The Hope Trust is the project of Kelly Upshaw, a singer-songwriter from Denton, Texas. Along with Andy Odom (bass), Winston Chapman (drums), Jeremy Butler (guitar) and Michael Upshaw (guitars, vocals) they have a sweet Americana sound similar to The Pernice Brothers earlier efforts and Wilco. After the rollicking “Break You Down” and very Pernice-like “Run It Through” it settles into an indie folk groove, with “Ok Alright” complete with wistful choruses similar to Neil Finn. The musicanship is superb and the production is clean here as well. If you like your alt-country with a bit of melodic melancholy, this is the perfect poison for you. On the other side of the coin, there may be too much gloom here with tracks like “Repent”, “World Without End” and “Mountain I Can’t Climb” – it’s enough to drive a man to drink. The lack of any upbeat songs after the opening tracks is a real downer here. Good job, Hope Trust. After hearing this I have an “incurable want” for some Jack Daniels with Gary Louris. Depressed Alt country lovers unite!

Hope Trust site | My Space | CD Baby | Itunes

Tony Low, a founding member of New York’s renowned garage-psychedelic pop band The Cheepskates, has been writing and recording his songs since the early 1980’s. Like the Kinks Ray Davies, Tony has a good story along with a killer riff that makes listening a pure pop pleasure. Starting with the excellent “Winter of Black Ice” – it’s a real treat for Kinks fans. The next track “This Old House” has a clean pop approach similar to Chris Stamey and the DBs. Needless to say fans of The early REM or The Cheepskates will love all of Tony’s stuff. The music is rich in melody and the jangle in “Spirals” is a catchy example. The autobiographical “In This Life” is a bit depressing, but still not off putting. The ballads here like, “All is Coming” have a pop softness that is not unlike Andrew Gold. Low dosen’t come across too tough, even on the fuzzy “Not the Lucky Ones” – it still approaches music that is best described as “easy listening,” but that label is really maligned and I use the term in the best sense. The album ends with “Brave Michael” a fitting Brian Wilson-styled ballad. This album is most worthy of a jangle pop fans attention.

My Space | Kool Kat Musik | CD Baby | Not Lame

Listen to “Brave Michael”

Is that all there is? As I mentioned earlier, the genre is more flexible than most (Metal anyone?) and I listened to some great indie/alternative rock this year that deserves to be listed. For the record, my favorite this year of the group has been Silverchair “Young Modern”, what I consider a great crossover album that power pop fans will really enjoy. Anyway, if I get time later this year, I will pull out one of these for further detailed review. For now, if you want a good quality follow up to your power pop music collection this would be a good starting point. Being mostly mainstream albums, you will be able to find these anywhere (Amazon, Itunes, etc.)

• Silverchair “Young Modern”
• Arcade Fire “Neon Bible”
• Fallout Boy “Infinity on High”
• LCD Soundsytem “Sound of Silver”
• Maroon 5 “it won’t be long”
• The National “Boxer”
• Of Montreal “Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?”
• The Shins “Wincing The Night Away”
• The Weakerthans “Reunion Tour”
• Hard-Fi “Once Upon A Time in The West””