Summer’s dank days need some tunes to get that blood pumping. This turn around the dial has jangle, chamber pop, inspired cover-age, and some Brill Building noise pop. Start warming up the wireless.
Carried Away is both a sprawling 14 track introduction to Birmingham, Alabama’s Slack Times and summation of their work to date, combining two previously released EPs with six new tunes. In reviews of the album, scribes have been quick to point out the band’s obvious links to the solid southern jangle lineage of REM, Guadalcanal Diary and Let’s Active. I hear that but I also think there’s something more. Title track “Carried Away” opens the album with the band’s signature distinctive lead guitar tone but the vocal is a surprise, delivered in an Americana style not unlike recent work from Sam Weber. “Look at You” gives us a more rush jangle feel while the noise pop vocal is reminiscent of Indoor Pets. Then “Leave Me Alone” really marks out this band’s range, departing from the standard jangle script to evoke a more sophisticated Rogue Wave vibe. Listening to tracks like “I’m Trying,” “Bad Move” and “My Time” it’s hard not to see the lead guitar work on this album as the real star. But the song-writing is giving it a run for that designation. Just get your ears around “Can’t Count on Anyone” – the track is guitar pop perfection, a should-be hit single for sure. The band even offer variety in their approach to jangle, with “Yips” striking a Manchester pose while “Let Down” captures that deep southern US sound. Personally, I’m also digging the short sombre guitar instrumental “Slack Times,” named for the band. It’s not like any other tune here but somehow still fits in.
Past Life Regressions is an album of mystery and imagination. Jason Quever’s seventh Papercuts outing is another oh-so precisely produced collection of chamber pop but one with a few surprises. You can find them in the myriad musical textures that give these songs shape – the sprightly guitar picking that launches “I Want My Jacket Back,” the strings backing “My Sympathies,” the mellotron-sounding keyboards anchoring “The Strange Boys,” and so on. Each one is a carefully painted pop miniature. And yet none of the musical settings seem to stay the same. Listen to how Quever twists the musical trajectory of “I Want My Jacket Back” from a jaunty Peter and Gordon aura into a late 60s neo-psychedelia Moody Blues direction. You don’t need to spin this record too many times to realize it’s a real aural treat. I love the freaky keyboard tones animating “Hypnotist.” Or the droney guitar look driving “Remarry.” But arguably it’s the songs that allow everything to shine here. “Lodger” is the obvious should-be chart-climbing single, a pretty sweet reinvention of paisley pop tarted up with a load of inventive keyboard shading. “Sinister Smile” is another strong singles contender, contrasting a rock solid pacing with a dreamy pop melody. “My Sympathies” and “Palm Sundays” are also pretty solid sixties-inspired, hooky tunes. Past Life Regressions may just be Papercuts best album yet.
Somehow I overlooked Bill Lloyd’s fabulous collection of covers from 2016, Lloyd-Ering. Now re-released by Spyderpop in concert with Big Stir Records, it’s definitely time to give it the love it deserves. The project gathers together 12 rare tracks Lloyd has recorded for various tribute albums since 1990, covering artists as disparate as The Lovin’ Spoonful and Wreckless Eric. Thematically, the record is an homage to classics of melody-rich rock and roll, a genre Lloyd has made a significant contribution to himself. In terms of covering style, Lloyd remains pretty faithful to the spirit of the originals, with a few twists. The opening take on Bobby Fuller’s “Let Her Dance” is just riveting fun while the shiver-inducing version of the Byrds’ “The World Turns All Around Her” could be easily mistaken for an alternate-take from the original sessions. Probably my favourite cut here is Lloyd’s reinvention of The Raspberries “Going Nowhere Tonight.” He adds the muscle the song was missing IMHO, taking it out its original soft rock register for a more guitar-ringing poprock style. Favourites? Who I am kidding. I’m favouring just about everything here, though if pressed the dBs, Let’s Active, and Badfinger covers would rank just a little higher. And then there’s Lloyd’s genius reworking of Wreckless Eric’s “Whole Wide World.” Two chords never sounded so good. If you love classic poprock reinterpreted by a master, do yourself a favour, pick up a copy of Lloyd-Ering. You deserve it.
Is Kids on a Crime Spree just the best band name ever? You can debate that in the comments section but my take is that it really does captures the reckless fun demeanor of this group, at least as it is captured on their decennial recordings. The band rocketed onto the indie music scene in 2011, fueled by an uber cool lofi Phil Spector sound on their debut EP We Love You So Bad. Critics put a run on the superlatives bank praising it so much. And then – nothing. Now more than ten years later they’re back with Fall In Love Not In Line and the wait has been worth it. If the first record channeled a Ramones punky charm then the new one is more Magnetic Fields. The Brill Building song popcraft is still here but now delivered with more polish and hooky finesse. “Karl Kardel Building” signals this shift effectively. The opening is so Crystals but quickly goes quirky in a pop boheme style. “When Can I See You Again” has its rumbly guitar lead track the vocal, nicely merging a punk and pop sensibility. “Vital Points” chunks up the rhythm guitar but without surrendering its melodic vitality. “All Things Fade” is another genre-mixer, coming on with a punk guitar ferocity only to seduce us with a heavenly mix of harmony vocals. I could go on. There isn’t a bum track on the album. There’s first album nostalgia cuts (“Goods Get Gone”), Who guitar chord wonders (“Overtaken by the Soil”), noise pop Shangri Las reinventions (“Steve, Why Are You Such a Liar”), and just plain good old guitar pop fun (“Boomdoom”). This album is a ‘must get’ LP for 2022. But be careful. I’d vote Fall In Love Not In Line as the dance platter most likely to be stolen from the party.
Sometimes you leave the radio on and discover something unexpected. But mostly these days you come to a place like this. You can still pretend you’re fiddling the dial.
Banner photo courtesy Swizzle Studio.
With records that are all hot off the digital presses, this is definitely a timely episode of breaking news. And the anticipation is high for these five artists because they regularly hit it out of the poprock park. Have they done it again? Spoiler – get ready for some jangling good times.
Shamelessly exploit an emerging health crisis for some weak blog tie-in? Not our style friends. Think of this as a public service, designed to distract you from the impending end of the world as we know it. As someone once said, if we’re going to have to go, we might as well go out singing!
Bobby Fuller’s untimely death in 1966, just as his career was taking off, deprived popular music of his unique Buddy Holly-meets-British Invasion sound and clear songwriting promise. Case in point: “Let Her Dance,” an ear-wormy, hook-rich masterpiece. The song contains a brilliant juxtaposition of musical tensions that pull between the beat, lead guitar line, vocal melody, and some inspired background- vocal counterpoint. No wonder it’s been covered by countless bands, each choosing to balance the competing elements in somewhat different and intriguing ways. Today’s post explores that variety with a “Let Her Dance”-a-thon. Get your dancing shoes ready!
Where to start? With The Bobby Fuller Four, of course. Though here fans may not know that “Let Her Dance” was actually a rewrite of an earlier Fuller release, “Keep On Dancing.” IMHO the rewrite improves things considerably but compare for yourself below. Now, confession time: the first version of LHD I heard was actually by Marshall Crenshaw from his 1989 Warner’s swan song album, Good Evening. Marshall is a huge Fuller fan, describing him as his “favourite rock star ever to be murdered by gangsters.” More seriously though, at a South by Southwest Bobby Fuller panel session, Crenshaw called the group “…one of the great rock ‘n’ roll bands,” insisting “[t]hey did what they did with so much conviction and energy. Those guys really knew what Fender guitars were for.” In addition to LHD, Crenshaw has covered Fuller’s “Julia,” “My True Love,” and “Never To Be Forgotten.” And Crenshaw’s LHD is a loving homage, fattening up the opening guitar, spacing out the vocal parts, and adding a nice echo-y bit to the bridge. Compared to the original, all that’s missing is Fuller’s heavenly wall-of-background-vocals.
I’m not really an album guy. Particularly now in our ‘download-any-song-you-want-era’. I grew up on compilation albums and AM radio. It was all singles, singles singles: a new sound every three minutes. A whole album is just a vinyl horizon for my needle dropping. But I have to say this year I got hooked on more than a few long players. What grabbed me? I could say it was the songwriting, a coherent sonic palette, the performative ingenuity, etc. But hey, who am I kidding? It was mostly the hooks. Fair warning: there is considerable overlap of artists here with my should-be hit singles list (duh) but not entirely. Bottom line: you won’t go wrong putting your cash down on these LPs in toto.
Edging out Daisy House’s fantastic Bon Voyage by a hair, my number one album for 2018 is Aaron Lee Tasjan’s Karma for Cheap. The more I listened to this record, the more I loved the songs and the performances. There is something extraordinary in just how Tasjan combines his elements. He’s got rumbly guitar, he’s got jangly guitar. His vocals run the gamut from Tom Petty-solid to Roy Orbison-aching tenderness. There’s not a weak cut here, but pay special attention to subtle hooky vocal interplay on “Heart Slows Down,” or the driving guitar hook behind “End of the Day,” or the touching “Dream Dreamer.” You won’t steer wrong with his back catalogue either, particularly 2016’s Silver Tears! There is so much I could say about all 20 albums but frankly the music speaks for itself. Click the links to go directly to the band’s bandcamp, Facebook or webpages.
One final word: I had to single out Super 8’s stupendous triple album accomplishment this year for special attention. After a two-decade career in rock and roll that can only be described as cinematic in its litany of seeming breakthroughs, bad luck, record company shenanigans and some bandmate’s bad faith, these albums are a vindication of his resolve to stick with music. Each record is finely crafted portrait of late 1960s summertime sunshine poprock. Your time machine back to 1968 is ready for boarding! Just hit play.
2018 was a freakin’ fantastic year for poprock! How do I know? Every year-end I put together a playlist of tunes released that year. In 2016 it consisted of 58 songs clocking in at just over 3 hours. By 2017 that list expanded to 98 songs running over 5 hours. This year the list exploded to 175 songs going on for over 9 hours! My list of should-be hit singles had to expand to a top 50 just to accommodate all this talent. Hit the links below to find each artist as featured in my original blog post this past year or to go to their bandcamp or Facebook page if I didn’t write them up.
It’s melody central today on Around the Dial. The station appears to be just stuck on hooks. But that’s OK.
Just getting around to raving about last spring’s hottest poprock release, Starbelly’s Four. I’ve raved about Starbelly member Cliff Hillis’ catalogue before but I have to say, there is nothing like putting a whole bunch of really talented guys together to get even more amazing results. As an album, Four is a strong hook-filled jaunt clearly influenced by the Beatles, solo McCartney, Squeeze and all those others great melodic groups, with a few surprises. I’m digging the low key melodic swing of “Lay Low” and the staccato groove of “Yes, I Love Her Again” with it’s great lead lines and background vocals. “Emily Says” sounds very mid-period Squeeze to me. “Jesus Freak” starts very pop psychedelic Beatles but then throws in a Billy Joel melodic twist in the verses while “Antidote” I swear is a great lost Aimee Mann deep cut.
Seems everybody is loving Bill Lloyd’s new record Working the Long Game and I am no exception. I’ve really liked the few songs I stumbled on from his past work and only just figured out he was one half of the amazing country pop duo Foster and Lloyd! But this new album is something else, solid all the way through. “Satellite” is the killer hit single material, at least on my poprock radio station. It’s got the chorus that hooks you in and keeps you waiting for it to come around again. “What Time Won’t Heal” has a very cool late 1960s folk pop vibe. The album also clearly channels some Elvis Costello-isms on “Til the Day that I Break Down” and “Interrupted” while “Miracle Mile” and “Shinning” had me feeling very Marshall Crenshaw. And then “Yesterday” is just brilliant rocked up pop in a Matthew Sweet sort of way. All this name-dropping is just my way of saying, this guy’s got the poprock goods.
Last up a band I discovered commuting between Toronto and Peterborough, Ontario in 2005, Van Go. “Dear You” (from that year’s Pop Your Heart Out LP) just grabbed me like a good ear worm should. But after that I lost track of the band. That is, until their record company alerted me to the release of their latest full length release, Everybody Loves You When You’re Gone. I’m happy to report they’ve still got it! Things kicked off well with “I Wish I Could Be Grateful,” the obvious single with a great melodic hook in the chorus. It’s also great news that the band’s distinctive and addictive vocal attack is still in evidence here, particularly on tracks like “Miles Away” and “Tell Us How You Really Feel.” Title track “Everybody Loves You When You’re Gone” is also a winner melodically, while still delivered with some rocking muscle.
Poprock Record 