappoint in that it hits many highs starting with the catchy “Singin’ In Tongues,” the man is in his element. The anthemic “B.O.S.T.O.N.” is a loving tribute to his favorite college town, and “How Blue” is a beautiful LEO ballad that demands repeat listens. It feels like Bleu crammed everything he wanted to do here and every track has a compelling melody. The cherry on top is the Roger Manning Jr. collaboration “Everything Is Fine” making this my favorite “missed” classic of 2010.

The Silver Seas “Chateau Revenge!”
Along with Autumn Defense, The Silver Seas also knows how to mine the 70’s mellow rock style. But the band doesn’t have a slavish devotion to one aspect of the era’s sound and spreads it around. Lead vocalist Daniel Tashian’s soothing croon on “Another Bad Night’s Sleep” dovetails into “Jane” perfectly here. “What’s the Drawback?” is a note perfect companion to ELO’s “Evil Woman” (it even mentions the band). “Candy” sounds like a Beach Boys track off of “Sunflower.” You’ll hear echos of many bands here (Chicago, Seals and Crofts, Steely Dan, etc.) and yes it could be considered one of the year’s best.
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DC Cardwell "Some Hope"

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DC Cardwell creates a heart felt acoustic gem here, full of wonderful melodic hooks and a Ray Davies styled vocal. The gentle minor chords and harmonies that open “I Am Still The Same” are both brilliant and poignant.  Digression: I think the decades most overlooked instrument on recent casual classics is the xylophone, I mean it’s on every good easy listening hit from Pampelmoose to iphone commericals.

Anyway, “Birthday Present” is another example of solid composition and a revelatory Harrison styled guitar break. The pace picks up with the bouncy “Peace and Love” at it’s most Kinks-like and then it veers to Dylanesque territory the next bunch of tracks like “Way With Words” and “Meet The Author.” The country-like pop bounce returns on “A Minute Of Your Time” and “We Fell” has that smooth guitar jangle. A few miss, but most here hit the mark and with a whopping 16 tracks to go through, you’ll find several favorites here. Some of the  mid-tempo ballads (“The Quiet Ages”) are like magical combinations of both Paul Simon and McCartney.  Fans of David Mead and John Southworth should also flock to this release like ants to a picnic. And yeah, it’s a belated 2010 top rated album. This is a perfect year ending release, so put away your “Auld Lang Syne” and play this.

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The Top Ten Power Pop albums for 2010

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Finally. My year end top ten and more… The video gives you a quick 30 second clip from each album and then we see to my remaining favorites. If you don’t want to play the vid, the pick are below:

No doubt you have other favorites that are not on the list, let me know in the comments who you think I left off. I did not include most major label releases — that’s another top ten for next week.
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Neil Nathan and Oranjuly holiday cheer

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More holiday goodies! Here is a video by Neil Nathan doing “Santa Claus is coming to Town” and we also have Brian E. King of Oranjuly doing a cover of his favorite Christmas song, “Christmas Don’t Be Late” originally performed by Alvin and The Chipmunks.

Christmas Don’t Be Late by oranjuly

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Codeine Velvet Club and Sanjama Cut

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Codeine Velvet Club “s/t”
A side project of Jon Lawler (Fratellis) and Scottish singer Lou Hickey came out late last year. This is an inspired attempt at 60’s noir orchestral pop along the lines of John Barry or the late Stan Kenton jamming with The Parlotones. The first few tracks are outstanding, starting with the dramatic “Hollywood,” and the smokey “Vanity Kills” sets a perfect big band meets goth mood. “Time” has a casual pop swing with a masterful performance by trumpeter Derek Watkins. The horns really make the band standout on the nightclub swing number “Little Sister” and the guitar reverb on “Like A Full Moon” is just dripping in coolness. The boy-girl vocal dynamic works well, although the sap is thick on the slower ballads, and when the hook isn’t there it feels like a rejected Broadway show soundtrack. But when the rocker persona of Lawler dominates (“I Would Send You Roses”) it shines once again. After listening to lots of power pop this is a nice change of pace and there is enough here to perk up your ears.

Sajama Cut “Manimal”
Sajama Cut is a Jakarta, Indonesia-based band that uses big rhythms and multi-part harmonies to deliver power pop goodness. Listen to the big single “Paintings/Paintings”with slick vocals by lead singer Marcell Thee.  “Twice (Rung The Ladder)” is a moody mid-tempo tune with complex vocal harmonies and is typical of what you’ll find here. “Utitled #4” is an 80’s styled synth pop gem that speaks to the bands melodic ability, but its success isn’t repeated. Sometimes the lyrics get a bit muddled, maybe it’s the just the English translations. The band’s music seems to be only available through direct mail order, but you can download the impressive single “Paintings/Paintings” from the band’s Facebook page. Hopefully we’ll hear more tunes like this in the future.

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