Merseybeat is the gift that keeps on giving. Whether full-blown homage or just an inflection there’s no mistaking that distinctive beat group influence. Here’s a crew of artists that all channel a bit of John, Paul, George and Ringo in their own creative ways.
It seems fitting to kick things off with Rad Venture’s aptly named long-player Merseyside. Owing more to the non-Fab acts in the roster (e.g. Gerry and the Pacemakers, Freddie and the Dreamers, The Big Three, etc.), what makes this record special is its expert replication of both the song styles of the period and its sonic hue. There’s something gritty, a bit pinched, and live-sounding to the recordings like “Please” and “Don’t Call Me.” “It Could Be You” nail the harmony vocals of the era. And check out the snappy lead guitar opening “Too Late Tomorrow.” Closer “Fog on the Mersey” casts a perfect 1963 instrumental mood. The Pale Lights lean more toward The Searchers on their recent self-titled LP, particularly on “You and I.” But there’s a touch of Roddy Frame and Lloyd Cole there too in the vocals. So many tunes here sound like a later period of poppy beat group material, perhaps circa 1966, but the Mersey vibe infuses it too, particularly on tracks like “Girl on a Bridge” and “Golden Times.”
In listening to Cherrystone I kept thinking ‘man, these guys remind me of someone.’ Ok, The Beatles, obviously. But with a bit of digging I discovered the band is the precursor group to Cupid’s Carnival. This iteration of the band only put out one LP (entitled Our Life) but what a corker. Title track “Our Life” is Lennon spooky good while “Girl” anticipates the unique Cupid’s Carnival sound to come. But my faves are “I’m In Love” and “I Need Her” where the vocals veer strongly into Glenn Tilbrook territory. I’m not saying the Sorry Monks is always on the road to Liverpool’s Pier Head on his new album Perfect Hour but there are some strong indications he’s been there at some point. “I Can’t Make It” has a spot on Lennon 1965 vibe going while “I Know What’s On Your Mind” harkens back a bit further to that more sweet and innocent 1963 feel. “(It’s Just The) End of the Year” should get a honourable mention too.
Cherrystone – I’m In Love
Brazilian Banda AL9 have got an eerie Beatles sound-alike thing going on. So far they’ve got an EP and two albums out, the latter recorded in both Portuguese and English versions. The EP Isso E has got a bit of Brazilian jazzy flair which is pretty special but the most recent album The Ninth King (or O Nono Rei in Portuguese) hews more to the Merseybeaten track. “California” is so damn catchy, the lead guitar line and The Romantics worthy clapping demand an instant replay. “The Only One” sounds very early Fabs. “Movie Star” is more rocking, with a bass line that is positively addictive and a strong nod to “Drive My Car.” “My Love” hits the Help! era sweet spot. “You Called Me Up” is the single-along hit single. Clearly these guys love the Beatles but they are no slouches in the songwriting department. It’s one thing to ape the masters, it’s quote another to use their influence to drive your a unique contribution like these guys do.
A stroll along the river Mersey. That would need music, yes? We’ve rounded up some pretty Merseylicious options here. Click on the links and fill your own ‘ferry across the Mersey’ playlist.
Photo: Tom Wood ‘Woodside Ferry Terminal 1986’ courtesy The Guardian, “Ferry across the memories: all aboard the Mersey crossing – in pictures,” January 24, 2018.
Last year I lauded Softjaw’s “Pleased With Me,” the opening track from their debut EP S/T. It was Stonesy singalong good fun. Now, as S.W. Lauden first noted on The Big Takeover and his Remember the Lightning substack, the band have returned this year with an enriched powerpop vibe. Both he and I caught the Big Star-meets-Cheap Trip drift of the opening riff on “I Need You” (as anyone would – you can’t miss it!). But when the vocals kick in the Beatles harmonies are unmistakable, aided by some classic Fabs descending guitar lines. The relentless pace of this brief two-and-half-minute song makes for a sonic thrill ride, an aural thing of beauty. You don’t get a much better distillation of power pop essence that this. And the nods to Big Star continue to run throughout the track. The video juxtaposes the band cranking out the tune with frenzied female Beatlesque crowd shots in a totally complementary way. I mean, this is a song made for jumping up and down. Since “I Need You” came out earlier this month another single has hit the airwaves (“Undercover Lover”), an indication of a full LP release sometime soon? Now that’s something I definitely need.
Fill your need for Softjaw at their Bandcamp site.
The Beatles influence is like its own musical language, infusing a broad body of genres over the decades. All it takes is a particular guitar part, vocal harmony, or lyrical turn to evoke a distinct period of the band’s musical development. It’s impressive how people take those influences and make them their own in so many ways, despite differences in language and musical style. Today we feature acts with qualities that might be dubbed Beatlesque from around the world.
The most obvious triumph of Beatles influence is how it can transcend language. Beatles songs sung in other languages can retain the magic of the originals. Uruguay’s Los Shakers do a Spanish-language version of “Ticket to Ride” (retitled “Boleto para viajar”) that bristles with pure Merseybeat energy. They were the first among many sixties acts from Latin America covering the Beatles in English, Spanish and Portugese (see Blog de Rock en Mexico for many more). A more recent example is Argentina’s Los Ratones whose 2013 album Beatles En Espanol includes 14 early to mid-career moptop faves including a nicely restrained take on “I Feel Fine.” More recently UK retro power popper Super 8 offered up a version of “I Need You” in a language from the other side of the Pacific – Japanese.
Los Shakers “Boleto para viajar” (“Ticket to Ride”)
There are covers and then there are covers. Erkdon’t just cover “It Won’t Be Long” on their LP Erk Plays the Beatles they add a kind of crazed manic energy to it. At other points on the album they change things up completely, for instance, reinventing “Blackbird” as a piano tune. Or for something even more ‘out there’ there’s the laser focus of The Boobles. On their The Pink Album they manage to refocus every Beatles cover on the same particular part of female anatomy, for a good cause. “Milk” is definitely “Help” but with a new lyrical purpose, this time in aid of breast cancer research. Other bands strive to really sound like the Fabs but with their own material. For example A see The Poppermost on their recent Merseylicious “I Don’t Want To Know” single. The Dodos UKgo in a very different direction. The band is the creative brainchild of Tolly Gipson who uses AI like some kind of bionic mellotron to craft tunes that are spot-on sixties recreations, all the while producing an amazing parallel universe back-story for his would-be moptops. “Now You Don’t See” alleges to come from the band’s soundtrack to their film Danger! Stylistically it definitely falls into a Help! register, with a touch of The Hollies too.
Another kind of influence is a bit more distant from the originals, simply borrowing the broader musical milieu or sonic palate of the band for creative purposes. Adrian Gerard embodies this approach. His work screams Beatles but his songs are his own. I’m really digging his Sounds Like … Volume 2 album, particularly cuts like “Just Don’t Care” and “For You.” Korean group HOAwere working a soft rock seam until they released their I Don’t Know Why EP earlier this year and suddenly were reborn as a full-blown Mersybeat group. The four tracks subtly mine a Beatles ambience here and there but also harken back to Dutch groups like Sunday Sun, particularly on selections like “All My Days” and “Sunday Girl.” More recent singles like “Push Man” step on Fabs pedal a bit harder, conjuring “Taxman” like guitar hooks. Brazilian band Banda AL9 have material that riffs on the mellow side of the Beatles street, vibing numbers like “Do You Want to Know a Secret” and “If I Fell.” But “Eu Quero Navegar” from their 2019 EP Isso É AL9 dials down the Beatle-isms to let their own original pop tune shine on. By contrast, this past year’s stand-alone single “She Calls Me Love” / “Chama de Amor” is pretty earnestly going with the Mersey flow.
Banda AL9 “Eu Quero Navegar”
Great music can break through a host of barriers, be they language or culture or style. No tower of Babel aftermath is going to stop Beatlemaniacs making those links.
As a confirmed Beatlemaniac I would remiss if I didn’t have something to say about the just released Beatles ‘final’ single “Now and Then.” I have to be honest, hearing rough bootleg versions of the track over the years the song struck me as somewhat slight, akin to a host of deep-cut confessional love songs John typically interspersed amongst his early to mid 1970s solo albums. Thus it didn’t surprise me that Paul, George and Ringo passed on fixing it up for the Anthology series in favour of “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love.” But the new, just officially-released Paul and Ringo fixed-up version definitely elevates the track from its more mundane demo takes. John’s new and improved vocal obviously dominates the proceedings but Paul and Giles Martin have done an expert job adding all the expected late period Beatle-isms e.g. Abbey Road-era background vocals, tasteful strings, some pedal steel guitar, and a psychedelic turn to the tune’s arrangement (particularly the ending). And yet the song is not merely a retread of past accomplishments stylistically as it incorporates the more forlorn melodic twists John developed as a solo artist. So altogether, while the song is certainly not Beatles hit-single material, it adds up to what could have been a strong album cut and respectable addition to the band’s canon.
Given the band’s stature it should not be surprising that cover versions of the new tune are already appearing. Here it is fascinating to see others interpret how to render the song in a suitably Beatles key. Moving through the different eras, Dreamer Jazz re-imagines the song as it might have been played on Ed Sullivan, complete with video. DJS’s David A. Rodriguez really nails a host of early era Beatle-isms, including John’s distinctive rhythm guitar work. Apple Jam move the sound closer to the Hard Day’s Night/Help period and their considerable experience recreating the Beatles’ sound really comes through here. Timmy Sean takes inspiration from the same period but his sound ends up coming off more late seventies poprock, begging the question as to whether that might have been where the Beatles sound would have developed. Lastly Super 8’s version (that we featured before) takes things in a wholly new direction, even adding an original bridge to the song. In many ways, Super 8’s version is really the most creative interpretation, bold in its choices but still successful in execution.
Apple Jam
The Beatles really don’t need any more money but these clever cover artists surely do. Give them a visit to check out where their fab influences have taken them in their own work.
Fans have long been divided on just who they love more, Lennon or McCartney. Smart versus lovable, political versus sentimental, rocky versus hooky – these are the classic (and somewhat misleading) lines of division drawn between a duo who arguably comprise the greatest song-writing team of all time. Such judgements also face another challenge: in the Beatles John and Paul wrote songs together but also apart despite sharing a co-writing credit on everything, making it hard sometimes to sort out who wrote what. To make an effective comparison you really have to turn to their solo work in the 1970s to establish what each could do beyond the influence of each other and the Beatles’ unique group dynamic. Now the point here isn’t to say who is better because that is obviously completely subjective. You can’t debate taste. What I propose to do is compare their solo work to the Beatles material and ask ourselves which one, John or Paul, more consistently met that standard, a standard defined by commercially innovative singles and highly listenable albums that contained little filler. Get ready for contention! I’m fairly certain my choices and observations will spark debate but hey, that’s half the fun of writing a blog. Please do join in with your own take on this classic, endless, ultimately irresolvable dispute.
Let’s start with singles. Personally, I think John’s got a leg up here and that is saying something considering what a hit single machine Paul has been as a solo artist. Don’t get me wrong, both John and Paul have crafted some amazing singles. My measure is, who has continued the commercial innovation that we associate with the Beatles the most as a solo artist? Here I think John has the advantage with songs like “Instant Karma,” “Imagine,” “Mind Games,” and “#9 Dream.” Each one exhibits the kind of musical creativity and ‘pushing of the pop song envelope’ that I associate with the Beatles work. I could imagine any one of them appearing on a 1970s Beatles album, if such a thing had come to pass. I’m not saying every John single was a winner. Paul certainly has a few Beatles-worthy singles moments as a solo artist – songs like “Maybe I’m Amazed,” “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” and “Band on the Run” – but they don’t branch out much from similar previous efforts with the band. I would grant that “Jet” and “Live and Let Die” met the Beatles innovation standard. Stepping away from singles for a moment, both John and Paul have got a few really special deep cuts on their 1970s solo albums, like John’s “Jealous Guy” from Imagine and Paul’s “Magneto and Titanium Man” from Venus and Mars.
What about albums? Rock critics tend to rate a few of John’s albums as the best solo work from a former Beatle, particularly Plastic Ono Band and Imagine. I’ve got to disagree. In terms of total listenability and an absence of weak cuts the hands-down winner is Paul’s Band on the Run. The difference in opinion here comes down to how much credence you give the ‘cool’ factor. Critics loved John over Paul because they saw him as serious, deep, and political. It was all part of the conversion of the music press from cheer-leading, teeny-bopper coverage to more serious journalism in the late sixties and early 1970s. And hey, if you like that sort of thing, cool. But the Beatles were not some underground indie band, judged by how ‘cool’ they were. They were a commercial juggernaut whose music was accessible to anyone with ears. Plastic Ono Band and Imagine are great albums but they’re not up to Beatles standards, in my view. Not all the songs are equally strong or accessible. This became only more pronounced on John’s later albums where he tended to feature one outstanding single amid a bevy of weaker material. In the case of Some Time in New York City there wasn’t even a decent single. By contrast, Band on the Run has no filler. All the songs are either great or very good. It’s the closest any ex-Beatle came to putting out something comparable to a Beatles album IMHO. And, just to throw in a really controversial claim, I think John’s most Beatles-worthy album is actually Double Fantasy because it’s the only one where all the songs are actually pretty good, even the Yoko tracks. And I’m not saying that McCartney’s albums were uniformly good either. Indeed, they too mostly suffered from a surfeit of rather second rank tunes cast amidst the hits.
Well there you have it, I rate John as the solo Beatle with the most commercially-innovative, Beatles-worthy singles and Paul as producing the album that comes closest to reproducing the Beatles trade-mark listenability. Controversial views, I know. Now whether you agree with these judgements or not, I do think there are some patterns here that are undeniable. Clearly, looking at his solo work, John just wasn’t an album man. Self-admittedly somewhat lazy, John was good for bringing in three or four really great tunes to every Beatles album session. His friendly (and sometimes not so friendly) competitiveness with Paul heightened his productivity within the group. But as a solo artist John lacked the drive to fill annual albums with top-quality Lennon material. By contrast, Paul could crank out tunes and albums with a Beatlesque eye to overall listenability and commercial success. But as a solo artist Paul never worked with anyone that challenged him the way John did and that limited his innovative creativity compared to his Beatles-era work. Compare that to John, collaborating with the likes of David Bowie and Elton John and getting some pretty impressive results (e.g. the Lennon/Bowie co-write “Fame”), and you get a glimmer of what might have been possible.
Pitting John against Paul was never gonna produce any clearcut ‘winner.’ Even their somewhat less Beatlesy solo work still contained some pretty stellar stuff from both. And, in the end, you don’t have to choose or play favourites. You can love them both. I know I do.
Top photo by Tom Murray from the Beatles ‘mad day out’ 1968.
The Beatles are such a touchstone for the melodic rock and roll genre that it’s not surprising that artists keep going back to the source again and again. At the same time, covering the Beatles is pretty much an impossible task. I mean, how do you improve on anything JPGR did? In one sense, you don’t – they’ll always be the definitive version. The trick is to reinvent their material in an unexpected but still recognizable direction. Today we visit acts taking the Beatles’ material to all sorts of new places while still remaining within the borders of the republic of Mersey.
Staten Island’s Goin’ Places is a pop punk group in the Ramones/Green Day mode, so not exactly the boys we’d expect to find hanging out at Lime Street Station. Yet it actually makes them the perfect outfit to punkify the Beatles’ catalogue. The lion’s share of the 18 cuts featured on their Fingerboard Road draw from the early to mid-period Fabs records. Some of what they put together is genius – all of it is fun. Fun like those Me First and Gimme Gimme’s albums of sixties covers! “I Saw Her Standing There” so works with a wall of punky guitars, the song being halfway there to begin with. Other songs that easily lend themselves to punking up include “She Loves You,” “Eight Days a Week,” and “Ticket to Ride,” the latter really only requiring hitting the lead guitar distortion pedal. Other tunes go punk simply because they were ballads that are now being played a triple speed: e.g. “Yesterday,” Something,” and “Hey Jude.” They sound jarring but remain melodically cool. “Norwegian Wood” and “I Will” get extra marks for inventiveness as the band add new musical interludes to spice things up. “A Day in the Life” is particularly special with its very Green Day treatment. But at other times punk gives way to just a rocking good time. Both “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “Help” are simply exuberant rocking love letters to the originals. The Clash may have hated phony Beatlemania but Goin’ Places deliver the real ‘pop-meets-punk’ thing.
Stephen Krilanovich and Donny Newenhouse are the Wind-Up Beatles Chronicles, which they describe on their bandcamp page as a ‘pandemic music project.’ Whatever the impetus, man do these two nail the Beatles’ mid period sound (think Beatles for Sale to Revolver, with a few outliers). Sometimes they sail pretty close to the originals, which makes noting the small differences all that more interesting for Beatlemaniacs. For instance, “She Said She Said” is pretty Beatles note perfect. In other instances, they lean into various elements a bit more than the Fabs. “Wait” has a got an interesting and different guitar sound even while the timing is spot on and so familiar. “What You’re Doing” has got a bit more sparkle on the jangly guitar. “Rain” is probably the most different treatment here: less psychedelic and droney, more Brydsian. At other times the basic difference is simply that these two guys have got different voices than JPGR and no matter how clever the musical backing the overall effect is gonna be unavoidably different. “Paperback Writer” illustrates this well. The music sounds so much like the original single but the voices are pretty different (though pleasantly so). Probably my fave cut here is “I’m Looking Through You.” It’s delivered in a Rubber Soul approved light breeziness and sounds like an alternate take to the original. It’s fair to say that a splendid time is virtually guaranteed for all with this record. It’s definitely for Beatles fans who ever thought ‘hey, I like to hear those songs done differently but not too differently done.’
In 2013 Canada’s Bullseye Records decided to put out a three volume tribute to the Beatles entitled It Was 50 Years Ago Today: A Tribute to The Beatles. So many great tracks but two particularly stood out for me, The Lolas’ rendition of “Good Morning, Good Morning” and Eytan Mirsky’s take on Harrison’s first song-write “Don’t Bother Me.” The Lolas balance some guitar grind with a lighter take on the vocals than in Lennon’s original. They also straighten out the tempo, less off kilter that what we’re used to. The song gets a bit lost amid the chaos of Sgt. Pepper but here it gets a chance to stand out on its own. As for “Don’t Bother Me,” I’ve always had a soft spot for a tune routinely dismissed by Beatles experts as lightweight and rudimentary in terms of Harrison’s eventual song-writing prowess. Yet I always thought it had an original melodic twist. Eytan Mirsky works the song over, adding distinctive lead guitar tones and some nice call and response vocals. At times he sounds like The Zombies’ lead singer in full-on, white boy blues whine (and that’s a good thing). Sisters Gwendolyn and Lucy Giles of Dog Party offer up a double A sided single of Beatles tunes. Nothing ground shaking in these reworkings of early Beatles’ hits but their harmonies do manage to add to the magic allure of “I Feel Fine,” bending the melody here and there in new and exciting directions, while their vocal take on “All I’ve Got To Do” adds mystery and a bit of mischief to the proceedings.
Now for a project that is more than a bit out there: Fabs songs converted into Avengers exposition. Insane Ian is a comedian that sidelines as a modern day Weird Al, though needle dropping through his voluminous catalogue his ouvre is more about the immediate gag rather than something you might listen to more than once. But his Meet the Avengers album is a musical superhero riff of a different colour. The musicianship is pretty impressive, hitting the Beatles marks where they need to. And the writing is pretty funny too. So “Nowhere Man” becomes “Iron Man,” “Help” transforms into “Hulk,” “Lady Madonna” becomes “Lady Natasha,” and so on. Sometimes the new lyrical detail overwhelms the old tune, as when “Thor’s Big Silver Hammer” leaves “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” in a bit of disarray. By contrast “Hawkeye” nails the cadence and lyrical spacing of “Blackbird.” Personal fave: the rocking reworking of “Day Tripper” as “Steve Rogers.” The chorus even shifts melody slightly. As a rule, comedy projects don’t have a long shelf life but Insane Ian’s clever writing, surprisingly good musical performances, and creative artwork give this effort legs. Meet the Avengers might be funny but it’s no joke.
Lover of all things 1970s Nick Frater takes us in a decidedly different direction with his Mersey-influenced outing, focusing on The Rutles rather than the Fabs directly. The point of his Nick Frater Presents The Rebutles: Ron, Dirk, Stig and Barry The Solo Years, Vol.1 effort was to imagine what The Rutles might have sounded like if they’d broken up like the Beatles and then gone on to release (send-up) solo singles. The whole thing is pretty meta but, as with all things Frater, ultimately pretty clever, highly accomplished, and very listenable. The songs go from a late Beatles rooftop motif (“Struck in a Rut”) to early solo sort-of Fabs (“Baby I’m Amazing”) to mock Bond (“You Only Live Once”) to later solo Fabs recycled nostalgia (“When We Were Eighteen”) to morbid pastiche reunions (“The Last Laugh”). You’ve got to be pretty far down the Beatles/Rutles rabbit hole to get all the jokes and references but the beauty of Frater’s work is you can just enjoy the songs for what they are: pretty decent songs, well played. The fact that Frater can toss projects like this in as a free insert with his more serious album releases is a testament to his prodigious talent.
The republic of Mersey is a groovy place, surely the ultimate green and pleasant land. You don’t need a passport to go there. All you need is love, an open mind, and a thirst for the evolving musical influence of the Beatles.
As a month, March just feels so in between. Lacking any real ‘big event’ or holiday it can seem like we’re all just doing time waiting for spring to start. What we need is something big, something spectacular. So I’m offering a roundup of recent melody-drenched singles to help get you through.
San Francisco’s Richard Turgeon kicked off 2022 with a new career highlight, the infectious stand-alone single “Better With You.” Need a shot of feel good guitar oriented power pop? Turgeon adds a lot of Matthew Sweetener to this track but to my ears the mix is just right. The king of Dad rock is unstoppable! Shifting gears, French outfit Persica 3 takes us in a more ethereal direction with their dreamy “Water Lily,” the most straight-up radio friendly contribution on their new LP Tangerine. The song is like a museum of sonic trappings from years gone by, a bit 1980s keyboard ambience, some lilting 1970s acoustic guitar, and vocals that would be at home in any roomy medieval church. With Commotion Pop Garden Radio have released a tribute album to Creedence Clearwater Revival that pulls together 26 indie artists to remake the band’s canon. It’s a gutsy endeavor because trying to cover John Fogerty often begs the question, why bother? It is gonna be hard to top the master. All the bands make a stellar effort but the contributions from Popdudes and Yorktown Lads really stand out for me. Popdudes key up the jangle guitar and fatten the vocals on “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” in a way that really suits the song, adding something new to this classic. Yorktown Ladshilariously add an early Beatles rocking veneer to “Green River.” The mix could have been just a joke but the band ace melding the disparate styles with such a smoking dexterity you can’t help but be blown away. Michael Goodman’s musical project Goodman is reliably good. Every few years another album comes down the pike full of hooky poprock sketches, drawing from classic 1970s and 1980s indie motifs. His new album is How Close Are You to the Ground? and the whole thing is strong but the obvious candidate for should-be hit single is the punchy “Au Pair.” Goodman mixes up all the various elements with a creative genius: engaging guitar, hooky vocal lines, a staccato seductive lurch to the rhythm.
Like every other Beatlemaniac, I was thrilled to see the band put out some new songs in the 1990s. But somehow I just couldn’t get past the poor quality of John’s vocals on the two singles. Enter Francis Lung with his beautiful and Beatles-faithful rendering of “Real Love,” a version that offers us a more balanced treatment of the song. Now we can really hear how good it is. Sometimes there’s a band doing something that generally is not your thing but then there’s a deep cut that totally grabs you. Well that is Connecticut’s punky, sometime-screamers Anxiousfor me. Their uptempo material on Little Green House is fine but it was their out-of-character acoustic guitar ballad “Wayne” that really got into my head with its mellow backing and captivating vocal interplay. And looking at album’s cute cover design, it’s really the only song that you’d predict would be there. Let’s say you release an album of new tunes in the October, so what do you do in the new year? If you’re Ricky Rochelle you release a stand-alone single that branches out with a whole new style. 2021’s So Far So Good featured songs that straddled the pop punk and indie rock and roll sound but his new single “In a Dream With You” is something else again. Personally I like where he’s going. The song is a bit more light and buoyant than the previous efforts, with a dreamy hook in the chorus. Minneapolis subs for Memphis when TheCactus Blossoms come to town. Their new album is One Day and it delivers on what fans loved about their debut album Easy Way, an unerring feel for that Everly Brothers/Roy Orbison mode of playing and singing. The new record does branch out a bit into more contemporary song styles (e.g. “Everybody”) but tune in to “Hey Baby” to get your fix of the old magic. Another band living the 1960s musical dream to perfection is New York’s Jeremy and the Harlequins. On their new single “It Won’t Be Love” they reinvent the early 1960s tragic rock song style, adding some Springsteen-ish rocking muscle to proceedings.
A straightforward blast of poprocky goodness can be found The Summer Holiday’s “What Happens When You Lose.” I hear a bit of the New Pornographers in the song’s poppy twists and turns. The band’s creative force Michael Collins is working on material for new album, according to I Don’t Hear a Single. So there’s that to look forward to. The Hoodoo Gurus are back after eleven years with a new album and winning, timely single, “Carry On.” Though written back in 2005, the song manages to give voice to healthcare workers struggling to keep going amidst this seemingly never-ending pandemic. The song has everything you’d expect from the HGs, big guitars, in-your-face vocals and solid rock and roll hooks. Another band with a big sound is Cardiff’s Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard. Their new album Backhand Deals is chock full of a 1970s sense of poprock abandon, all driving keyboards and different vocals playing off each other. But it’s “Break Right In” that will really knock you over. The lyrics are eccentric and the mood is a shot of seventies 10cc meets Queen in full-on pop mode. Seems it was just yesterday that The Orange Peels re-released their 1997 debut Square to serious reviewer accolades (it was 2019, actually). But the band is not living in the past. Their most recent album is Celebrate the Moments of Your Life and it’s full of perky song sketches, like “Indigo Hill” and “Human.” I hear a real Shins vibe on the former but the latter reminds me of The Pixes, particularly the keyboard work. Former Figgs and NRBQ member Pete Donnelly moves in a more decidedly poprock direction his new EP Anthem of the Time. You can really hear it on the title track, a song that has some definite Beatlesque turns and benefits from a relentless dose of jangly lead guitar work.
The Summer Holiday – What Happens When You Lose
Norway’s Armchair Oraclesmust be working up to a new album, what with the slew of singles they’ve released over the past three years. “Addicted to the Ride” is the latest and this time out I’m hearing a very Gerry Rafferty gloss on the vocals (and that’s a good thing!) while the tune is very Macca in mid-period Wings flight. Surge and the Swell is an Americana project from Minnesota’s Aaron Cabbage, working with the Honeydogs’ Adam Levy. I think you can really Levy’s impact on “Gravity Boots” with the electric guitar licks really adding some poppy hooks to the song. It just shows how a creative songwriter and producer can work together to blur genre boundaries, with good effect. I really got into Sarah Shook and the Disarmers on their 2017 Sidelong album, a wonderfully ramshackle bit of what Rolling Stone dubbed ‘agitated honky tonk.’ But that didn’t prepare me for their new single “I Got This.” The song defies genre. The playing reminds me of Darwin Deez in its economical roominess while the vocal is full of surprises. Gone is the surly country twang, replaced by a more direct delivery in the verses and disarming falsetto in the chorus. Altogether a delightful surprise. Another genre crosser is Oliver Tree. He describes his new album Cowboy Tears as ‘cowboy emo’ but on the earwormy single “Things We Used to Do” I get a more Front Bottoms or Grouplove vibe. This one will seduce you slowly, its shuffle beat and acoustic guitar anchor lulling you into hitting replay multiple times. One of the many delights of 2019 was the debut effort from Glasgow’s U.S. Highball. Great Record was indeed a great record. So the teaser release of a single from their upcoming new record A Parkhead Cross of the Mind is most welcome. “Double Dare” sounds a bit different off the start but once it gets going it’s not too different. There’s the jangle, there’s the poppy melody, there’s the distinctive vocal harmonies we’ve come to rely on from this duo. There’s even a cool keyboard solo halfway through.
Surge and the Swell – Gravity BootsSarah Shook and the Disarmers – I Got ThisOliver Tree – Things We Used to Do
Let’s wrap up this 21 song March spectacular with Tamar Berk’s new single “Your Permission.” Berk was one of the breakout indie stars of 2021 with her smart, stylish debut album The Restless Dreams of Youth and particularly the single “Socrates and Me.” But let the reinvention process begin because with “Your Permission” she offers up a striking change of direction, shifting from a guitar to keyboards focus to create a gorgeous pop setting for this tune. The song itself channels the sophisticated song-writing and performance of a Suzanne Vega or Aimee Mann. A new album can’t arrive fast enough.
Whew, what a cavalcade of should-be stars! With these tunes you can cast aside your winter doldrums and put a bit of spring in your step. Even if there’s still snow left to shovel.
In all the fuss about our present pandemic it’s easy to forget the still lingering effects of past afflictions. For instance, there’s a untreatable malady that ravaged the world for a number of years in the early to mid-1960s that continues to gain new victims to this day. I’m talking about Beatlemania, of course. And while there is no cure, the condition can be managed with strong, regular doses of melodic rock and roll, preferably layered with dollops of jangly guitar and effervescent harmony vocals. Now my Ph.D. doesn’t normally allow me to prescribe in this area but – what the hell – I’m going to recommend the following artists and their music to help manage your condition.
It was finding Frankie Siragusa recent concept album, Goodbye My Love – a reworking of songs Lennon-McCartney gave away but as if the Beatles had intended to include them on Rubber Soul or Revolver – that got me on this Beatlemania jag. What Siragusa accomplishes on the record is pretty impressive, with a little help from indie all-star friends (like members of The Posies, Jellyfish, and others). In the end, the results are not unlike what Apple Jam has done over the years. Stand out tracks for me include the exquisitely McCartney-esque “Goodbye” and the lovely spare “I’ll Be On My Way” but for some reason the more early period-sounding “I’m In Love” is what I gotta feature here. The band here nails the early 1965 feel. The record is the product of creative music company Reimagine Music who just happen to have two other Beatles-themed records, one recreating Rubber Soul (Looking Through You) and the other Revolver (Tomorrow Never Knows). From the former I love Bombadil’s folky deconstruction of “Drive My Car” and Olin and the Moon’s “Run For Your Life.” From the latter Jake Mann and the Upper Hand add a slow grind hypnotic element to “Taxman.”
Frankie Siragusa – I’m In LoveBombadil – Drive My CarOlin and the Moon – Run for Your LifeJake Mann and the Upper Hand – Taxman
I used to think ‘why bother’ trying to cover the Beatles. It’s not like you’re going to improve on what the world’s greatest band could do. But I think that was shaped by growing up in the 1970s. Frankly, I just didn’t prefer what those cover artist were doing (MOR Beatles? Yuck!). But into the 1980s people starting taking Beatles covers in directions I could dig. Sometimes it’s just the subtle changes in harmonies that you can hear on Mike Carpenter and The Album Show’s take on “Baby’s in Black” or The Beat-less strongly Spanish-accented “From Me to You.” By contrast, Richard Snow Hattersleyjust pushes all the constituent elements of “Another Girl” just a little bit further, a bit more twang, a bit more rootsy feel. And then there’s the occasionally brilliant repositioning of a Beatles classic in a new register, like Caspar Babypants’ more upbeat “Mother Nature’s Son.” No more summer field acoustic guitar noodling for this happy go lucky boy. Similarly Timmy Seanadds a bit Beach Boys piano and vocal oomph to “You’re Going to Lose That Girl.” Or there’s Robyn Gibson’s Byrdsian folk rock version of “There’s a Place.” Once you hear it, it’s like ‘ya, that works!’
The Beat-less – From Me to YouCaspar Babypants – Mother Nature’s Son
The best dose for a spot of Beatlemania is, of course, something from the Fab Four themselves. Let’s assail your symptoms with the Beatles covering themselves, sort of, with this great Live at the BBC recording of “I’ll Be On My Way.” I was a sucker for this version when I first heard it on Beatles bootleg I picked up somewhere in the 1980s.
The Beatles – I’ll Be On My Way
In these troubled times it’s great to rely on some tried and true melodic remedies. Now initial reactions to this treatment might be fevered excitement but you can relax as that usually gives way to a measured contentment in short order.
While there is little in the post-Beatles era that is not somehow touched by their influence, some bands wear that influence a bit more obviously than others. Today’s crew are veritable Beatlemaniacs, long suffering and uninterested in any cure. At times, they almost are The Beatles, they come so close to the masters in song structure and/or performance. Yet they all add some magic of their own, some original element that elevates their efforts beyond mere imitation. Get ready for some old and new Beatlers!
One of the earliest post-Beatles bands working the Mersey side of street was Liverpool Echo. Their self-titled 1973 album was a refreshing reworking of the 1964 Beatles sound for the seventies with strong songwriting from Martin Briley (later of “Salt in my Tears” fame) and Brian Engel. Countless songs start out like a Beatles’ classic, only to veer into something else, e.g. “You Know It Feels Alright” kicks off with a “Love Me Do” harmonica, or “Don’t You Know I’ve Been Lying” sounds very “I Call Your Name” at the start. But the record sports more than a few really original cuts, like “Gone, Gone, Gone” and the hooky “Girl on a Train.” Former hard rockers The Szutershave a broader take on The Beatles’ sonic legacy on their new album Sugar, filtering their efforts through a Todd Rungdren/Utopia Deface the Music set of influences (particularly on “If You Only Knew”) or a Cheap Trick (on “She’s Coming Home With Me”) or even early Squeeze (“Good Thing”). But “I Don’t Wanna Cry” and “Two We Will Always Be” nail The Beatles circa ’64.
Liverpool Echo – Gone, Gone, GoneLiverpool Echo – Girl on the TrainThe Szuters – Two We Will Always BeThe Szuters – I Don’t Want To Cry
With Putting the L in WooltonesRob Clarke and the Wooltonesmove a bit beyond their usual Mersey predilections to explore some other 1960s sounds. But there’s still one classic moptop number with “It’s Only You,” a lovely track that could easily live in the Beatles For Sale universe. And then there are actual cover bands, though few stand out like Apple Jam. As one commentator once said, “Apple Jam are possibly the most arcane Beatles tribute band in the world.” Why? Because they only record the songs The Beatles never officially recorded. Their 2009 Off the Beatle Track album reworks 15 early Lennon-McCartney tunes (and one Harrison song), their 2018 Off the White Album takes up all those songs that didn’t make the White Album cut, while other singles and EPs give a Beatles treatment to various solo material from the fabs. The results are pretty spectacular. Imagine all those songs the Beatles gave away in the 1963-4 period but now informed by the polished sound they gave on their official releases. “I’m In Love” and “From a Window” get upgraded to an obvious should-have-been Beatles release. “Goodbye” as performed here seems to merit inclusion on the White Album. And their Beatles 1964-style interpretation of McCartney’s “On the Wings of a Nightingale” is pretty special. The band’s most recent single is a version of Harrison’s unreleased “Window Window” from the Let It Be-era.
Apple Jam – I’m In LoveApple Jam – From a Window
Unlike our other Beatle-vibing bands Cupid’s Carnival solidly occupy the mid-period Beatles zone, stretching perhaps from Help! to Yellow Submarine. They load their songs with uber cool Beatles references but the songwriting stands on its own. Their recent 2020 release Colour Blind kicks off strong with “Working All Day,” acing those familiar Beatles harmonies. The hooky “I Got It Wrong” and “Happiness” are Beatles poprock bliss! “Clapham Junction – Platform 9” uses a “Strawberry Fields” mellotron to good effect. And the record includes their masterful should-be hit “She Don’t Care” from their 2018 EP Clapham Junction. Detroit’s The Singles are all over the Meet the Beatles sound on their 2003 debut Better Than Before. The title track is simultaneously pure 1964 and yet timeless in execution, absolute dance party killer. “She’s Got a Hold” works that special Beatles jangle into a lovely melodic number with great harmonies. Since then the band has released a number of solid poprocking albums, albeit ones that beat the Beatles drum a bit more lightly.
Cupid’s Carnival – Working All DayCupid’s Carnival – She Don’t CareThe Singles – Better Than BeforeThe Singles – She’s Got A Hold
55 years ago “Help!” was heading for number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Today we’re still living in the shadow of that influence. Help keep the flame alive by clicking the hyperlinked band names above.
It’s been five years since I embarked on this mad journey: to write a music blog. I dithered over the decision to start one for a number of months. There’s nothing more pathetic than to start something with maximum fanfare and enthusiasm, only to have it flame out a half dozen posts later. The questions I had to ask myself were: (a) was there enough of ‘my kind’ of music to regularly post about, and (b) could I sustain the effort to get regular posts up on the blog? Well here’s the proof. In five years I’ve managed to produce 347 blogs posts. I’ve written more than 170,000 words about poprock tunes. And, most importantly, I’ve featured almost 1000 different artists. Guess the answers to (a) and (b) are both a resounding yes!
I think the biggest reason this blog thing has worked out for me is that it is such a great outlet for being creative and having fun with something that has always been pretty central to my life: music. I love doing all the mock serious regular features (e.g. Breaking news, Around the Dial, Should be a hit single) and coming up with goofy themes as a way to feature different artists (e.g. “Telephonic Poprock,” “Summer’s Coming,” and the Cover me! series. Sometimes I’ve pushed the posts in more serious directions (“Is That So Gay,” “Campaigning for Hooks,” and “Pandemic Poprock“) but only if the melodies and hooks were there in abundance. The blog has also allowed me to pay tribute to my musical heroes (Buddy Holly, The Beatles, The Zombies, Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Marshall Crenshaw, Suzanne Vega, Aimee Mann). But, as regular readers know, such luminaries mostly appear as reference points to better help people get of a sense of what all these new acts are doing.
If you’ve just tuned in, I’m not assigning the past five years of posts as homework. Instead, I offer today’s anniversary post as a retrospective of what’s been happening here. I reviewed all 347 posts to pick out some choice examples of the range of styles I can cram under the rubrik of ‘poprock’. It wasn’t easy! My first go round produced a list of 118 songs. When I converted that to a playlist I got the number down to 81 tracks. Ack! Still too many. So I’ve broken things down into themes. This is not a ‘greatest hits’ or ‘best of’ Poprock Record. I’ve left out a lot of acts I really love. It’s just a representative sample of what goes on here, to borrow some lingo from my day job. Click on the highlighted band names to go to the original posts on the blog.
Let’s start by recognizing that not all that appears here is new. The blog has allowed me to explore a huge number of acts I’ve missed over the years, particularly in the 1990s when my new day job (academe) took over my life. I can’t believe I somehow missed great bands like Fire Town and the Soul Engines with their incredible guitar hooks. The Sighs “Make You Cry” is a pretty perfect poprock single. I knew about Billy Cowsills’ Blue Northern but had never heard of his later group, the Blue Shadows. And Eugene Edwards’ sole solo release, My Favorite Revolution, is a must add for any melodic rock and roll fan.
Fire Town – She Reminds Me of YouSoul Engines – Just Another DayThe Sighs – Make You Cry
Eugene Edwards – Congratulations My Darling
There have been acts that appeared again and again on the blog, my ‘old reliables’ as I might call them. These are performers I can pretty much carve out space in the queue for whenever I hear a new release is on the way. Gregory Pepper is probably my most covered artist. I love his quirky, always hooky, sometimes touching efforts. Ezra Furman was another great find who has an unerring knack of placing a memorable hook at the centre of whatever he’s doing, whether it’s retro 1950s pop or a punkish political ode. I discovered Jeremy Fisher long before the blog but I’ve used it to feature his work, old and new. He’s like a new wave Paul Simon with great videos. Edward O’Connell only has two albums, but they are reliably good. We really need a third. Mo Troper always delivers something wonderfully weird but still melodic and ‘can’t get it out of your head’ good. Finally, Jeremy Messersmith’s records regularly encompass big vision but he doles it out in memorable should-be hit singles.
Edward O’Connell – The End of the LineJeremy Messersmith – Fast Times in Minnesota
In my world of poprock, while any instrument goes, the electric guitar is arguably pretty central. Some bands really know how to ride a guitar-driven song right into your head. Jeff Shelton’s Well Wishers excel at putting the guitar up front. “Feeling Fine” is practically a ‘how to’ example of killer guitar-dominant poprock. The David James Situation and The Format are no slouches either. Jangle is a related field of guitar poprock and takes a number of forms, from the 1960s-inflected Byrds sound of The Vapour Trails to the more jaunty bubblegum feel of The Lolas “We’re Going Down to the Boathouse.” Jangle also usually features pretty addictive harmony vocals, showcased below in Propeller’s “Summer Arrives.”
David James Situation – I Should KnowThe Format – Wait Wait Wait
As the original and defining decade of poprock (in my view), the 1960s sound continues to be mined by new artists. Daisy House have few rivals in nailing the late 1960s California poprock vibe, sounding like time travelers from San Francisco’s 1968 club scene. Space Dingus have got The Monkees feel down. Both Shadow Show and The On and Ons gives us that rockier pop sound of the mid 1960s, with the latter delivering killer lead guitar hooks. By contrast, both Cut Worms and The Young Veins offer a candy-coated pop sound more akin to The Cyrkle and Simon and Garfunkel.
The On and Ons – Before Our EyesThe Young Veins – Cape Town
I’m a sucker for shivery harmony vocals so they’ve been featured regularly on the blog. One of Jenny Lewis’ side projects is the one-off album from Jenny and Johnny, I’m Having Fun Now. Aptly named, the record gently rocks and delivers amazing vocals. The Secret Sisters offer up a punchy tune where the harmony vocals seal the hooky deal. The Carousels “Call Along the Coast” has a big sound the rides a wave of harmony vocalizing and Beatlesque guitar work. Meanwhile Scotland’s Dropkick corner the market on delightful lilting songcraft on “Dog and Cat.” The blog sometimes shades into retro country and folk territory. Bomabil are an eccentric outfit who stretch our sense of song but never drop the melody. The Top Boost are pretty new wave but on “Tell Me That You’re Mine” they’re channeling Bakersfield via the Beatles 65. The Fruit Bats put the banjo upfront in “Humbug Mountain,” where it belongs. Gerry Cinnamon is like Scotland’s Billy Bragg and he shows what you can do with just an acoustic guitar and a Springsteen harmonica.
Jenny and Johnny – Scissor RunnerThe Secret Sisters – Black and BlueThe Carousels – Call Along the CoastGerry Cinnamon – What Have You Done
I’m proud to say that the blog has sometimes strayed off the beaten path of conventional poprock into more eccentric territory with bands that are smart and quirky and not afraid to lodge a hook in a more complex setting. Tally Hall pretty much define this approach. So ‘out there’ but still so good melodically. Chris Staples and Hayden offer up more low key, moody tunes but they still have a strong melodic grab. Overlord take clever to a new level, like a grad school version of They Might Be Giants. Coach Hop is just funny and hooky with his unabashed ode to liking Taylor Swift.
Tally Hall – Sacred Beast
Overlord – The Song That Saved the World
After the 1960s the new wave era is the renaissance of poprock for me with its combination of hooky guitars, harmony vocals, and melody-driven rock and roll. Screen Test capture this ambience perfectly on “Notes from Trevor” with a chorus that really delivers. The Enlows drive the guitar hook right into your head on the dance-madness single “Without Your Love.” Billy Sullivan epitomizes the reinvention of 1960s elements that occurred in the 1980s, well embodied in “Everywhere I Go.” Another strong theme in the blog has been the “I Get Mail” feature, populated largely by DIY songsters who write me about their garage or basement recorded releases. It is inspiring to hear from so many people doing their thing and getting it out there, especially when it is generally really good. Daveit Ferris is a DIY workaholic with an amazing range of song and recording styles. “Immeasurable” is a good illustration of his genius, with a banjo-driven chorus that always makes me smile. Mondello is practically the classic indie artist movie script, struggling to get an album out after 20 years. But then his follow up single, “My Girl Goes By,” is gold!
Screen Test – Notes from TrevorBilly Sullivan – Everywhere I GoDaveit Ferris – Immeasurable
I want to leave you with a two-four of should-be hits from Poprock Record. These songs are all quality cuts, grade A poprock with melodies and harmonies and hooks to spare. Some of these songs leave me panting, they’re so good. I kicked off the blog back in 2015 with Family of Year and I still think “Make You Mine” is a textbook should-be AM radio hit. Sunday Sun channel The Beatles through a 1980s song filter, in the very best way. Sitcom Neighbor’s “Tourist Attraction” is a delightful earworm affliction. Wyatt Blair has somehow boiled down the essential formula of a 1960s-influenced poprock hit. Wyatt Funderburk understands how to assemble the perfect melody-driven single. And so on. Get your clicking finger warmed up and you’ll be introduced to the essence of Poprock Record in 24 melodious increments.
Family of the Year – Make You MineEx Cops – JamesSitcom Neighbor – Tourist Attraction
The Primary 5 – MailmanDaisy – I Just Don’t Believe It
One thing I didn’t anticipate was all the great people I’d come in contact with writing a music blog. Thanks to all the bands, record labels, and readers who have responded so positively to what I’ve been doing here. A special thanks to Best Indie Songs, Tim at Powerpopulist and Don at I Don’t Hear a Single for their advice over the years and to my friends Rob at Swizzle and Dale at The View from Here for encouraging me to do this.
This post features pics from my poprock-postered 1985-7 apartment in Vancouver’s West End. Just $285 a month, all inclusive. No wonder I could buy so many records.
Poprock Record 