The Cruz & The Dukes Of Harlem - A Street Opera

 

Dutch five piece, The Cruz & The Dukes Of Harlem offer up a bombastic over the top treat. A big production akin with prime time Springsteen and Meatloaf instrumentally. A real Have A Good Time All Of The Time sort of thing.

Probably most will label this Classic Rock, but there is plenty of variety and the band have a Live Reputation second to none. 99 Beers And 65 Shots for instance heads into Rock And Roll Revue territory with the tongues firmly in cheek.

Jericho Farm certainly has a story to tell, although I'm not sure about the Liverpool bits being here on the ground if you like. The lighters out moment is I Drive All Night (For You) which is a big AOR Ballad, beautifully arranged and performed.

If You Want My Money (You Must Come And Get It) is the most Meatloaf with a great call and response chorus.The centrepiece is the epic Title Track at close to ten minutes with all its twists and turns. It is the type of song that you don't see much any more and its changes sweep through splendidly.

There is some great Bittan-esque piano on Stuck In Here which does sound very close to Springsteen's Jackson Cage at times. Bound For Glory is probably the song that will create most interest, very American, very AOR, very good!

As previously mentioned, A Street Opera is well over the top, but wonderfully so. With all the grief around at present, this escapism is a joyous listen. A chance to lose yourself in a fine album that will soon have you singing along.

You can listen to the album here. I will update the review when I have details of places to buy.

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Dan Miraldi - Ulysses

 

Dan Miraldi is also from New York, but very different to previously reviewed Marc Pacino. Miraldi is much rockier, landing somewhere between Indie Rock and Pop Rock gloriously with a big sound and even bigger choruses.

The space he inhabits allows him to appeal to those who say they don't like new music and those who lap it up. The sheer catchiness of the arrangements and the hooks allows him to move through genres. Power Pop is something he particularly excels at.

 

Internet Women is ace 60s Power Pop with steps towards Rock and Roll, yet Unfollow Me is more Classic Rock with its big rock riffs. Indie Film is a much moodier affair having more in common with more modern versions of Pop Rock, you can imagine The Killers covering it.

Existential Days is great jaunty Pop Rock. The verse sounds George Harrison as does the Guitar sound. Sublime Love slows things down into Ballad territory, it is moody and melancholic, but hypnotic. Your My Home is out on the porch excellence, Acoustic and built around a wonderful piano arrangement.

Ulysses opens the album and simply rocks your socks off and contrast that with the 60s UK Guitar Pop of Almost Sounds Sincere. All these songs show how easy Miraldi switches genres and decades effortlessly. There is even another Christmas song that I like which is becoming a sort of recent theme.

Christmas (I Think I'm Gonna Be Sad) is a big ace production and reveals that you can make a seasonal song that isn't banal tosh, just move away from the template. Ulysses is simply excellent Pop Rock, great arrangements, big memorable choruses and an album you can listen to from start to finish and then put on again.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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Mark Bacino - Top Of The World

 

New York's Mark Bacino is back and he has lost none of his songwriting strength. Still very 60s Pop, but without the straight ahead banality that it can entail. Songs come from unusual angles, with surprise instrumentation and arrangements.

Melodic and extremely catchy, when he treads into the 70s, he becomes more arrangement focussed and that works just as well. That songwriting ability marks him out from peers, marrying beyond the norm lyrics with catch all choruses.

For instance Kaylee Hughes starts with something akin to the Minder Intro and heads straight in to 70s smooth Pop Rock. Yet, Flop Of The World is wonderful Trad Jazz. Shaky Hand is fine Piano Pop with a big orchestral arrangement.

Young Heart edges towards a gentle Power Pop whilst keeping a big foot in easy listening and Soft Rock. I Like Wearing Clothes is ragtime piano led whilst remaining jaunty and altogether now. Why Does This Woman Love Me? gets very Gilbert O' Sullivan.

There is such a with and depth in the lyrics that allows the songs to shine way above the tweeness that these genres can involve. Everything is beautifully arranged and performed and so damn happy sounding that you just can't help smiling.

I've said many times that it seems much easier to write sad songs, this sort of joy doesn't come easy. I'm particularly taken with the instrumental He Never Saw It Coming (Accidental Death Of A Clown) which even adds some rasping Electric Guitar. Top Of The World is splendidly upbeat.

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

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Evening Standards - The Shining

 

Evening Standards have relocated to Gainesville, Florida, a sort of home for Pop Punk and Punk, but whereas the trio are often described as Pop Punk, it isn't really the expected description of that genre. There is a Punk attitude and an ability to venture into Pop, particularly chorus wise, there is far more on show here.

There is a sniff of Garage Rock, but they also at times sound like an Indie more melodic version of The Strokes without the repetitiveness. The songs are not complicated, built on more of a vibe, but they are hypnotic and draw you in.

However, when they explore different paths, the trio excel. Tiny Rock is wonderful. More Indie Rock, even veering towards a more Classic Rock but built on an angular riff and a catch all chorus. Mountain Top even slows things down with its Alex Lifeson 80s like riff and splendid almost weeping regretful vocal.

Precious gets all Bluesy, yet Edgelord is great New York Garage Punk, all sleaze and grit. Broken even heads into the noisier version of Power Pop that is so popular presently. Stardust is sung in a real drawl that just grips you and adds a twanged Country-ish riff. 

The Fool is almost an anthem and underlines the theme of these songs. There is a down and dirty street vibe that tells stories of the neighbourhood, casualties and disappointments of what could have been if it got its act together,

So while the sentiments may be Punk, the actual album spreads much further, splendidly so. It is about a vibe, an attitude, things that have shaped the trio. Feelings of regret that are presented as hope. What seems so simple hides real hidden depth/ The Shining is a crackerjack of an album.

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

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The Mediocre Friends - So This Is It? EP (Free Download)

 

This is a wonderful track EP and seldom has there been such consistency, bearing in mind that each song was written by each of the four band members. The only negative is that I just wish there had been more because this EP in style, sound and performance is right up Melody Street.

Four lifelong friends light up New Jersey with the slightly rocked up Power Pop that we know and love. Gay Elvis is well known to us, particularly for his time in Readymade Breakup and he takes the vocals for all four songs.

His song is That'll Be Me and that is the most restrained here, a top notch catch all affair with hints of AOR and Pop Rock. Mike Eckhart's Adore opens up proceedings with Adore, a much more 90s Indie blast delivered at pace and underlining his Guitar work, all riffs and hooks.

Chris Dickscheid's This Old House is the most straight ahead, a wonderful confection built around two mesmerising riffs, a song that borders on Melodic Rock. Bill Cederroth has a much more and at 'em song. It heads towards a more classic rock, a real let loose vibe that reveals even more depth from the quartet. Here's hoping there is a future with more from them.

You can listen to and download the EP here.

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Back To Grooving With The Cool Dudes!

 

It seems ages since I've been able to sit down and properly concentrate on Reviews. Non Music stuff getting in the way really. So there is a lot to catch up on. But now there seems to be time to get a good run in. So there are five reviews part written that will be up throughout tomorrow.

The five tomorrow are maybe the type of albums that you would expect to be covered, sound and genre wise. But July is planned to show the full range of music that IDHAS digs. So expect the weird and the wonderful to be mixed in with the sheer catchiness.

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Mark Ward - LET 'ER RIP

 

It seems a while since I've been around Classic Power Pop. It isn't a reflection on the genre, it is just that the recent revival has had a slightly harder edge moving it nearer to Indie and it is joyous to hear the results. The relative lack of the Classic makes this album sound even better.

Mark Ward's move from Alaska to Washington meant leaving behind his Alt Americana band, Last Train. Now solo, without the band input. he reverted to his younger years love of Power Pop. Although songs here such as Villain and River demonstrate his strength in Americana and Country.

However from the get go this is classic Power Pop of the highest order. The opener, I've Been Around is classic late 70s UK Power Pop with a stunning Jangle and hook. Kiss Me Kiss Me Kate jangles even more, very American, a little Tommy Keene, a little Windbreakers.

I'm ready slows things down nicely, very Acoustic at times, it feels very 80s and is great Commercial Guitar Pop. Paint My House may be my favourite here, more Angular, wonderfully Indie, yet suitably melodic, a little Cotton Mather maybe.

Little Frames is very 60s Byrds, mixing West Coast Rock with a riff that Jangles, but gets really close to Psych Pop. Wasted On My own Again goes the whole hog with a Psych Pop verse matched to a big chorus.

Love Me Once Again is great Merseybeat and Pixie Girl is almost Rockpile. Let 'Er Rip is splendid Power Pop with a big dash of Jangle Pop. An album built on memorable riffs, singalong choruses with big harmonies and essential melody. A crackerjack of an album!

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

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Swiftumz - Simply The Best

 

So nine years on from Everybody Loves Chris. Simply The Best finally gets properly out of the starting gate. Initially planned to be released in 2022 before the Record Plant went bust. Simply The Best is 28 minutes of Christopher McVicar allowing spectators and listeners to realise why he has been so influential across the San Franciscan scene.

McVicar's third album under the Swiftumz banner is enhanced by the Guitar work of Chris Guthridge, a partnership that fully realises the depth and variety of the duos work, But the added help from Kelley Stoltz and members of The Aislers Set, Dirty Ghosts and The Bananas add a lot to the offering.

28 minutes may not seem a lot, particularly when the magnificent Almost Through takes up almost 6 minutes of it, but so much is packed into that time and the results are outstanding, Yet listening to the opening title track would have you believe that you are in for another early Teenage Fanclub album like affair. It is a fine opener, very Big Star, but not repeated elsewhere.

Unconditional is all Glasgow C86 Jangle in a fuzz haze. For Bucher branches out with its Brit Pop instrumental opening which leads to a breathy vocal that mixes Indie Guitar riffing with something verging on experimental Modern Prog.

Falling is Indie Pop on the edge of Dream Pop,  Fall Apart is late 60s Beat Pop wrapped in gentle Psych, wonderfully melodic with an ace Guitar Solo, whilst Finally Through is a strummed Campfire all together now affair. Demoralized revokes memories of Madchester. 

Never Impress is expertly Twee, yet Second Take has a Bolan like whispered vocal, beautifully melancholic with added Psych Jangle and a jaw dropping solo. But Almost Through is in all ways the centrepiece, a corking mix of well ......everything. 60s Farfisa, Glam Rock Guitar solos, switching between Psych and Pop Rock with a touch of Shoegaze. It needs all of its 6 minutes.

Simply The Best is just Top Notch!

You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on Vinyl (Hurry! They are selling fast) and as a download.

8X8 - Life During Wartime

 

Six years on from New Data New Day, an album that was high in our 2018 Best Albums Of The Year, Life During Wartime has really snuck up on me and it is as wonderful as you might expect. The mix of Piano Pop and Psych Pop makes me think that the album has been recorded just for me.

The collaboration between Lane Steinberg and Alex Khodchenko has never released a bum note. You can expect Pop Rock excellence from Lane Steinberg who inhabits a space somewhere between Paul McCartney and Andrew Gold with a fondness for 60s and 70s sound. 

But Khodchenko takes proceedings in a very different direction instrumentally, treading into Prog, Psych and much more, sometimes via Guitar solos, other times by genres or arrangements, the speciality being Psych Pop.

The song is never lost sight of, particularly harmony and melody wise, but the addition of mellotron, Farfisa etc and wonderful Guitar playing takes the material into unexpected realms. The best example of the mix is the opener I.T.B, a heady mix of the two prevailing genres.

But the stand alone areas also excel. The King Of Everything is one of the best Pop songs that you will hear this year. Tepache Terrace is magnificent Psych Pop, bordering on Toytown that adds unexpected parts regularly.

Mississippi Window is McCartney Pop of the highest order whilst Old Dogs is much moodier, gently heading towards Modern Prog or even Symphonic Rock. Loneliness is another example of the great Pop on show as a duet with Rebecca Ona.

Finally, those who know me know of my distaste of Christmas songs. All that forced jolliness and sleigh bells and twee is not for me. I don't need to be cheered up by mediocrity and jaunt, I'm happy enough thank you! But this album closes with Psychedelic Christmas, a great song. 

If any song could change my mind about Christmas songs in general, it is this, but you know it won't. Life During Wartime is stunningly great and will be a shoe in for the Top 10 in the end of year praise and deservedly so.

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

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Listening To This Week Playlist

25 Top Notch examples of how strong the Indie scene is at present. I do hope that you can listen to all the songs across this week. The last listed is as great as the first and you have plenty of time to listen. This weekly playlist is solely for submissions, not the usual stuff that we dig out ourselves. 

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 the artists who appear here. 

Thank you for supporting the new music from Indie artists.

Sour Ops - Standing In The Shadows

Phantom Note - Gold & Green

The Wrong Signals - Façade

The Town Heroes - Singin'

WILD YAKS - See The Light

The Boathouse - On VHS

Hazy Day Parade - Play It Backwards

Restless Leg - Dance Around My Head

Teenage Tom Petties - Kissed Me In Seattle

Mavis - Carolina

Kait Warner - Rodeo Clown

Common Crime - Ghosted

Klevershirts - Interstellar

Steve Creep And The Wildcards - Bottles And Cans

Roger Songbird - Bad Religion

The Fictionals - Don't Worry About The Time

James Haro In Storage - City Terrace

Flashlight Faces - Wild Ones Went Away

Mo Troper - You Always Loved Me

The Erly - 55 On The Other Side

Orbit 17 - Hummingbird

Thunder Boys - I Need A Hug

Blanker - Hives

Edgar Everyone - U PUSH ME

Kishi Bashi - Icarus IV

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Pantomime Horses - Forever Polyester

 

I've had the album for a while awaiting release and struck up conversations with Guitarist, Tony Laming, who is bang on our wavelength and if ever there was an album that you could say gets close to what IDHAS does, it is this.

The trio were in a band from Portsmouth called Candystash in the early 90s. Rob Silber moved to South Africa thereafter and Tony has lived in Spain for the past 20 years. Drummer, Nigel Kirkby is the third member of the trio. The threesome made contact with each other again four years ago.

Thus Pantomime Horses were born and here is the resulting album. The three finally met up again over Christmas 2023. Darrin's Subjangle label is the perfect choice to release the album. The Physical CD is released next Monday. It can be pre-ordered now and the download is already available.

Forever Polyester really is right up our street. Silber's storytelling songwriting makes the album special, but all three provide a genre defying sound. Covering everything from Brit Pop to Psych Pop, Indie Rock to Pop Rock.

At times the band sounds like a laidback understated Big Big Train or even vocally a laidback Custard Flux, Silber certainly sounds Gabriel-esque at times. Pantomime Horses are equally at home with the great  intelligent gravitas Indie of the 80s, but equally are not afraid of 60s Beat Pop.

For Psych Pop lovers like myself, Paris Garden is as good an example of the genre as you are likely to hear. There's also the wonderful Dressed Like Elvis which is a cross between Glasgow late 80s and UK Beat Pop with a great keyboard run.

YLF borders on Electronica whilst Plastic Glasses mixes Jangle Pop with great Organ. Lily Molita underlines the great storytelling, very Brit Pop, wonderfully so. whilst Morning Star gets very Dropkick. The album is not to be missed, it is a stellar listen. The type you hear so infrequently these days.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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Raised On TV - Make Time To Make Time

 

Raised On TV reach their fifth album and still manage to sound as fresh and enthusiastic as a new band with their debut album. Los Angeles's Keaton Rogers and Kacey Greenwood are awash with a California Sun Sound, yet sound so Brit. Everything is so damned catchy.

Greenwood's vocal still sounds so 80s UK, wonderfully gentle, a little Manc maybe complimenting songs that are the Guitar Pop side of Indie Rock that equally fit the commercial current Indie sound enough to build a wide audience, but will also appeal to the older Power Pop fans.

Yet Make Time To Make Time opens the album with a great Indie Pop example that sounds so 80s. Just Wanted To Tell You is a cracking slice of Upbeat Pop, but from then on, the album is a riff led joy, wonderfully so.

Back In The Sun battles to be the album's best song, but the quality overall makes this a hard task. The song is all Brit Pop, summer sounding with its frantic riff, yet still sounds a little California Surf, no main feat.

Waiting On A Girl is all Glasgow Jangle, Story Without An End enters Lightning Seeds territory with a particularly effective arrangement whilst Road Dogs picks up the pace and adds an urgent Fuzz. The Wonder Of Things cries out for a Boyband cover yet still adds another addictive riff.

The ability to say what you want to say and then get off helps the album enormously. In the wrong hands, songs would be extended by a minute with repeated choruses. Make Time To Make Time is a joyous celebration of harmony and melody that allows the songs to become earworms and that is a great thing.

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

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Listening To This Week Playlist

Howdy Doodle Doo! Another week races by and here are 26 songs to become your new favourites this week. I do hope that you can listen to all the songs across this week. The last listed is as great as the first and you have plenty of time to listen. This weekly playlist is solely for submissions, not the usual stuff that we dig out ourselves. 

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 the artists who appear here. 

Thank you for supporting the new music from Indie artists.

Wifey - Mary Ann Leaves The Band

Norðir - UNIFY (2024)

Aura Blaze - Any Open Door

Barry J Walsh - Rescue Me

Mo Troper - The Billy Joel Fan Club

The Bad Actors - That's Molly (For Ya)

Marc Ambrosia - Brooklyn

Abraham Cloud - Reading My Mind

Shady Cove - True

The Oakwood Collective - Empty Pockets

Peel - Someday/Someone

Summer Salt - Take Carra Me

Lomma - Dracula Dirge

Acey Ace - Murder On The Dance Floor

Lost In Society - Wake Up

Megan Winsor - try 2 h8 u

Las Nubes - Enredados (Misty's Mix)

Rick Fricano - Don't Go

Sludgeworth - Together Not Together

The Wild Kindness - AITA (I Forget)

The Ilfords - Snake Groove

hour of pearl - Gotta Get It Right

Lanternfly - Vicious Fishes

Big Bluff - Prince Of Whales

Lee Isaacs - Summer Nights

Summer Fruits - Cover Of The Book

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Fuzziliers - Sail The Seven Seas

 

We introduced you to Fuzziliers at the start of the year, before we got into the all dominating Best Of Year listing. The band's debut EP, Would You Believe, was a fine listen and you can read the review here. The mix of styles and genres shone through the EP and the same thing applies on this debut album, only on a bigger canvas.

For those who want a quick start to what Fuzziliers do, the opening title track sort of throws everything into one song, chopping and changing across multiple genres with ease, there's even a little Jazz Rock added. Indeed one of the band's strengths is how they begin a song as one thing and end it as another.

This approach never gets over the top, in fact the songs are arranged perfectly. From the part Toytown, part Music Hall joy of Dirty Unicorn. Never Let You Down is great Soft Rock whilst Try is jaunty Pop Rock of the highest order with an ace bandstand accompaniment.

This is Love mixes 60s Psych with West Coast Vocal Harmony Pop and a Glam Rock Guitar solo. No No No combines 1974 UK Glam Rock with Southern or Classic Rock. There are many other big footsteps into the likes of Brit Pop, Psych and Prog.

For a band from St Petersburg who reside in Turkey, the album shows that influences are worldwide and never more so on the splendid Mention Me which reveals the full creativity of a pretty unique band in an every day latch on to the current big thing world.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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Custard Flux - Einsteinium Delirium

 

Custard Flux's first four albums were heavily acoustic, played largely on nostalgic equipment. That did not stop them rocking, but for Einsteinium Delerium, Guitars are fully plugged in and I can think of no better artist in this situation.

As part of a quartet with added Mellotron from Andy Thompson, Curvey is on fire as Custard Flux unleash sheer magnificence. Still somewhere between Psych and Prog, the album is awash with melody and choruses that at times get nearer to Pop Rock.

This is a lesson for those who think Prog is just pretentiousness and Psych too way out, Custard Flux are here to make you see how joyous and accessible both can be. The album feels more joined up than ever, indeed Einsteinium Delirium could easily be thought has one complete piece.

The rhythm section are absolutely locked, which allows the riffs to take over your head and those riffs lead to spellbinding solo. Although, there are great moments of Psych, particularly the magnificent Open Wide, this feels more and more like a Modern Prog album.

The focal point of this Progressive fest is the mellotron heavy Fat Man's 8 minutes of melancholic moodiness that closes the album. It is the one time that you think of 70s Prog. The Guitar lines here at times lend themselves to Art Rock, Alt Rock and more commercial directions.

There are also great lighter moments where the arrangements are even more accessible, songs like Burning In The Sun and Right Now Here In Time and the poptastic chorus of Valentine. Curvey's vocal is still very Gabriel, but that softens the material too. Custard Flux could yet bring the complex to the masses. Here's hoping!

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

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Kelley Stoltz - La Fleur

Kelley Stoltz is not new, this is his eighteenth album, so appearing here must mean he is under appreciated and he is, in spades. Truth be known, Stoltz could write any of the more exalted peers' offerings, but I doubt that any could write an album of his.

Steve Kilbey may go part way, certainly Psych Pop wise and Lloyd Cole, vocally perhaps, but could either  produce an album as stunning as this. The unusual arrangements, the changes of direction, instruments joining the fray and the control of tempo.

Stoltz is primarily known for Psych Pop, but it is not the meandering riff of 60s Pop that you associate with that genre. It is a laidback, almost pastoral version of the genre, understated, almost unnoticeable unless you are a fan of the wonders of the genre.

But is has never been just about that, even more relevant in his more recent work. My review of his last album, The Stylist can be found here. That is a wonderful album, but La Fleur takes the variety even further. There is a Jangle at times that effortlessly draws you in.

Pop Rock choruses take over on occasion that completely surprise you. A song like About Time is mesmerising both instrumentally and in its Bowie like delivery. Jason Falconer guests on two songs, Hide In A Song and Make Believer, both are the most commercial here and may even be the outstanding songs.

It is unusual for me not to talk more about the songs, but as well as being an album of splendid individual songs, La Fleur is an album to be taken in whole, start to finish. It is a journey that you will not regret. It is also heartwarming to see the album on one of the better labels out there, Dandy Boy Records.

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

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Listening To This Week Playlist

28 songs this time to liven up your week.  I do hope that you can listen to all the songs across this week. The last listed is as great as the first and you have plenty of time to listen. This weekly playlist is solely for submissions, not the usual stuff that we dig out ourselves. 

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 the artists who appear here. 

Please note that we purposely do not have a Spotify Account as we feel it does little for the type of artists that we cover. We only include Spotify embeds when there is no other link for a song or the artist/s insist on it. This week there are unusually 3 Spotify embeds because no other links were available.

Thank you for supporting the new music from Indie artists.

Them Elephants - I Don't Want To Be There

The Peawees - Lost In The Middle

Three Lefts And A Right - Opened Up My Eyes

Hey Geronimo - Live For Today

Zeny Bux - Better Dreams

The Cle Elum - Goodbye Night Sky (feat. Josh Caterer)

House Plants - I Guess That I'd Forgotten What It Felt Like

Repeat - Reasons

Jacob The Horse - The Black Hand

Dale Webster.- Atlantic Sun

Noah Colton - Rocket on the Beach

Janus 4-14 - The Boys Who Bears The Weight Of The World

Rocky Bottom - Strangers Of Love

Gunner Lee - Hey Dakota

zorin morris - the one that I Love

June Body - Agree To Stop

Kevin McClure - Strawberry Blonde

Carolina Drama - I Don't Like You

Artelomeus - Sunset Boulevard

Subterranean Street Society - Killing For Fun

The Dreaded Laramie - Where's My Crystal Ball?

Apifera - Iris Is Neil

Buddy Wynkoop - Racing

Baby Spiders - Big Black Sea

Modern Moxie - Don't Look At Me

Neely - Twentyfour Seven

Akrobat - Mosquito

Birdman Cult - Highs and Lows

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Them Elephants - Come Calling

 

Them Elephants is San Francisco's Alex Charlow and Come Calling follows on from the self titled debut from last year. It is hard to call what the base is, not quite Power Pop, not quite Indie Rock, but the songs are very melodic with memorable choruses and very Guitar Riff led.

Very American, very cool, these 10 offerings do cover a wider spectrum than you might expect. Goddamn adds a surprise 80s Keyboard Run and Wake Me Up is very Garage Rock, but adds a great Power Pop chorus and an ace solo.

Loving Is Hard is 90s College Rock, Turn Up That Charm is all 80s Indie Groove and Catching Waves is 60s Surf with Toni Basil's Mickey Handclaps. You mixes Slacker Rock with something you might find on a Sparks album from the first half of the 80s.

Don't Do What You're Told opens the album in jaunty let's do the show right here manner, but even that can't better the wonderful I Don't Want To Be There. I doubt that you will hear anything catchier this year and it underlines just how all encompassing Guitar Pop can be. A Top Notch album.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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