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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.

Breaking news: Novelty Island, Sweet Nobody, Suburban HiFi, and The Shivas

19 Wednesday Jan 2022

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Breaking News

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Novelty Island, Suburban HiFi, Sweet Nobody, The Shivas

It may be a brand new year but we’ve still got a load of records from last year that really deserve more time in the spotlight. Damn all those other blog ‘best of’ lists! I’m playing catch up again … Alas, today’s breaking news may or may not be all that breaking to everybody but they’re definitely worth a listen.

You’ll find Novelty Island in the ‘McCartney circa 1968-73’ chapter of your Beatles encyclopedia. Band leader Tom McConnell has clearly deconstructed everything from Paul’s White Album contributions to the entirety of Band on the Run and the influences abound on How Are You Coping With This Century? The results are both highly pleasing and not derivative in the least, in part due to McConnell’s ace song-writing. “This Bird” kicks things off with a light acoustic guitar touch, only to build and soar melodically in the chorus. Then “Cowboy on a Bicycle” grabs you with its addictive banjo riffs and male girly group vocals. What’s going on here? McConnell keeps you guessing. “Michael Afternoon” is equal parts crunchy electric guitar chords and an almost baroque vocal approach. “Ladybird” is all whispery, McCartney-like whimsy wrapped in a delightful acoustic ballad. Only with “Jangleheart” does a more conventional band sound finally make an appearance, vibing Big Star in a big way. “Blank Wine” is also a bit of a departure, more of a Todd Rundgren workout. But all things come back to McCartney elsewhere (in a good way) with a particularly Wingsian finish on “Yes.” Man, he nails those vocals!

Sweet Nobody should get the award for most apropos album title of the past two years with We’re Trying Our Best. No kidding. And like the rest of us the record is all over the map in terms of mood and emotional self-regulation, ranging from free-wheeling, surf-tinged rocking abandon to low-key, melody-infused ennui. The record opens with “Not a Good Judge,” a track effusing the uneasiness of our times, delivered with an almost Suzanne Vega degree of emotional distance. “Why Don’t You Break My Heart” is the should-be hit single for me here with its great big chorus and rolling shots of jangle. “Five Star Diary” comes on a bit stronger so don’t even try resist the wall of sparkly guitar. This is like the Primitives in low gear with a chorus that also reminds of Kirsty MacColl. “Million Yard Stare” is defined by a mesmerizing electric guitar lead line opener that then threads its way throughout the song. Meanwhile “Other Humans” teems with restrained passion. Like a great country song, it sounds like it is about to break wide open at any moment. I could hear Neko Case doing this number or the fab country jangle bonus cut “Disturbance.” For a bit of dark-tinged surf rock see “Little Ghost.” On the other hand, there’s a definite Sundays or Cardigans feel to “If I Should Die Tonight.” On reflection, forget the ‘trying our best’ schtick, this is a band is not just trying, they’re doing.

I love E minor rock and roll. Often dubbed the ‘sad chord,’ all the greats used it (e.g. the Yardbirds, Big Star, REM, etc.) and it’s all over Suburban HiFi’s late 2021 release Superimposition. First cut “In Her Reverie” delicately juxtaposes its various musical elements: intoxicating acoustic lead guitar work, striking electric guitar shots, and chilling FOW-worthy vocals. Then the opening guitar lick of “The Year in Pictures” knocked me back into 1979, the song so captures the brilliant, brittle intensity of the sound at that time. “Space Between Us” also exudes a late 1970s feel but the keyboards and drums are more characteristic of the disco/pop crossover AM radio hits of the era. Yet if I had to boil it all down, the material here mostly reminds me of all those hooky mid-tempo tunes cranked out by Fountains of Wayne in the late 1990s. I mean, check out “Beamed In.” If that’s not Chris Collingwood handling the vocals it’s a pretty fair imitation. Or there’s “Fight on our Wedding Night,” a track that both sounds FOW and has the observational chops of Collingwood lyrics at their dire best. On the other hand, “Vinyl on the Radio” sometimes sounds very Elvis Costello, sometimes somewhat Walter Egan. And there’s melodic outliers, like the wonderfully weird “Potemkin Honey” with its great interplay between bass and organ and the main melody. Seems to me Superimposition is the kind of interruption we could all use more of.

I’m definitely late The Shivas party, only coming in on album number 7, the new Feels So Good // Feels So Bad. From what I’ve read they were a hot teenage mess of rocking riffs and punky ‘tude when they started out fifteen years ago. What I hear now is a mature band balancing the rock with more tender tunes, firmly in control of their unique sound. Opening cut “Feels So Good” is an intense, gripping, almost dirge-like psych rock workout. “Undone” adds a strong melodic undercurrent to the rocking riffs, aided by some cool organ. Then comes the first obvious should-be hit single, the alluring midtempo number “Tell Me That You Love Me.” The feel is a very 1966 British dolly bird belter of a tune. Dusty Springfield anyone? Or, for a more American take, I could hear The Ronettes making this their own. Riffs remain central on tracks like “If I Could Choose” and “For the Kids.” But the latter is also marked by some ghostly, almost Fleet Foxes vocals, which also pop up on “You Wanna Be My Man” and “Sometimes.”  Then there’s the tender American Graffiti-revisited sound worked into songs like “Don’t Go” and “Please Don’t Go.” Contrast them with “My Baby Don’t,” a solid rocking down the highway tune, and you get a sense of the impressive breadth of accomplishment here.

Well there’s all the news that fits, for now. You’ve got the headlines, now it’s up over to you to follow up on the stories. Thanks to Koolshooters for the cool mast photo.

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Recent Posts

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  • Poprock Record’s should-be hit singles for 2022

Recent Comments

Bernie L. on It’s 1965 again with The …
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