I remember the feeling of first hearing some new song on the radio that I immediately wanted to hear again. It was simultaneously great and bittersweet – something new to love but with no idea when It would come on again. You don’t have that problem here. This radio locale offers you instant playback. And you are definitely going to avail yourself of it with this quartet of new LPs.
The opening cut on the new Well Wishers album Expected Outcomes pretty much lays it all out. “Pox on Everything” is what the Well Wishers do, distilled into one perfect song. There’s shimmering vocals, ringing guitars, winning hooks, and the occasional unexpected melodic subterfuge (of the very best kind). By contrast “Good Intentions” fakes us out with a brooding, lowkey start before settling into a solid jangly groove. Then “What’s the Secret” combines a slight pop dissonance with some new vocal tricks and a great break-out Lindsay Buckingham lead guitar line late in the song. On the whole jangle and harmony vocals are in abundance here, particularly on “In the Afterglow” and “Peace In Our Time.” And there are a few departures too. “The Flame” jumps out with different pacing, evoking slightly eastern melodic turns while “Back of the Line” sounds very AOR in a big guitar way, at least until the melodic hooks kick in throughout the chorus. “Soldiering” wraps things up as a striking, stripped-back acoustic guitar and piano number. Expected Outcomes really is a truth-in-advertising product from the Well Wishers vehicle and that just the way I like it.
Brooklyn’s Onesie deliver a walloping blast of muscular pop rock on their new LP Way Thousand Bump to the Sky. Don’t let the brief church-like organ kicking off “World Stepped on a Mirror” fool you. The song exemplifies the combination of playful experimentation and guitar amps turned up to 11 that defines this whole outing. Get ready for a blistering trip through various song styles and winning guitar tones. For instance, I hear a strong 1980s glossy guitar shine all over “Meetcha at Minnie’s (The Captain’s Song),” so slick and satisfyingly shimmering. By contrast, “Twilight Years” has a slightly garage-y shuffle. Or dig into “Tryptophantastic” with its fun, lurchy, slightly jazzy pop tuning. Let’s be clear, the record has serious jangle in its DNA. “Maybe Life’s Just a Monitor Gig” is jangly pop goodness with a dash of prog rock. “Heckscope” is like Matthew Sweet in a dark mood. Both “Honest Rendering” and “Doing a Band” blend a rocking base with a superior pop gloss at different points. What I love here is how inventive the songwriting is. “So Darkside” is almost musical-ish in structure while still delivering the hooky goods. “Superlative” is both sophisticated pop and muscular rock. Album closer “In Your Dream You’re Every Character” is another surprise, offering a slow and easy, almost jazzy number that blows up brilliantly near the end. Way Thousand Bump to the Sky is great ride, managing to be super smart while still being hummable, a very harder combo to pull off.
For a good ole boys version of Weezer you can’t go wrong with Boston’s Invisible Rays, especially on their most recent vinyl missive Blame It On The Rays. That’s not to take away from this band’s homegrown originality. No Sir. The songs here are striking and strong. But you can hardly make your way into the LP’s opener “Disco Denial” without feeling those Weezer vibes. “Home” is pretty Weezer-ish too. Things take on a more sunny stylistic shift on the upbeat “Violet Says.” “Sir David Mineham” sounds like a nicely harsh version of The Cure. Then “I Don’t Dream of You” offers a jangly departure with just a dash of dissonance. “Owe Me” is another jangle banger. I love the juxtaposition of 1970s rhythm rock guitar and the surging chorus melody on “Interstellar Sweetheart.” If you’re looking for the should-be hit single, it’s “Landline” for me. The track strikes just balance between disaffection and engaging hooks. “Kill the King of Rock and Roll” is also a strong contender, really hitting home in the chorus. The record wraps nicely with the cool-down, slow-tempo outlier “In Store.” Warm up the amp because you’re gonna want to play this one loud. Trust me, no one will blame you.
I have been singing the praises of Log Flume song-by-song for over a year. Now they have an album and Go Where The Money Goes includes those earlier releases, “Necessary Evil” and “Get the Picture.” They still stand out as pretty marvelous 45s (you can read my original takes on both here and here). But now they are joined by nine other equally winning tunes that expand what we might think this group is about. “Dynamic” launches the record with an almost pop punk energy. “Far From You” also has a dissonant veneer masking a hooky underlay. “Get This Feeling” veers sharply from this pattern with a contribution that is dreamy and literally dripping jangle. “Up By 9 O’Clock” follows, a more demure slice of jangle – less sparkle, more meaty. At this point we’re halfway through this long-player and suddenly the band shake things up on the title track “Go Where The Money Goes,” taking the tempo down with a sweet but sombre Roddy Frame ballad. Both “Anything” and “Misery” strike me as very modish English poprock circa 1982. I’m also partial to “Every Single Day” and the slow and deliberate manner it advances its melodic charms. But I love the almost frantic pacing of “Follow You Around” and its killer melodic twists and turns. My money is going where this album is, it’s a winner.
Radio lives on my heart, even if its lost some of its lustre over the years. It’s not where I go for new music but we can pretend we’re carrying on that tradition here. Hit the hyperlinks and you can repeat the broadcast as much as you like.
Photo courtesy Joe Haupt Flikr collection.
I get by with a little help from my friends. Because I can’t possibly keep up with all the great new music coming out every day, other blogs are a reliable source of new material. And I’m proud to say that I think my blogroll is a finely curated list of sites that really deliver on content. In fact, they’re so good I can’t visit them too much or I’ll just want to write about all the things they’ve already posted! But sometimes cruising through the blogs reminds me of hitting the record shops when I was younger. Vancouver in the early 1980s had a plethora of new and used record stores: Kelly’s, A&A Records, Track Records, Neptune Records, and, of course, the main new records shop, A&B Sound. A&B focused mostly on selling stereo components (I bought my first tape deck there on layaway!) but used albums as a loss leader to get people into the store. Their signature ‘featured bargain’ bins (where they stacked records flat on top of each other) crowded the front of the store and usually sold for $4:99 when the going price for an album was typically anywhere from $6:99 to $10:99. I would buy records I had no clue about, just because they looked cool and were cheap. Such bargains included New Order’s Power Corruption and Lies, Men at Work’s Business as Usual, and OMD’s Dazzle Ships. Well, the record stores, like the book stores of my youth, are largely gone. But the excitement of finding new music lingers on, now re-platformed to the blogosphere!
Absolute Powerpop may not generate the volume of blog posts he once did, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t paying attention. His best of lists for 2017 were colossal: a top 100 singles, top 20 EPs, top 10 Americana and top 100 albums list. I snagged eight new artists that really caught my ear. But I want to draw your attention to 
Powerpopaholic is the godfather of power pop blogs. Given the range and depth of his coverage and sheer volume of posts, if a band or song is somewhere on the power pop spectrum it will eventually appear here. I snagged five new bands from his Top 30 list this year but have chosen to showcase 
I only picked one new artist from I Don’t Hear a Single’s many ‘best of’ lists but that’s because I’ve been nicking great stuff from him all year! Berwanger, Mothboxer, Daisy House and many, many more. IDHAS is an early finder – bands show up here that inevitably show up everywhere else, but a few months later. And he has a particularly good handle on the British and European scene. Having said that, my find from IDHAS is 
Powerpopulist seems like a machine that scours the internet for freely offered up tunes from great indie bands you’ve yet to hear of. I am constantly blown away by his industry – so many bands! So many tunes! His tastes typically run a bit harder than mine but he does love his jangle. His ‘best of’ list ran to 109 songs, from which I scored five acts that are real keepers. 
Poprock Record 