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Poprock Record’s should-be hit singles for 2022

05 Thursday Jan 2023

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Poprock Themepark

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*repeat repeat, Allan Kaplon, Andy Bell, Bats, Beachheads, Bill DeMain, Bill Lloyd, Bloody Norah, Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard, Chris Castino, David Woodard, Dazy, Edward O'Connell, Fjord Mustang, Flipp, Frank Royster, Freddie Steady Krc, Freedy Johnston, Goodman, Grrrl Gang, Jane's Party, John Larson and the Silver Fields, Kevin Robertson, Kurt Lanham, Lawn, Limblifter, Linda XO, Lisa Mychols & Super 8, Marc Jonson, Martin Luther Lennon, Moonlight Parade, Murray Atkinson, Novelty Island, Phil Thornalley, Pictish Trail, Push Puppets, Ramirez Exposure, Richard Turgeon, Richard X. Heyman, RIcky Rochelle, Rogers and Butler, Sky Diving Penguins, Sloan, Stephen Schijns, Steve Robinson and Ed Woltil, Suburban HiFi, Superchunk, Tamar Berk, Teenage Tom Petties, Televisionaries, The Bleeding Idahos, The Demos, The Kryng, The Minders, The Proctors, The Rallies, The Rubs, The Stroppies, The Telmos, The Toms, The Wends, U.S. Highball

It was another busy year for melody-drenched rock and roll. Releases were coming fast and furious and frankly I could barely keep up. Still, I managed to get 82 posts up on the blog in 2022 and write over 64,000 words on the loosely-defined rock and roll sub-genre I call ‘poprock.’ I couldn’t write about everything that crossed my desk or what others may have necessarily thought was review-worthy, I just covered what caught my ear or worked itself into some kooky theme I cooked up. So let me be clear, what appears here is a completely arbitrary exercise in personal taste and discretion. I’m sure others may have a somewhat different set of worthy tunes that deserve more attention. And that is totally cool. The point is to celebrate the artists and perhaps give people another shot at checking them out.

So here it is, Poprock Record’s top 50 should-be hit singles from 2022:

1. Grrrl Gang “Pop Princess”
2. The Bleeding Idahos “The Beat Said”
3. Dazy “Rollercoaster Ride”
4. Bloody Norah “Shooting Star”
5. Allan Kaplon “Restless One”
6. Televisionaries “Over and Out”
7. John Larson and the Silver Fields “Reversible Heart”
8. Push Puppets “There’s No-one Else Like Lynette”
9. Tamar Berk “Your Permission”/“Tragic Endings”
10. Freddie Steady Krc “Bohemian Dandy”
11. The Toms “Atmosphere”
12. The Proctors “You and Me and the Sea”
13. The Minders “Home”
14. Richard Turgeon “Better With You”
15. Flipp “You Can Make It Happen”
16. Bill DeMain “Lone Ranger”
17. Limblifter “Haystack Rock”
18. Stephen Schijns “I Met Her Yesterday”
19. The Rubs “When I Dream About You”
20. Edward O’ Connell “Golden Light”
21. Superchunk “Endless Summer”
22. The Kryng “Get”
23. Freedy Johnston “There Goes a Brooklyn Girl”
24. Phil Thornalley “Fast Car”
25. Lawn “Down”
26. The Stroppies “The Perfect Crime”
27. Beachheads “Jupiter”
28. Martin Luther Lennon “jfkha”
29. David Woodard “Stupid Kid”
30. Linda XO “California Girl”
31. Richard X. Heyman “When the New Dawn Comes”
32. Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard “Break Right In”
33. Sloan “Magical Thinking”
34. Teenage Tom Petties “Boxroom Blues”
35. The Demos “Streetlight Glow”
36. Suburban HiFi “In Her Reverie”
37. Moonlight Parade “Amsterdam”
38. Ricky Rochelle “In a Dream With You”
39. The Telmos “What She Knows”
40. Marc Jonson and Ramirez Exposure “Tape Recording”
41. Sky Diving Penguins “Run Boy”
42. Novelty Island “Jangleheart”
43. Goodman “Au Pair”
44. Pictish Trail “Melody Something”
45. Kevin Robertson “Tough Times (Feel Like That)
46. U.S. Highball “(You’ve Got To) Activate a Carrot”
47. The Wends “What A Heart Is For”
48. The Rallies “Must Be Love”
49. Jane’s Party “It’s Been Years”
50. Frank Royster “Open Door”

There were so many great songs put out this past year, I was spoiled for choice. And choosing wasn’t easy. Sometimes I cheated a little. Grrrl Gang’s “Pop Princess” technically came out before 2022 but I only got around to writing about it this last year. What a tune! It’s a perfect example of the kind of excitement a great single can generate and, really, why I write this blog. People need to hear it! Or there’s the fresh indie hooks driving The Bleeding Idahos’ “The Beat Said” and Bloody Norah’s “Shooting Star.” Dazy had a knock out AM radio earworm with “Rollercoaster Ride.” And then there was veteran songster Allan Kaplon coming on like The Highwaymen at first only to let loose the Rockpile hooks in the chorus of “Restless Ones.” There were new faces and old favourites and surprises aplenty. Click on the links to go to the original posts featuring each song.

I had to create a few new categories this year, just to capture all that was good and groovy about 2022. The post-Covid covers album phenomenon continued and most were great fun. But some were particularly inspired. And then there were a lot of acoustic guitar-dominant tunes out this past year that I felt really needed to be singled out in a category I’ve dubbed folk pop.

So, without further ado, here are Poprock Record’s most inventive covers from 2022:

1. Kurt Lanham “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (The Beatles)
2. Lisa Mychols and Super 8 “I Can’t Explain” (The Who)
3. Bill Lloyd “The World Turns Around Her” (The Byrds)
4. Andy Bell “Light Flight” (Pentangle)
5. Murray Atkinson “Bus Stop” (The Hollies)

And here are Poprock Record’s top folk pop singles from 2022:

1. Fjord Mustang “Health Class Field Trip”
2. Rogers and Butler “Oh Romeo”
3. Bats “Golden Spoon”
4. *repeat repeat “Hm Feels Like”
5. Steve Robinson and Ed Woltil “Make Amends”
6. Chris Castino “Chinese Whispers”

I do love making lists but the choices do not amount to any big heavy pronouncement on anything – just my bit of fun and chance to celebrate these artists a little bit more. Check them out and see if you don’t agree, they’re seriously good!

Photo courtesy Fred Rockwood.

Even more 50 foot women: Kate Clover, Linda XO, and Madeline Rosene

24 Thursday Nov 2022

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Poprock Themepark

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Kate Clover, Linda XO, Madeline Rosene

Why focus a post on women? After all, it’s not like we focus one on men and their accomplishments. Or don’t we? In a way nearly all posts about rock and roll are about men because men dominate the music industry. Despite comprising more than 50% of the human race research on gender and popular music finds that women total only 20% of popular music performers, 12% of songwriters and just 3% of producers. And they mostly go it alone, largely performing as solo artists. Just 7% of popular music features women in bands. Now the typical response from the gallery at this point might be something like ‘well, maybe listeners just don’t prefer the music women are putting out.’ But as we’ll show in today’s post, that’s bogus. Women rock and in the very best melodic ways.

Forget the crimson, it’s all Clover on my music player right now. Kate Clover is a rock and roll force to be reckoned with. The internet is chock full of glowing notices for her debut album Bleed Your Heart Out and deservedly so. The album opens with a bass guitar rumble that kickstarts a dance party that just won’t quit. “Crimewave” conjures up the heat of the club and a dance floor pulsing with bodies. And things just keep getting more and more intense from there. Reviews lean on ‘punk’ to describe what is going on here but I hear more of the rock and roll reaction to the punk scene, how it added a dynamic and exciting edge to bands like Blondie and the Pretenders. The Chrissie Hynde feel is definitely there on “Gnarcissist” and “Heaven Down Here.” I hear a bit of Liverpool’s Zuzu on “Channel Zero” and “Pleasure Forever,” the latter also featuring some mesmerizing, kinetic electric guitar work. I love the catchy harsh jangle defining “Love You to Death” while the vocal reminds me of a punky revival of The Motels’ Martha Davis. The Davis vibe comes back again for me on “Daisy Cutter.” And who wouldn’t love a jump rocker with a dash of Sergio Leone like “Follow My Heart”? This album is a relentless rocking affair in the best way. Once you hit play there’s no way to turn it off until its done.

When I got wind of Linda XO’s “California Girl” I didn’t connect the dots to her work with poprock masters The Orion Experience, despite reviewing a number of their records. But the more I dug into her catalogue the more obvious the links were. First up, “California Girl” is the totally poptastic new single from her upcoming 2023 album Donuts and Flowers. You need only listen to the first few lines to hear the Mike Viola hooks on this Candy Butchers cover. Hard to do but Linda XO brings out even more of the tune’s earwormy melody than the original, sounding not unlike a number of Viola-produced projects e.g. Kelly Jones’ SheBang album. From there I went back in time, checking out her 2021 Linda XO EP and 2020’s Stupid Love. I wasn’t disappointed. The tracks on Linda XO EP have a sophistico-pop elan, vibing a bit of The Sundays and Ivy. Stupid Love resurrects the world of mid-1960s UK dollybirds and American westcoast pop songters but filtered through a more modern pop sensibility, kinda like what Sharleen Spiteri did on her 2008 LP Melody. “I Think I Love You” is a case in point with its saucy soul groove and early 1960s pop elan. Other tracks like “Fun” and “Stupid Love” sound more 1980s-edgy alt-pop. But the variety doesn’t stop there. You’ve got “Jing a ling” with its Ike Reilly talking-song bounce or “Leona” showcasing a rhythmic rock and roll lurch reminiscent of Marshall Crenshaw’s “Someday Someway.” Personally I dig “Moving On” as just a straight-up good-time radio single. And that’s barely half the record. Like anything from The Orion Experience this record is just so much irrepressible fun. Seems the solo apple doesn’t fall far.

On “Out of My Mouth” Madeline Rosene starts out like Sinead O’Connor but somewhere segues into Tracy Thorn. So the vocals are pretty up front here, but not in that vocal pyrotechnics style so prevalent today. Instead Rosene’s style is alluring, drawing you into a tapestry of sounds, alternatively comforting and challenging. As an LP, that’s Everyday Existential Crisis brought into focus, an album of many moods. “Out of My Mouth” starts out light, like an early morning walk in the park. Then “Words” turns meditative and ethereal, a lovely number whose low-key melody gets into your head. “Burn” shifts the mood into a contemporary great American songbook style. And so on. Rosene just keeps shifting the emotional focus song by song but somehow establishes a coherent ambience to the whole undertaking. Check out how “Hearts on Fire” lets the pumping piano chords drive the song, interspersed with more reflective moments. Shifting down, title track “Everyday Existential Crisis” has a carefully crafted acoustic Jill Sobule intimacy, though it could fit on any early Everything but the Girl album. “Lobotomy” has the sound of a single to me, particularly when it picks up tempo a third of the way through. Or maybe the hit single is the 1990s dark pop aura all over the Liz Phair-ish “Sugar” that wraps up the album? I can’t decide. What I do know is that Everyday Existential Crisis is a now record, capturing the emotional texture of our musical times. It’s intense, sometimes seemingly ambivalent, but curious and reassuring all at the same time.

Towering over us, these 50 foot women have got the rock and roll stuff of your dreams. Just click the links to make them real.

Photo: Fragment of “La formation de la personnalite,” collage by Jacques Rozier.

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Recent Comments

Bernie L. on It’s 1965 again with The …
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Mark G on Poprock Record’s should-be hit…
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