Mrs Magician - Spiritual Hangover

 

Mrs Magician's previous two albums were before IDHAS hit the internet. 2012's Strange Heaven is an all time classic and was followed by the equally interesting Bermuda was released in 2016, a few months before we began.

Jason Turnbloom is joined by Andrew Montaya and Mark Riviera of The Sess (incidentally, The Sess's 2008 album, Agendumb is a great album too), Ian Fowles of The Aquabats and John Reis and their experience really really shows.

Spiritual Hangover is no ordinary revival, it is an absolute gem. There are hints of the past, but largely this is a great Power Pop affair. A slightly noisier version of the genre that is more common with the new breed. Sprinklings of Organ enhance the feel.

There are diversions. One & Only Girl has a 90s College Rock feel, Depression Song is built on a Power Pop Riff, but sounds darker and the guitar solo is almost Goth. Pill is close to UK New Wave and The World Doesn't Need Your Jive has more than a touch of UK Glam Rock vibe.

But essentially, this is Power Pop joy. Killer Riffs, massive choruses and songs that you just want to sing along to. As well as the surprise of the return after a decade, I had no right to expect an album as superb is this. I embed my current favourite three songs, but truth be known, I'd happily embed all 11. 

You can listen to and buy the album here. The album is also available on Vinyl at all good Record Shops. It is a potential album of the year.

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The Mellons - In Color

 

The glorious second album from Salt Lake City quartet The Mellons is ready to delight your lugholes. Very 60s, a summer feeling in which the band raid the instrument cupboard to offer up stunning California Pop of the highest order.

As well as the killer arrangements, Beach Boy type harmonies sit from everywhere. Catchy as catchy can be, the arrangements are slightly Baroque at times, but everything centres around the killer hormones. Song that you can singalong to and will.

Upside Down as a tint of Prime Time The Move. Radiant Radish may be short, but with its Psych Pop, almost Toytown feel, it completely overwhelms you. Central Park City Square Flower Days mixes surf with a Circus style Music Hall arrangement to great effect.

Lady Apple Tree even steps into XTC territory, With A Girl Like You is great 70s Pop Rock and Say Goodbye is McCartney Piano Pop and oj that Mellotron! I Told Ya All Time Jangles wonderfully with overtones of Merseybeat mixed with slight Prog. Upside Down is really trippy.

There are also short interludes / Ads that add to the overall joy of a really accomplished album. This may be Retro in style, but there are so many ideas that are enforced by the splendid production. In Color is an essential listen.

You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on Vinyl and as a download.

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Listening To This Week Playlist 20 July

The maximum 30 songs this week. A concentration on what we are known for with plenty of Guitar Pop, but also, as always, some fine diversions. The song order is not about song preference, but how the playlist flows.  

All embeds open in new windows to aid scrolling. Links to the artists will also appear on I Don't Hear A Single Social Media sites over the next 24 hours. This will help you to discover more about those who appear here. 

Modern History - Comfort Of Pain

Desoto Reds - Aftermath

Hurry - The Dumbest Person You've Ever Seen

The Allwells - Who I Am

Purple Cassette - Waiting On Nothing

Plastic Bubble - Recontextualize

Professor And The Madman - Tolerant World

Oddysseys - Cerbie

Sona Bliss - You Don't

Subterranean Street Society - Indispensable Love

Mythical Motors - The Queen Of Fleeting Moments

Remo Drive - Live In Pain

He's Dead Jim - Flame On

Maureens - Great Smile

The Melmacs - These Days

Golden Richards - I Want To Be Like Jeff Goldblum

The Friends - I Know You're Dead (But The Drapes Are Pretty)

Cult Figures - Walking Disaster

Historically Close Friends - Man Of YourDreams

Brennan Gilmore - Wolf And Sheep

Fast Boyfriends - Minefield

Band Of Jays - IDK

Band of Jays · IDK

Holy Coves - Travelling

The Roland High Life - The Edge Of Memory

Basin Lot - Came Here On My Own

Basin Lot · Came Here On My Own

David Woodard - Carrying Everything

Nicamus - Duck Tales

oh michael - If I Was Cool And British

Tom Barrett - Get By

Bannas - Fuzzy Days

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Maureens - Don't Give Up

 

Whenever I hear this lot, my mind is transported to the second half of the 80's when the Indie joy broke out to rid us of Bombastic Rock and bands who thought more about dressing up than the music. This was the greatest time for Indie Guitar Pop and the Scots scene.

Maureens aren't from Scotland, but they should be. The quartet are from Utrecht and in their second decade and never fail to provide a sort of Summer feel to proceedings and with the weather here in the UK bring as it is, this is as good as anything around.

Hendrik-Jan de Wolff is a fine songwriter with an ability to adapt to whatever takes his muse. Essentially Indie Guitar Pop, the band can be whatever you want. From Indie Pop to Jangle Pop, Jaunty to heartfelt depth, slightly Psych Pop to Folk.

Motorway also shows that Indie Rock is not out of the question and is possibly the best song of the 13 and contrast that to Great Smile which gets nearer to Brit Pop. Yet the stripped down gentle Psych of Wish You Well works just as well.

Talking In My Sleep is classic 70s Pop Rock and Crying For The Moon just aches beautifully. There is such variety on display here. Don't Give Up is so well put together that it demands your attention just as everything the band offer up does.

You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on Vinyl and as a download.

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Wills Van Doorn - Enduro

 

Wills Van Doorn offers up a beautifully arranged Pop Rock album, wonderfully melodic, but that is half the story. His vocal lights up the darkest of nights and to its credit, Enduro puts his voice to the forefront. Anyone who had a vocal like Van Doorn's would want that.

It is extraordinary as a lead and in backing vocals. The fact that the arrangements are so well out together is a bonus, because you would listen to anything that he chose to sing. The album just washes your cares away, it is so smooth.

Johnny Payne's production brings out that golden voice, as you might expect, but the harder part is making the easy listening varied and Payne succeeds beautifully. Surprise Guitar solos and some splendid Wurlitzer enhance all around.

The big arrangements work really well, but when Van Doorn steps into Power Pop, he does that equally well. Both Sometimes / Rarely and Ever Wonder Why are genre classics, the latter lit up our Listening To This Week Playlist.

That Guitar Pop breaks up the gentleness elsewhere and allows you to appreciate the arrangements and performance even more. I'm reminded a lot of West Coast Summer sounds, but the whole album is an essential listen underlining why computer programs cannot match the real thing.

You can listen to and buy the album here. The album is available on Cassette and as a download.

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I Don't Hear A Single Is 10

 

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Desoto Reds - Resistor

 

Oakland quartet Desoto Reds have released a fascinating album. It takes an old fashioned listen that seems to happen less and less in these days of playlist preference. The Album format still rules. I listened to this and on first listen you note a couple of songs that make you want to listen to the album again.

Repeated listens reveal more and more excellence until you realise you have one hell of an album in your hands. On first listen, I had the band as one of those excellent instrumentally intelligent bands that would have appeared on the IRS label.

But digging further shows that this is just a small part of what they do, the diversity and variety here is exceptional. No two songs are the same. Cookieness is followed by Psych Pop. Guitar Pop is followed by Indie Rock. The roads taken are incredibly different. Resistor is an amazing listen.

Aftermath was the song that drew me in, a joyous listen that has Psych Pop overtones, but is built on a killer chorus and wonderful 60s organ runs. By the end, I was engrossed in songs that were completely different especially the inventive Watch Me Now (I've Got The Algorithm).

Yeah, so is very mid period R.E.M., yet Spider could be The Mommyheads. There are bizarre subjects such as Free People which lists Free items wrapped around a killer riff and an angular affair that is a paean to Costa Rica.

My love of Psych Pop is enhanced by the wonderful Siberia, but the band can also slow things down with the mellower Maybe. All in all, this is an album of admirable death and variety. I've picked my three current favourite songs, but I urge you to listen and then listen again to the whole thing.

You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on Vinyl and as a download.

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