Tag Archives: Hovvdy

Moods for moderns: Hovvdy, Bull, Seasonal Falls, and Aaron Lee Tasjan

10 Friday May 2024

Posted by in Poprock Themepark

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

Forget the Elvis Costello tune, today’s feature is really just a staging post for bands that know how to cast a moody ambience over their recordings. Some are dark, awash with shade and mood lighting, while others seem to tweak the brightness of each hook they throw. You can take your pick of moods on offer here.

Hovvdy are masters of textured atmosphere. It jumps out and envelops you on their stand-out single “Jean.” I hadn’t even written a line about them when I included that release in my top 5 folk pop list for 2023. Now they’re got a whole album of similarly intriguing material on their recently-released fifth long-player, the self-titled Hovvdy. The LP has 19 songs that feature their amazing talent for conjuring a sonic warm blanket out of a mixture of instruments and dreamy vocals. Some selections are little more than evocative fragments of melody that get incorporated and developed elsewhere. “Forever Piano” is a striking 21 second piano riff that loses a bit of bite but gains melodic depth on the longer “Forever.” Other tracks range across styles but keep to the album’s over-arching sonic décor. For instance “Clean” vibes a DIY, lofi Elliot Smith feel while “Make Ya Proud” has more studio polish. But both are just different flavours of what I might call ‘rogue folk,’ if you’re prepared to envision New Order as back up players here. Other highlights for me include “Big Blue” and “Portrait,” the latter sounding very country with a vocal that rumbles like it was recorded in a big empty room.

10 years after their debut LP She Looks Like Kim fell to earth and three years since their major label debut Discover Effortless Living York’s Bull deliver a sweet sweet third installment with Engines of Honey. Everything here is similar – but different. The design is punchier, the production is brighter, but the songs are familiarly good. Even though the band is back on independent footing having left EMI they clearly retain the poise and polish they gained there.  Album opener “Start a New” is a winning poppy number with a melodic skip in its step. From there it’s hooks aplenty, whether delivered as power pop as on “Head Exploder” and “Crick” or with a smoother sheen on “Sid” and “Stranger.” “Red Rooves” even vibes a bit of Bleachers to my ears. The departure tune is “Imaginary Conversations” which manages to overlay a choral vocal quality on its jaunty tune. And if you really want to see how far this band has come in a decade, check out their remake of “Jan Fin” from their first album. They really imbue the song with new life.

The new Seasonal Falls album Happy Days is a lush sonic vista, where the melodic detail and pacing choices on each of its nine tunes exhibits the care of a fine pointillist painting. Title track and opening cut “Happy Days” meanders into view, lulling us with its alluring melody. “Used To Be Fun” almost seems to skip along, picking up the pace ever so slightly. There is a McCartney-esque calibration of carefully worked out guitar motifs and vocals here. Then “Lie Down” almost breaks the album’s spell, vibing a more indie rock feel – almost. You could think of this album as different shades of the same colour, each song being distinctly different but clearly relatable to the others. It all comes down to choices on tempo and instrumentation. On this front “Girlfriend” is a masterful bit of song staging, opening with such precise restraint only to slowly add more colour and sonic depth along the way. Or listen to how the country-ish tinge to “Half Moon” lends a sense of urgency to the song. I also like how “Hey Girl” deploys ‘oh oh oh oh’s to good effect, creating an almost conventional pop tune. Should be hit single? Definitely “I Wish You All The Best” with its Neil Finn sense of low-key assurance.

Stellar Evolution is album #5 for Nashville’s Aaron Lee Tasjan, another installment in his genre-defying exploration of subtle melodic hookyness and lyrical openness. Times are tough in the American south and Tasjan gives voice to how the national right-wing war on diversity lands there with particular ferocity. As he sings on “Nightmare,” ‘I’m fearing for my life’ because ‘Mama they wanna kill me.’ The song’s relentless yet even synth backdrop effectively frames a harrowing narrative. Throughout the album Tasjan’s songs are snapshots of living amidst all a kind of social carnage. “Roll Your Windows Down” paints a joyous picture of connection that needn’t be tidy. “Bird” is a peppy track about getting up every day even if you’re going nowhere. And a host of songs here specifically capture queer alienation, like “Horror of It All.” But for caustic commentary on more explicitly political topics, see the hard-hitting “I Love America Better Than You.” Should-be hit single definitely would be “Alien Space Queen,” a boppy rumination on living with difference. But I also really like  “Cry Till You’re Laughing” for its Beatlesque grandeur and just a dab of ELO. Then things close starkly with “Young,” a track that will tug at your heart with the gravity of a queer Springsteen. On Stellar Evolution Aaron Lee Tasjan offers up beautiful, heartfelt testimony to coping with and even defying America’s current ugly mood.

We’ve offered moods for many occasions so take your pick. These artist are waiting to cast their spell via the hyperlinks appearing above.

Photo courtesy zaza23 (Jessica) Flikr collection.

Poprock Record’s should-be hit singles for 2023

01 Monday Jan 2024

Posted by in Poprock Themepark

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

2023 was another banner year for melodic rock and roll. Here at Poprock Record we could spotlight only a small portion of what was go on. Still, we kept busy, writing 58,000 words over 77 posts about literally hundreds of artists. And we liked them all – that’s why we wrote about them. But some tunes had real staying power for our team of singles inspectors. So today we single out 50 should-be hit singles from 2023, songs that deserve another listen and a shot at chart glory. Click on the hyperlinks to hear each song and read the original write ups.

Getting to the main event, here are Poprock Record’s top 50 should-be hit singles from 2023:

1. Strange Neighbors “Hotline Psychic”
2. Taking Meds “Memory Lane
3. The Decibels “Why Bother With Us”
4. Good Shade “When Will You See”
5. The Goa Express “Portrait”
6. Billy Tibbals “Onwards and Upwards”
7. Strange Neighbors “Whoa! Is Me”
8. Ransom and the Subset “Perfect Crime”
9. The Tubs “I Don’t Know How It Works”
10. Buddie “Class Warfare”
11. Dignan Porch “Electric Threads”
12. The Tearaways “Easier Done Than Said”
13. Chris Church “One More Change to Get Over You”
14. The McCharmlys “Love Me Too”
15. Eyelids “That I Can See You Better”
16. The No Ones “Phil Ochs is Dead”
17. Canadian Invasion “Catch a Falling Knife”
18. Thomas Charlie Pederson “Yesterdays and Silly Ways”
19. Kevin Bowe “Put Me Out of Your Misery”
20. The Summertimes “Inside”
21. Gosh Diggity “Blast Off”
22. The Midnight Callers “Girl On the Run”
23. Parallax Project “Mary Houdini”
24. Dan Kibler “Don’t Go for the Money”
25. The Kind Hills “Let Youth Take Over”
26. Cal Rifkin “Break My Heart”
27. Ratboys “Morning Zoo”
28. Hurry “Like I Loved You”
29. Thomas Walsh “A Good Day For Me”
30. The Newds “The Street Leads to the River”
31. Dave Kuchler “She’s Rather Be With Me”
32. Hardwicke Circus “Everyday I Find Luck”
33. Worriers “Trust My Gut”
34. Tony Marsico “Rocket Girl”
35. Jean Caffeine “I Don’t Want to Kill You Anymore”
36. The Exbats “Like It Like I Do”
37. Dazy “Forced Perspective”
38. Miss Chain and the Broken Heels “Storms”
39. Bill Lloyd “Keep the Place Clean”
40. Kurt Hagardorn “Tractor Beam”
41. Nite Sobs “Julie Ann”
42. Turn Turn Turn “Power”
43. The Rockyts “I Get High”
44. The Blusterfields “Fear of Depths”
45. Dropkick “Telephone”
46. The Scarlet Goodbye “Angel Dust”
47. The Amplifier Heads “When We Go Home Again”
48. Steve Marino “Satisfy You”
49. Justin Levinson “I Need Somebody Now”
50. Moon Mates “Not Today”

New York’s Strange Neighbors grabbed me early in 2023 with their killer 45 “Hotline Psychic” and never really let go. The lyrics are so spot on, the chorus is mesmerizing, while the instrumental break threatens to break out into Blondie’s “Rapture.” The band is so good they placed another tune in my top 10, the delightful jangler “Whoa! Is Me.” Then Taking Meds and Good Shade seemed like two sides of a very good coin with songs that featured surging insistent hooks that simply demanded replay. The Goa Express tipped toward punk but without sacrificing melodic depth. And The Decibels returned with the modern beat group sound they own. There’s variety in this list, proving genre is no barrier to delivering poprock hooks.

Moving on, here are Poprock Record’s most inventive covers from 2023:

1. Juliana Hatfield “Don’t Bring Me Down” (Electric Light Orchestra)
2. Mo Troper “Citgo Sign” (Jon Brion)
3. Arthur Alexander “It’s Not Love Anymore #2” (The Sorrows)
4. The Jangles “Here Without You” (The Byrds)
5. The Flashcubes “Have You Ever Been Torn Apart?” (The Spongetones)

Covers remained fertile ground for music veterans and indie new-comers alike this past year. Juliana Hatfield delivered a whole album of ELO songs, mixing things up with a nicely curated collection of chart hits and deep cuts. Mo Troper introduced a new generation to the genius of Jon Brion with his album tribute, Troper sings Brion. Arthur Alexander covers himself, sort of, with his ace reinvention of the Sorrows’ “It’s Not Love Anymore #2.” And both The Jangles and The Flashcubes covers really revive some great songs for the here and now.

Rounding out our lists, here are Poprock Record’s top 5 folk pop singles from 2023:

1. Rachel Angel “I Can’t Win”
2. Talking Kind “Trouble”
3. Hovdy “Jean”
4. Benji Tranter “Speed Camera”
5. J. Matthews “Wanderlust”

While most of our coverage is pretty poppy we do shift into the folk lane from time to time where the melodies are strong or I just have a particular interest.

Another year, another slew of great songs. Click on the links to remind yourself how good a year it really was and make sure to let the artists know what you think in cash and/or commentary.

Photo courtesy of Raymond Clarke Images on Flikr.

Spring singles countdown

19 Tuesday Apr 2022

Posted by in Poprock Themepark

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This is a countdown to both warmer temps and hotter tunes: our spring singles countdown! I find my incoming new singles pile never really shrinks but that’s not really a problem is it? So here goes with another 21 songs just pining for your attention.

The Stranglers were one of those bands I was vaguely aware of in my youth but I was too distracted by the melodic heft of The Jam and Squeeze to take notice of their more subtle charms. In fact it was only in the past few years I heard the band’s exquisite “Golden Brown” from their 1981 album Le Folie. Fast forward to last year and the band’s 18th album Dark Matters is full of winning tunes. The tribute to late longtime band member Dave Greenfield “And If You See Dave …” is touching while “The Last Men on the Moon” has a hooky futuristic vibe a la 1980s Moodies meets Blue Oyster Cult. Another band doing the coming-back-strong thing are The Lovetones. After a decade gone they returned in 2020 with Myriad and the must hear song for me is “Rescue.” Ok, this is not a breaking single but it should have been, it’s got that magical mid-1960s sparkle tune-wise. Tamar Berk is building up to something pretty extraordinary, if her drip drip of confident pre-album singles is anything to go by. “Tragic Endings” opens with alluring simplicity, just a single electric guitar and Berk’s clear voice, before adding layer after layer of sonic hooks. The song is masterful arrangement of push and pull melodic effects and the vibe is like Pat Benatar meets Blondie, with a touch of Laurie Anderson thrown in. The upcoming album is Start at the End but you’re gonna want in at the beginning. Ottawa’s Robby Millar turns up the 1970s bubblegum/glam guitars on “All We’ve Got” with a chorus that is very The Cure. It’s a creative combination that is oh so obvious once you hear it. Incipient spring brings a new double A sided single from Nashville artists *repeat repeat and they certainly paint a picture, “Soft” a dreamy, shoe-gazey float along the water, “Hmm Feels Like” a punchier Kevin Devine-ish acoustic bit of hooky shuffle.

The Stranglers – The Last Men on the Moon
Robby Millar – All We’ve Got

Houston’s enigmatic poprocker K. Campbell layers his recent single “Breaking Glass” with an intoxicatingly compressed sound, like a classic 45 blasting from a transistor radio. But listen a little more closely to hear all the subtle shifts in sonic texture that elevate the tune. Another textured mini-masterpiece comes from L.A.’s A. Michael Collins. “In Other Climes” initially sounds like it’s a member of the Bryds family tree with its jangly guitars and harmony vocals. But it quickly turns into something more contemporary, not unlike the retro reinventions from the likes of Richard X. Heyman. Bryan Adams albums typically alternate between effing-eh truck-driving stadium-rawk and more radio-friendly poprock earworms. Album 15 So Happy It Hurts delivers on both but I’m drawn more to the latter, which just happen to be all the songs he wrote here with his traditional hit-songwriting partner Jim Vallance. “I’ve Been Looking For You” is textbook poprock goodness: so simple, nothing ground-breaking here, but man does Adams know how to put it together. Now for something a bit different, Classic Pat takes on Trisha Yearwood’s “She’s In Love With the Boy” stripping out all its ‘easy listening’ country elan and replacing that with a fabulous 1980s Canadian indie vibe e.g. The Northern Pikes or The Grapes of Wrath. The song is just one of many commercial country make-overs appearing on a worthwhile album split with Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard entitled Country Buffet. Austin duo Hovvdy wowed critics with their self-described ‘pillow core’ album True Love last fall. Now they’re back with a new single “Everything.” The acoustic guitar sets the tone and hook for the song, building from a stark and spare backdrop only to drop in a bit banjo on its way to veritable wall of sound as the tune builds. It is somehow both a bit manic and oh-so-smooth at the same time.

Bryan Adams – I’ve Been Looking For You

Everything about Isle-of-Eigg dweller Johnny Lynch is original. His recordings as Pictish Trail defy easy categorization. Me, I’m drawn to the melody central cuts, which really comprise only some small part of his musical vision. As Guardian writer Jude Rogers reveals, his latest album Island Family is an oblique love letter to his island home and community. My choice for your listening pleasure is “Melody Something” but the rest of the album is worth some dedicated listening. Lincoln UK’s The Rills are something a bit different again, offering up a lot of story detail on “Skint Eastwood.” The verses have a driving, almost relentless attack but when the chorus kicks in, wow, it’s like melodic crack. Staten Island’s Goin’ Places have shifted the intensity of their punk delivery over their twenty years together, edging slightly into more pop punk territory on their most recent album, Save the World. It’s a strong album but personally I’m digging the Mersey-ish “Recover.” Sure, there’s a still a strong punky feel to the proceedings but the boys add some very melodic guitar lines and sweet background vocals. Veteran protest songster Billy Bragg came out with a new album The Million Things That Never Happened last fall and it had more than a few of his signature hooky folk rock numbers. The highlight for me was album closer “Ten Mysterious Photos That Can’t Be Explained” with its rollicking tempo and razor sharp social commentary. Kelowna’s Stephen Schijns has a curious new single that combines an eerie Gordon Lightfoot-reminiscent vocal with a chugging yet propulsive bit of poprock performance, and a tasty bit of 1970s guitar solo. It really works.

North Carolina’s Tracy Shedd ambles onto centre stage with her single “Going Somewhere,” its laid back feel gaining more urgency in the chorus. Definitely a bit of car-driving, windows-open on a summer day sort of music. The Telmos’ “What She Knows” actually first appeared on the band’s 2019 EP How Quick It Goes Away but it has now been re-released by Aldora Britain Records. It definitely deserves a second chance, given its sunny 1960s pop psychedelic feel. Kinda like The Zombies jamming with The Hollies. Back into the pop punk field, Boston’s Invisible Rays pump out what sounds like a somewhat more socially adjusted Weezer on “Landline.” This one is jump-up-and-down dance good. Another late find for me is smiles “Gone For Good.” This 2019 release oozes Teenage Fanclub, Big Star and Matthew Sweet vibes. Turn it up loud and get lost in the melodic haze. Chicago’s Kerosene Stars continue their English 1980s band revival kick with “Purpose of Friend,” a song that sounds like something from Manchester 1988. A bit confessional folkie, a bit swing poprock.

We’ll wrap things up with a double blast from prolific Cambridgeshire indie artist 65MPH. The recent singles “Real Life” and “Don’t Walk Away” cap a series of releases from this guy, so an album proper cannot be far off (can it?). I love the rough and ready vibe on these songs, reminding me of work from the likes of The Jam and Cast.

Twenty-one singles crammed into one post is like finding a variety box of quality chocolates on your Easter egg hunt. There’s definitely going to be some you really like. Time to start indulging.

The big fat post of everything I

30 Thursday Dec 2021

Posted by in Poprock Themepark

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

It happens every year. My meticulous lists and projected scheduled posts invariably go awry and artists I had every intention of featuring somehow get left out. But then I had an idea. An awful idea. A wonderful, awful idea. Actually it’s one I stole from those canny Brits. What if I just packed those missing artists into one big fat of post of everything? Then I could tuck them all into 2021 no problem. It’s not a pretty … but it’s what we’re doing. Here’s the first of two installments.

Spain loves power pop, as is obvious from Hank Idory’s recent album, Sentimental Jamboree. The record has a range of tempos going but I’m drawn to the whipsmart Mersey-tinged “Un Rayo De Sol.” Austin, Texas duo Hovvdy serve up some pretty special, self-dubbed ‘pillow-core’ on True Love. It’s got a some Bon Iver, a bit of Hayden, and even some New Order in its droney intensity at times. The whole record could wallpaper an evening of low lighting intimacy for you but a quick take lands on the title track “True Love.” Rochester New York is a serious rock and roll town with so many great bands from there. Like the early 1960s beach riffing rock and roll outfit Televisionaries. Crank up “Charlotte Beach” and let the beach bingo party begin! B-side “Cuckoo Clock” is a pretty special bit of fun too – love that guitar solo. To get some jangle on, let’s turn to Gabriel’s Dawn and their exquisitely gentle, flowing single “Loose Canyon.” Kinda like the Bangles geared down for a ride in the country. Proving old indie dogs can learn new tricks, Swansea Sound come out of Wales demanding ‘indie bands of the world, unite!’ The song titles are blast – “Corporate Indie Band,” “I Sold My Soul on EBay” – and not at all off the mark. But I’m digging the more blatantly poppy “Let It Happen.”

Kent’s The Pastel Waves are also working the political side of street on their EP The Influencers. There’s a 1980s Silencers feel to the package with distinctive guitar while the politics is served with strong melody e.g. opening track “Starts Right Here.” A solo record from Cotton Mather’s Robert Harrison is a big deal and people have been writing about it all over, deservedly so. Watching the Kid Come Back is a delightful collection, marked by whimsey and emotional depth. The title track alone is worth the album price, a remarkable work of melodic minimalism. Is it wrong to buy an album for the cover? Ok, so the music got to me too but the cover of Atari Ferrari’s new Pleasant Surprise had me on pause for while. The record itself is an extraordinary distillation of 1970s influences – Marc Bolan, Queen, a raft of guitar picking singer/songwriting guys, and more. Hard to choose just one tune but I’d have you start on the Cat Stevens-ish “Keep Lookin’.” Las Vegas band The Laissez Fairs clearly just tipped out of the Tardis from 1969, they so nail the psych-poprock sound of that time. The album is “Curiosity Killed The Laissez Fairs?” and it’s a winner. But pressed for one hit, I’m really digging “Sunshine Tuff.” Two Whiltshire UK boys are Rural France. I know, it’s confusing. But ignore all that and just wade into their fab new album RF. The slightly DIY indie vibe tends to obscure the songwriting talent here – what songs! So many possible key selections: “Clementine,” “Teenage Tom Petty,” “Sing Yr Hook,” and so on. I’m voting “Resident Comedian” as the should-be hit single.

Sal Baglio is having a busy year. Project one is another Amplifier Heads long-player, SaturnalienS. All the usual ingredients are there: hooky lead guitar lines, clever lyrics and surprising melodic turns buried everywhere. Just check out the Costello-worthy guitar licks launching “The House of Young Dolls.” What a tune! And then on project two he pulls a Dukes of Stratosphere move with new band The Peppermint Kicks, melding late sixties rock with a Romantics era new wave. It’s all there on “Johnny D’s (Play It Again).” One band is just not enough for some people. Going out on a limb with this next one, all the way to Selkirk Manitoba. Goody Grace has got a spooky EP out, Nostalgia Kills, and it vibes a pretty contemporary sound. But check out the 1980s spacey guitar and overall ominous poppiness to “Hold Me in the Moonlight.” Here’s another outlier from Madrid Spain group Howe Gelb and a Band of Gypsies. Overall, Algrias is tangorific, with airy background vocals and some pretty amazing guitar playing. But the standout feature of this band is how the musical accompaniment combines with the Leonard Cohen-esque lead vocals. Magic! Start with “Notoriety” and go from there. Vancouver’s WUT are great. There is something so performance artist punk about their whole demeanor on their record Now. For instance, “White Walls” almost sounds like a chant but still has some quirky melodic undercurrent carrying it through what is obviously first person account of a coffee shop apocalypse.

We’re not done. There’s even more ‘big fat post of everything’ coming your way. Tomorrow.