Tag Archives: Chris Milam

Poprock Record’s 25 must-have LPs for 2024

09 Thursday Jan 2025

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Another year, another load of really good albums. Creativity was off the charts in 2024, in both senses unfortunately. But banish despair, here at Poprock Record we make up our own charts, shining light on a deserving collection of should-be stars. Here’s our list of 25 must-have albums from the past year and, trust me, you’ll find plenty of variety within our self-imposed parameters of poppy rock. You’ve got jangle (Ducks Ltd.), gender (Day Dreams) and heartbreak (Tamar Berk). There’s retro (Terry Anderson), metro (Super 8) and fun (Scoopski). We’ve got artists singing in Spanish (Star Trip) and wide variety of accents from the British Isles (the list would be too long). And so much more.

The envelope please, here are Poprock Record’s 25 must have LPs from 2024:

1. Day Dreems Day Dreems
2. Tamar Berk Good Times For a Change
3. Brent Seavers Exhibit B
4. Wesley Fuller All Fuller, No Filler
5. Ducks Ltd. Harm’s Way
6. Aaron Pinto Aaron Pinto
7. Chris Milam Orchid South
8. The Martial Arts In There Like Swimwear
9. The Armoires Octoberland
10. Terry Anderson and the Olympic Ass-Kicking Team Got To Be Strong
11. Star Trip Velocidad
12. Bull Engines of Honey
13. Real Estate Daniel
14. Phil Thornalley Holly Would
15. The Trafalgars About Time
16. Super 8 Retro Metro
17. Be Like Pablo A World Apart
18. Nick Piunti and the Complicated Men Up and Out of It
19. Rich Arithmetic Pushbutton Romance
20. Owen Adamcik Owen Adamcik’s Power Pop Paradise
21. Steve Robinson Window Seat
22. Sergio Ceccanti Mysterious Journey
23. John Larson and the Silver Fields Constellation Prize
24. Scoopski Time is a Thief
25. David Woodard Get It Good

Day Ricardo’s Day Dreems project was groundbreaking in so many ways, lyrically touching on gender, the body, ADHD, oppressive nostalgia and more, while musically mashing up hints of Squeeze, Crowded House and the Beatles into their own distinctive voice. It’s a most worthy choice to sit at #1. But close behind Tamar Berk wowed us with yet another winning collection of introspective yet downright hooky numbers. Brent Seavers, now there’s a guy who knows how to pack an LP full of highly listenable tunes. I mean, he does it again and again. I could go on … and do in the original posts hyperlinked above.

The EP format continues to offer artists a creative outlet that falls somewhere between the noble single and a more herculean long-playing effort. True for some it may amount to little more than a glorified single with additional alternative versions, demos and live cuts (not that I’m complaining). But for others it’s a carefully curated musical statement in its own right. I think our cast of 6 must-have EPs from 2024 lean more in the latter direction:

1. Lo Fi Ho Hum Garage Pop
2. Cliff Hillis and Dennis Schocket Pop, Girls, Etc.
3. Sunken Planes Intersections
4. Shake Some Action! Trip to Yesterday / Chase the Light
5. The Genuine Fakes Extended Play Vol. 1
6. The High Elves Early Works

I deliberately leave legacy artists – i.e. those that gained conventional chart success and still benefit from that or have a major label sponsor – off my yearly lists. They don’t really need any push from me. But I do love a lot of those acts and it is great to see them still putting out solid creative works. So here’s a legacy artist shout out to some notable releases in 2024:

1. JD McPherson Nite Owls
2. The Decemberists As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again
3. Fastball Sonic Ranch
4. Cast Love is the Call
5. Crowded House Gravity Stairs
6. Nick Lowe and Los  Straitjackets Indoor Safari

I’m a non-recovering Beatlemaniac, it’s true. I’m always on the lookout for some fun and creative riffs on the Fabs. This year Nick Frater blew away the competition with the further development of his Rutles project, a riff on a riff on the Beatles. So meta! Thus our best riff on the Beatles this year is:

Nick Frater Nick Frater presents The Rebutles 1967-70

Last year I singled out The Flashcubes for their amazing Pop Masters album. It was one where they covered a host of new wave era classics with members of the original bands. This year their spin-off band The Half Cubes produced their own version of that project with equally impressive results. You see where this is going. This year’s special award of awesome poprock merit goes to:

The Half-Cubes Pop Treasures

As I wrote in the original review, “Pop Treasures is a monster of a collection” that is ‘lovingly relentless’ in its coverage of 1970s and 1980s hit-makers and indie darlings. It’s a hits package worthy of K-Tel, and that is high praise coming from someone who lived through the seventies. So many great songs here, including our #1 most inventive cover for 2024 “Make You Cry.” Treat yourself, this is a guaranteed good time.

Album fans, the form is in safe hands if the releases from this past year are anything to go by. Sure the kids may not be into them the way their 1960s through 1990s peers were but they’ll have something to dip into when they get older.

Photo of John Baldessari’s art piece ‘Record Collector’ courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr collection.

Something new II: Ethan Beck and the Charlie Browns, Laughing, and Chris Milam

03 Saturday Aug 2024

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Discovering new artists is pretty much our raison d’etre here at Poprock Record. But some artists are so new I haven’t heard nada about them. That’s today’s acts, absolutely brand new to me and perhaps you too. So let’s get the plastic wrap off this e-vinyl together.

On Duck Hollow Pittsburgh’s Ethan Beck and the Charlie Browns use steel town’s working class neighbourhoods as fodder for setting the scene over a handful of songs. Things kick off with a bit of guitar blast and hummable melodies on opening tunes “Fear and Loathing in Grammercy” and “Monk Eric.” Both fall somewhere between the Sam Roberts Band and Ruler on the manic guitar pop scale. Other songs like “And And And” and “North” have a more vulnerable pop vibe, in line with acts like Sam Weber, Matthew Milia and Nicholas Altobelli. And is that an Apples in Stereo melodic turn embedded in “Does This Bus Stop at Douglas Street”? Sounds that way to me. There are a few sonic departures on the album, like the Latin dance rhythm defining “Matthew Song.” Billy Joel even gets a look in when the couple from his “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant” appear in “Brenda and Eddie.”  In the ‘my fave’ file, I love the ferocious poppy guitar grind driving “Fear and Loathing in Squirrel Hill.” All in all a visit to Duck Hollow is definitely worth the trip.

Montreal seems to be on fire in terms of cranking out great melodic rock bands of late. We’ve featured Los and The Wesleys recently just to name a few. Now you can add Laughing to that ever growing list with their self-titled debut LP. Giving this record a spin, it’d be easy to turn on opening cut “Easier Said” and declare Teenage Fanclub to be the sonic ghost haunting what is going on here. Ok, then “Pebble” comes along and it has pretty strong TF vibes too. But as we cruise along to “Bruised” the atmosphere subtlely shifts to a more muscular poprock sound.  “Narcissist Blues” even harshes up the lead guitar solo a bit. “Garden Path” continues this trend toward a rockier pop style. Then “Will She Ever Be A Friend of Mine” and “You and I” turn things back in more TF pop direction. For something different check out how “Don’t Care” and “Secret” amp up the country quotient. I also really like “Sour Note” which sounds like Sloan on a Byrds kick to me. Overall the band have a surprisingly coherent sound given that they have come together only recently, drawing members from a variety of acts like Nap Eyes, Monomyth, Human Music, and Fountain.

Thrumming is the word I’d use to describe Chris Milam’s new album Orchid South. Like a kid at the gates to an amusement park, the record positively bursts with barely contained excitement. Opening cut and title track “Orchid South” sets the album’s tone using elements of a Springsteen structured sonic landscape, with the alternating high and lows, upfront guitars, and requisite horn section. Then “Almost Gone” lays down shotgun rhythm guitar work draped with an Eagles-like harmony vocal precision. And those horns! “Always On My Mind” brings to mind recent poppy Americana-inflected work from the likes of Jim Larson and the Silver Fields. The record does ease up here and there with more atmospheric contemplative numbers, like “Bad Dream,” “Underwater,” and “Song of the Summer.” Or there are tracks like “Let Me Love You” and “Thoughts On Hold” where Milam expertly alters the pace and attack for maximum impact. “Out” is just a rollicking good time and amazing guitar solo workout. Overall Orchid South is an album rife with Americana energy that doesn’t neglect its pop hooks.

Here we have brand new artists that I’m sure will become old faves in the years to come. But you have start somewhere. Visit these artists online to get to know them better.

Photo ‘What Time Is It In Miami Beach’ courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr collection.