If you love sophisticated lyrics and gorgeous melody you can appreciate The Sheers. Singer/Songwriter Danny DeLaMatyr sounds alot like Roger Manning, doing mid tempo power pop along the lines of Doug Powell and The Posies. The album also does a bit of McCartney balladry with “It is what it is” and then rocks all out for “You’re just Lonely” a nice slice of hooks and chorus. Bill Shupp and Luke Adams round out the band and with great drum work and excellent guitar playing. “Take That” continues The Posies-styled awesomeness. The song “Shakedown” has a great epic rock bridge and a melody line that was made for an arena event. I have to say this is another CD without a weak track on it. Listen to the track below “Goodbye World” for a taste of this great album. For more music to hear, go to the myspace page. You can get this album at CD Baby, Not Lame or KoolKat Music or itunes.

The blog world is always evolving. And really wanted to make the music available to people immediately, instead of just a nice description of the music and a link. So I wanted to add a small music player to the site. So now, I’m able to post a great example of an album and do it with a minimum of fuss. My first choice for this is The Rutles. And based on the song I am posting Dirk is not Deaf!

Enjoy the tune, “Let’s Be Natural” – one of my favorites of the Pre-Fab Four. Thanks alot to the Little Hits blog for the link to get this music player. More reviews are coming… I have a huge backlog of CDs to listen to and post. Stay tuned!

After a five-year absence, Apples in Stereo have returned with a big comeback album. Robert Schneider’s songs have always been influenced by the pop aesthetic of The Beach Boys and ELO. Tthis DIY approach to those sounds are what made the Elephant Six so much fun to listen to. New Magnetic Wonder offers the listener a catchy, bouncy pop sound with all the modern electronica influences and techniques. The album starts out with the defiant “Can you Feel it?” a really nice guitar driven number, that then leads into “Skyway” another Apples’ classic. The Rundgren-styled keyboard-based pop of “Same Old Drag,” has a fantastic groove and ends much too soon. There is a bit too much vocoder and experimental tracks here that throws off the albums pacing. In fact I noticed alot of songs almost seem cut off. When we get to “Mellotron 2” the tone of the album begins to change. “Sunndal Song” and “Sunday Sounds” both sung by drummer Hilarie Sidney are also highlights that would be very comfortable on an Ivy album. It is unfortunate I hear she is no longer part of the band at this time. By the time we get to “Beautiful Machine Parts 3-4” the album resembles some emo-core band, like Taking back Sunday. Overall, The Apples in Stereo have always been one of the most talented bands in indie power pop. Here the tradition continues. Rather than post tracks, I posted the video “Energy” below. You can get this album at emusic and you have no excuses.

“Energy”

Want to see another Apples in Stereo video? Listen to “Same Old Drag”

The Jennifiers come to you with quite a pedigree. Master guitar-pop producer, Dave Nachodsk has worked with Squeeze, Greenberry Woods, Myracle Brah, Splitsville and Starbelly, releases this Baltimore band’s first full lengther in several years. Sounding like a good indie mix of Guided By Voices guitar pop meets They Might Be Giants quirkiness, I found alot here I like. “Mrs. Gray” is an awesome uptempo rocker similar to the Feelies and Velvet Crush. Following this is a satisfiying opus “Landslide” — over four minutes of hummable magic. Some of the songs have a nice 80’s style of guitar rhythm, like “Starfleet Academy” and “Lazy Stalker.” On some songs the vocals get drowned out, but most of the CD does a great job, like a cover of The Soft Boys “Queen of Eyes.” The song “Lion in Winter” runs all over the place and turns into a pyschedelic jam at one point – didn’t Sloan do things like this near the end of an album? You can visit the Jennifers at their website to hear some tracks. You can get this album at notlame.com or cdbaby it is most definitely worth picking up!

The Naomi Star came out with this gem several months ago. It’s got all the classic power pop stylings. Lots of Badfinger influenced greatness here. Every song here is really good. The title song is a bouncy rock gem similar to early Posies. “Just Let Go” is a Beatle-type ballad that has an awesome musical bridge and heavenly “oohs” that deserves much repeats in your ipod. Speaking of Beatles, the Naomi Star do a great job on a cover of “Paperback Writer” as well. “Englighten” channels some classic Pete Ham — you almost expect this song to be a bonus track on Badfinger’s Straight Up. This is a great classic-styled power pop album, that will be appreciated by everyone who reads this blog regularly. “Find my way Home” starts to head into Bread territory and by the end of the CD, it runs out of energy a little, but overall it is a minor flaw. You can get this album at notlame.com, cdbaby or itunes