California pop artist Adrian Bourgeois starts with a great pedigree (his dad being part of the power pop band Bourgeois Tagg in the 80’s) and he’s been playing since he was three years old (no kidding). He’s been weaned on a steady diet of Beatles, Beach Boys and Neil Young growing up in Sacramento, CA. Opening with “Mr. Imaginary Friend,” it’s fresh harmonies and Beatlesque melodies are best compared with Jason Falkner and Michael Penn. This debut continues to be engaging and immediate with the gentle ballad “Clown Review” and continues with “Juniper” an Elton John meets McCartney piano ballad. Other highlights are the violin and guitar ballad “To Be (The First Man on Earth)” which brings comparisons to Elliott Smith or Nick Drake. The very Todd Rundgren-like “Silk from Ashes” picks up the tone with great melodic chorus and those fabulous “do-do-do” backing vocals. The song “My House” has a sweet catchy guitar lead with a superb vocal melody. “Melt in My Mind” continues the chord twisting theatrics with a full horn section and organ solos, that recall the best of Ben Folds. The dreamy “Summertime” continues in that style and doesn’t pull any punches either, as Adrian puts his soul out onto the table here. The Christian faith come out in “Jesus,” and is the sole overtly “Contemporary Christian Music” track. This album is pure power pop and this guy is only twenty years old (Drake Bell has some competition here) and did all of the instrumentation and arrangements. This is a very impressive debut, a top ten contender and I can’t wait to see what’s next. Don’t miss this one.

My Space | CD Baby | Adrian’s site

Although many iconic power pop bands are influential, very few bands can be called a standard barer for a genre. After the demise of XTC in 2002, other bands would keep alive the style and vision of Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding, but none with the perfection of Pugwash (although The Sugarplastic come close). Pugwash’s newest release ‘Eleven Modern Antiquities’ is a perfect power pop album, with a dazzling array of guest musicians, including Andy Partridge & Dave Gregory of XTC (Andy co-writes two tracks with leader Thomas Walsh), Neil Hannon of The Divine comedy, Michael Penn, Jason Falkner, The Section Quartet and Nelson Bragg of The Brian Wilson Band. The result is an amazingly awesome pop sound and best described by reviewer Alan Haber, “Walsh is a pop pundit who fuels his ideas with his deep-seated love of the pop form, whose admiration of the classic pop sound brought forth by bands like the Move and the Electric Light Orchestra and XTC knows no bounds, who lives and breathes what lies at the heart of great pop music and knows how to mix all of that up and create songs steeped in ideas that sing with melodies and harmony and the odd musical quote, and has the good sense, thank God, to share it all with the world.” The songs along the album have the right amount of balance, from soft ballads to multi-harmonic mid-tempo rock. Every track works, but the highlights here are that modern single “Take Me Away” with a killer bassline that drives the melody. Other ear melting tracks are the ELO-styled ballad “Here” and the sunny perfection of “Your Friend,” my favorite on the album. XTC fans: Don’t even think of buying anything else until you get this album, a top ten of 2008 potential winner for sure. I prefer to call the album “Eleven Modern Miracles” it will cure whatever ails you.

My Space | The Pugwash website | Kool Kat Musik | Not Lame