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Poprock Record’s should-be hit singles for 2022

05 Thursday Jan 2023

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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.

Record round-up II

30 Friday Dec 2022

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On episode 2 of our year-end record round-up we’re going seriously retro. These acts know their influences and lean into them, heavily. But not without some creative licence.

What happens when you bring a bona fide 1970s indie legend into contact with a Spanish sunshine-pop hipster? Magic my friends, that’s what. Marc Jonson and Ramírez Exposure’s debut collaboration Turning On The Century, Volume 1 is a love letter to California’s sunny pop traditions, a bit baroque a times with a whole lot of sixties rock and roll heart. Opening track “Tape Recorder” brings a masterful Beach Boy-like vocal interplay to a song that goes Dion and on and on. Or just listen to how the acoustic lead guitar bounces along carrying “The Real Sound of the World.” “Sour Lemonade Sour” sounds bit more mid-1970s sweet pop while “Appears” is a great tune where the vocals seem to float over a very late seventies McCartney-like backing. “I Don’t Know Your World” adds some Neil Diamond-ish musical change-ups to a song that I could hear the Everly Brothers doing. Then the duo wrap things up with a more modern 1980s sound on “The Anchorite.” Seems like Turning On The Century, Volume 1 is just begging for a volume 2.

Once upon a time I looked to artists like Matthew Sweet to deliver album after album of reliably poprocky hooks. Now I turn to Greg Pope. Over the course of now eight solo albums he just never lets me down, turning out absolutely fabulous hook-filled long-players. This year’s Rise of the Mythical Creatures is no exception. Album opener “As You Love” sounds very Sweet, very much like the should-be hit single. Then “Words No One Can Say” has an intensity and occasional vocal presence that has me imagine a new wave John Lennon. But what is striking about this record, and perhaps a bit of a departure for Pope, is how the acoustic rhythm guitar is pushed to the top of the mix in so many of the songs here, in a very seventies way. It’s obvious in the absolutely dynamite single-ish “Sorry I Wrote This Song.” But you can really hear it on “Holding on to a Sunny Day” and “Looking Down.” I’m also partial to “Backwards Through a Door” which echoes the best of the poppy efforts from bands like Blue Oyster Cult. Sometimes myths are true – this record proves you can believe in Greg Pope.

Somewhere Sideways Same As You is the first album for Drew Beskin with his new band The Sunshine, gathering together a bunch of things he’s been working over the past year or so. Tracks like “Lisa Simpson Fangs” and “Horror Movie Plot” came out a while back. Others are more recent, like “Spoilers,” a buoyant, lighthearted keyboard romp from this past summer. What all this means is that while the record contains a mix of styles it still somehow establishes a constant mood. I hear the refined Americana pop sound of Sam Weber on tracks like “Not If But When.” But then cuts like “Pear Plum Blues” add some grit to the guitar, establishing a heavier, almost punky sound. My personal fave is “The Mystery of Being a Boy.” The song is just a great straight-up poprock tune, breezing along with the abandon of a deep cut from Rank and File or the Grapes of Wrath. “Sun Cancer” reverts to a Weber-like pop sophistication, dropping in some clever hooks.

Who is Peter Astor? I don’t know. But after hearing “New Religion” from his recent Time On Earth album I feel like I should have. Turns out, he goes way back, to the late 1970s break out new wave/punk scene, to the moody 1980s English band scene, to plenty of solo records. Man, have I got a lot of homework to do with his back catalogue. But for now, let’s take on Time On Earth, an album that meanders through a variety of styles. There’s the wonderfully mannered, mellow ruminations that remind me of Black e.g. “English Weather” (what horns!). Or the obvious should-be hit-single “New Religion” with its great combo of distinctive synth work and a vocal melody reminiscent of Boo Hewerdine’s work. And what about that Steve Nieve-worthy keyboard work on “Time on Earth”? Killer stuff. “Miracle on the High Street” is just a lovely folk tune. On “Undertaker” Astor goes all Nick Lowe elder statesman, the guitar warbles just so, the vocal harmonies shiver on cue. Then “Fine and Dandy” calls a wrap on the record by actually turning up the amps and knocking off a few tasty guitar solos. I’ve listened to this record more than few times and each time I’m impressed by Astor’s effortless mastery of whatever he’s putting out.

Given the surprising death of Dallas Good earlier this year Colder Streams marks the final release from The Sadies classic line-up featuring Good family brothers Dallas and Travis. It’s a shame for many reasons, not least of which is that the quality of the band’s recent musical output has shown no signs of fading. Depending on how you count their records Colder Streams is their 20 LP and it is undeniably rip-roaringly good. What we have here is a wonderful synthesis of garage, psych and jangle, sometimes tipping more rock, sometimes leaning country. Opening cut “Stop and Start” even sounds like The Smithereens-meets-The The, put through a psychedelic filter. I’d divide the album into three thematic realms. There’s a western Morricone feel to “More Alone” and certainly the deliberately cinematic “End Credits” which throws in some Bond elements too. I love the Gregorian chant vibe infused into the otherwise spaghetti western-ish “Cut Up High and Dry.” Then there’s garage rock and psych influences defining “No One’s Listening” and “Better Yet,” the latter evoking such seminal acts of the genre as the Chocolate Watch Band. I also hear a very REM gloss on a few tunes, such as “So Far for So Few” and “Ginger Moon.” On the outlier front, there’s country banjo lurch of “All the Good.”

People familiar with Marco Busato’s previous band More Kicks will need to adjust their expectations. On Night of My Times, Busato’s solo debut, the power pop intensity is dialed down in favour of a more subtle sonic shading and impact. The songs here are light pop confections, elevated with a variety of delicious guitar tones. Feel the gentle swing of opening cut “Sunken Ships” to fully get the brief here. The overlapping lead guitar lines are often short, simple and utterly seductive, tied together with some heavenly vocal ‘ahhs’ wallpapering the background. In another way, the record is a bit disorienting. The different musical elements sounds so familiar – there’s bits of 60s psychedelia, 70s AM pop, surf guitar, etc. – but nothing here is really retro. Instead this palette is used to add colour to these oh-so pleasant songs. Check out how the lead guitar and offbeat rhythm brighten “I Don’t Know Why” and particularly the surf-ish instrumental “Tropical Downtime.” At other times the feel is so 1970s AM radio melodious, as on “Find the Way” and “Night of My Times.”

Rounding up records can be like herding sheep, there’s a lot of noise and you’re not really sure where things are going. But that’s half the fun. More to come!

Photo courtesy of James Vaughn.

Spotlight single: Marc Jonson and Ramirez Exposure “Tape Recorder”

31 Tuesday May 2022

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Now here’s two great tastes that sound great together. On “Tape Recorder” one of the truly great should-have-been rock and roll stars Marc Jonson teams up with sunshine pop purveyor Ramirez Exposure to deliver a ringing ode to Jonson’s hero Dion. The whole thing is a delightful slice of sunny southern-California boardwalk pop. From the opening wash of Beach Boys background vocals,  to the discernable Cayucas lilt, to the non-stop thread of jangle tying it all together, the song shimmers with positive vibes. The track is like confectionary for your ears. It’s the first release from their upcoming long player Turning On the Century! and you’d be hard pressed to make a better launch than this. So if you’ve been missing the feel of a beach breeze in your hair, the sand beneath your feet, or perhaps a stroll down the boardwalk at twilight, just hit play and let Marc Jonson and Ramirez Exposure take you there.

Marc Jonson has an amazing back catalogue of recorded tunes stretching back to the 1970s, some of which can be found on Bandcamp, some elsewhere. Ramirez Exposure is Victor Ramirez in band form with two fabulous albums accessible here.

Almost summer singles mixtape I

23 Wednesday Jun 2021

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It’s so close you can almost taste the vodka cocktails. Summer! And that means music to accompany those warm breezes, surf and sand, and lazy, hazy days of scorching heat. To that end, let me present an almost summer bevy of selections for your mixtape, uh, I mean, playlist. In this first of two installments, we offer up 20 suggestions for high rotation seasonal singles.

Let’s get started with my hometown, Vancouver, and some nice ringing guitar from The Uptights on “The Pulse.” The song is from the longplayer Back Again, which came out right near the end of 2020. I love the organ that really comes to fore as the song progresses. 4000 kilometres away (but still in Canada!) Waterloo’s B.U.D. rises from the ashes of Goldfinch in a new solo project from Omar Elkhatib. There’s not much not to like here. Crunchy guitars, punchy synths, and a solid swinging hook anchors “What’s the Point of This (If I’m Not Into It).” A promised follow up EP has yet to materialize but a few more singles have arrived, like the rollicking fun “Popstar Rock N’ Roll.” Ok, enough Canadian content (for now), we’re off the NYC and a bit of a boundary tester for this blog from Laura Stephenson. “After Those Who Mean It” is just a heart-wrenching acoustic number from an artist who normally rocks it up a bit more. There’s something searing and so melancholy about this performance. I can be such a sucker for a good sad song. In Memphis, Your Academy offer a pick-me-up with “Starlight,” a great guitar poprock tune with a slight country feel, from their recent self-titled debut. Now I say ‘debut’ but the band are all veterans of the local music scene and it shows all over this tight record. Brooklyn’s Answering Machine also have a debut album out (well, actually, it’s been out for a year …). Verdict? Bad Luck is more of the eerie melodic rock goodness that appeared on previous EPs and stand-alone singles. For me, the stand out song here is “Marie.” The lead vocal has the soulful country ache of Neko Case cast against a driving lead guitar hook and surging rock and roll beat. It would be a killer cut live in concert, no doubt.

Now, generally speaking, I’m not a live album guy. But when I saw the cover of The Shambles Live at the Casbah with its obvious nods to The Beatles Second Album (Long Tall Sally in Canada) I thought it warranted a needle drop. The opening cut was the band grinding through their first single from 1993, “(She’s Used to Playing With) Fire,” and from the opening rhythm guitar I was hooked. The performance is anything but a shambles: loose yet solid, exciting, with great harmony vocals. The album was assembled from various shows at this location early in the new millennium and it showcases the band’s strong material and serious live chops. Another California band effectively working the retro rock and roll scene are The Forty Nineteens. Their new album The New Roaring Twenties vibes those classic 1960s rock and roll outfits (e.g. Rolling Stones, CCR) while still giving off a bit of 1980s indie (a la The Replacements), depending on which track you pick. I was torn about whether to choose the rockin’ Joe Walsh-ed vocal on “I’m Always Questioning Days” or the more melodic package that is “It’s the Worst Thing I Could Do.” I went with the latter, with its pumping piano and judicious use of jangle guitar. Throwback Suburbia’s drummer had an interesting idea. Write some songs and then ask a gang of different artists to sing on different tracks for a new band, Rooftop Screamers, and a new album, Next Level. It’s a project idea that can easily lose its focus but Mike Collins makes it work, largely because the songwriting is so consistently good. Case in point: “Buckle Up,” featuring Jellyfish vocalist Tim Smith. The song has the sleek pop aura of a top rank Crowded House single. I fell hard for the ear candy that was Ten Tonnes “Better Than Me” from his 2018 self-titled debut. Recently he reignited that spark with the glammish “Girl Are You Lonely Like Me?” with its shuffle beat and emotional vocal, kinda like The Vaccines or Haircut 100 in therapy. The kid’s got swing and killer sing-along background vocals. For those of us who can’t get enough of the Bryds, a very special record is due out soon from an exquisite jangle-friendly band, The Floor Models. You can get a taste of their fab back catalogue from the 2013 retrospective Floor Your Love but here I want you to enjoy their indie-fied version of “Lady Friend,” a teaser from their soon-to-be-released album, In Flyte Entertainment: A Tribute to the Byrds.

The Floor Models – Lady Friend

Jeremy Porter and the Tucos’ “Dead Ringer” is straight ahead melodic Americana, reminding me of the more upbeat moments on that first Peter Case solo album back in 1986, particularly vocally. I love the synth snippet that kicks in at 3:10 in the final few moments of the solo. It’s featured on their new longplayer, Candy Coated Cannonball, and it’s just one of many highlights. Given that Ramirez Exposure’s latest album is named after an environmental newsletter that advocated the end of humanity as a solution to environmental crisis, the contents are surprisingly chirpy. Opening track “Bridges and Roads” is light and sunny, but it is the title track “Exit Times” that really grabbed my attention with its cool electric guitar arpeggiations and dreamy vocals. Sometimes I imagine NYC as just teeming with bedrooms for making pop music. Like the work from Goodman. I’ve featured this talented, almost totally one-man-band before and every new release reveals new depths and influences. On his new record Goodman Versus the Nostalgia Machine he is like Ray Davies reborn, piling up catchy tunes with clever commentary. “Bitter. Alone. Again” shimmers with sneaky, subtle hooks and vocals that add emotional colour and depth. From the mean streets of Baltimore Bombardier Jones offers us the cool vocal delivery of a Steve Miller. “Great Ideas” from Dare To Hope is just a straight up AM radio goodtime single, circa 1975. Love the spare piano solo to bursts on the scene two thirds in. Cotton Mather guitarist Harold Whit Williams has a side project that might conjure up the ‘s’ word for any remaining red diaper babies out there. It’s called Daily Worker. Now you don’t have to be a card carrying anything to enjoy what he’s doing here. I mean, check out the shuffling strut behind “I Got Hypnotized” with its creative mix of acoustic guitar rhythm, sixties organ, and tasty lead guitar. The rest of Hometown Hero is a winner too, with a Harrisonian soft rock flair competing with a Plimsoulsian new wave vibe.

You’d swear contemporary LA band Electric Looking Glass were giving it to you straight from 1968 Haight Ashbury in San Francisco. It’s not like they’re hiding their influences with an album title like Somewhere Flowers Grow. But it really is there in the music too. Opening cut “Purple, Red, Green, Blue and Yellow” kicks off with a solid blast of psychedelic pop guitar before opening up into a great bit of Turtles/Jefferson Airplane hippie poprock. Moving back to the future, there is something so cool about the brooding New Order-ish riff kicking off and driving Mattiel’s recent single, “Those Words.” I really enjoyed the rough-hewn rock and roll sound of the band’s last effort Satis Faction and this new song suggests there more where that came from. The band’s vocalist/songwriter Mattiel Brown really delivers on both here, with a striking performance and timely lyrics. Some bands like a real challenge, like writing a song about American President Warren G. Harding. Who, you might ask? He’s no Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, or Kennedy but The Rose Petals manage to turn out a western style performance a la True West or Rank and File all about Harding’s many foibles. It’s the opening track on the band’s engaging debut LP American Grenadine. Now for a complete change of mood, there’s Robert Sherwood. On Mr. Sherwood he showcases a bevy of light pop sketches that remind me Roddy Frame’s Aztec Camera. Sherwood does wonders with interesting vocal harmonies and spare but intriguing lead guitar work. On “Blue All Over” and the rest of this highly listenable record there’s more than a hint of a genius song arranger bearing similarities to Richard X. Heyman or the Eels’ Mark Everett. Ok, big finish time and what better band to close things out by taking us over the top than Weezer? Seems like an army of haters are out there just waiting for Rivers and Co. to stumble but the band just keeps on delivering the goods. The playful Van Weezer is no exception. “The End of the Game” cleverly rides the edge of rawk bombast with love while delivering the band’s signature knock-out hooks. And there’s more to love here – my blog writing friends can’t agree on what track they love the best.

The pent up energy for a perfect summer this year is swelling all out of control. People are desperate for fun. Here at Poprock Record we take our public service role seriously. So relax, we’ve got your music sorted. And even more is on the way with part II, coming soon.