You are forgiven if you never heard of Andy Reed, but you would do yourself a favor and pick up the excellent debut “Fast Forward.” You’ll hear the Roger Manning Jr. vibe in the opener “The Ballad of….” to start things off with an excellent melody and Beatles-styled guitar and drum work. Andy has a sweetness to his melodies that brings to mind McCartney and Curt Boettcher with a simple piano and acoustic guitar. “The Criminal” has a good story to tell as well, about broken promises and sacrifice for that one true love, and a gentle strum that reminds me of The Cyrkle or The Free Design. After the beautifully sparse ballad “Play,” we get to “Novocaine” – a melancholy song about the singer’s weariness and loss of confidence, much like a Gram Parsons ballad. “Thank You” is straight from the Pete Ham playbook, a song of earnest joy and love and accented by electric guitars. “Tied Up” has those little synth touches like The Cars, but the song is closer Weezer or Fountains of Wayne in spirit. The odd song out here is “Around the Town” with a mix of Michael Carpenter-like melody, handclaps and old piano sound. A good song, but Andy’s vocals are too laid back for the tempo. The vocals are much better served on the closer “Are You Listening?” a fine Beatlesque mid-tempo ballad with a nice guitar solo that fades out at the end. There is plenty of great pop here, although we are a bit low on the “power” scale, fans who flip for multi-layered music with melody and harmony at the forefront will want this for sure.

My Space | CD Baby | Kool Kat Musik

And you are probably right. After all, I just know what you sound like. Southern California based The Shys emulate a classic 70’s rock and roll band with a knack for good songwriting and smart baselines. You almost don’t know what to expect in the instrumental  opener “Spanish Village By The Sea” but then the next song, “The Hangman” has a catchy chorus and smooth LA club rock guitar riffs to impress you. But it gets much better with the Lennonesque “Savior” and proves you don’t need Lenny Kravitz vocals to do these kind of songs.  “She’s Already Gone” is another gem with a song structure similar to Mott The Hoople’s “All The Young Dudes.” If you like narrative styled, bass lead songs you get “Mercy” or “Brother Please” which recall Mick Jaggar or Bob Segers’ best. Lead singer Kyle Krone has a great voice that matches whatever style of music that starts playing and I like the late era Beatles-styled tracks the best. “Find Some Courage” and “La Costa Verde” owes much to the Fab’s “Yer Blues” and “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?” That’s not all, as “All On Me” sounds like it fell off an old Bob Seger Greatest Hits record. Other songs get less retro and compare well to The White Stripes (“Carry On For Two”). Fans of the above mentioned bands (Kravitz, Beatles, Stones, Seger) will treat this album like a favorite mix tape. Pop it in the player and play the air guitar to this.

The Shys Website | My Space | itunes

Listen to “The Hangman”

Smooth classic power pop in the Cheap Trick/Shoes guitar vein is how I’d best describe the Tempe, Arizona band Sugar High. After it’s debut 6 years ago, the group comes back with it’s follow up album “Let The Sunshine Out” and it’s most “commercial” sounding single “Scatter.” The chiming guitars and light pop chorus will earn the casual listeners respect. Guitarist Jason Garcia’s riffs have a Matthew Sweet feel to them and as the album continues, it gets better. “Going/Again” gets a little more aggressive and adds layers of guitars, hand claps, and tambourines, similar to power pop faves, The Caulfields. “My Star” is another notable song with a hummable melody and strong vocals. “Do Yourself A Favor” tells the story about actually writing songs (“I’m just makin’ sh*t up now”) and has a cracking energy missing on some of the later tracks. Even more evidence that this is the closest power pop to mainstream you can get listen to “Swallowed Bombs” which compares well with the Crayons. Another great track is the great repeating riff of “The King” and the slight twang and harmonica of the laid back mid-tempo “Around You.” Lead singer Adrian Evans vocal sounds a bit like Robin Wilson of Gin Blossoms and John Davis of Superdrag and the extra details of bells and strings on some tracks make for a pleasant diversion.  Soak in that Sugar High.

My Space | CD Baby | Not Lame

From Yorkshire comes a pysche-prog-pop band that plays what we’ve been missing from the genre for years. The sound is very close to The Beta Band’s atmospherics and The Beatles melodic knack of pop. The entire album is a themed song cycle from birth to death and the strange trip in between. It opens with an “Intro” that sets a narrative of a future-story. Then “Birth” mixes equal parts “Welcome to The Machine” Pink Floyd and The Flaming Lips. One of the best songs follows with “Mother and Father” -it drives a Kinks music hall style and ELO’s prog pop balladry into a memorable delight. This is no retro-retread, but an authentic musical experience that draws from classic 60s and 70s influences. It continues with “On My Way” and “School” with it’s moogs, huge electric guitar solos, woozy drums and Hammond organs aplenty. And the important thing here is the themes are never lost, but instead of tight compositions the melodies are stretched out like taffy and connected to each other organically. Another standout is “John’s Car” has a stoned series of choruses singing “Are you in, are you out”  and it plays like a mix of  Floyd’s “The Wall” and The Who “Sell Out” and everything works, including the Kinks-like finale “All Things Come To An End.” Break out the headphones and enjoy the trip.

My Space | Itunes

From the ashs of power pop favorite The Orange Humble Band, comes The Forresters. Singer-songwriter Anthony Bautovich gathered up some of Sydney’s finest players to create the debut “Skindeep”. The album is full rock and roll goodness and very much like Teenage Fanclub, the band’s opener “Are You Ready” has a pile of jangley guitars and harmonies that flow easiliy through the headphones. Bautovich’s soft vocals and the rhythmic guitars are suited well to the alternative country ballad sound as well, as “Tremblin'” illustrates. There are many layers to each song with several chord lines overlapping on some songs, like “Fool in Love” with a female vocal trailing in the background. “Missing You” has a yearning optimism, like some of Gary Louris’ poppiest compositions for The Jayhawks. I hear a bit of George Harrison guitar on the intro to  “The Way You Do” and some rockin’ blues stylings are present in “Wake Up.” In fact, this entire album is full of incredible guitar work and flawless musicianship. Every song here is great with no throwaway tracks. It even takes a very adult spin with the song “What You Want” reminding me of Jeff Larson (lyrically and musically). It also has a good balance of rockers (“Outtamyhead” and “Rescue Me”) with ballads (“Don’t Leave Me Down”). Overall this is an album of intricately crafted and emotionally honest pop music.

The Forresters Site | My Space | CD Baby | Not Lame

Listen to “Trembin”

Listen to “Are You Ready?”