The Glad Machine - All The Pretty Things

 

I love The Glad Machine. They've been with us since our inception, but in that time, this only the third album released. So it is a reason to celebrate. Following on from my Reviews of 2018's self titled joy (here) and 2022's Hey! (here).

They aren't a band that trails what's coming through months ahead PR and Social Media, an album just arrives and certainly, for a reviewer, that is a pleasant surprise. It is nice to hear things early, but some release dates are so far ahead at times, it is hard to keep track. For instance, I have 40 odd Albums in draft, almost two thirds have advance dates.

The Glad Machine specialise in melodic Pop Rock with a crunch. The main difference to peers is that crunch. Every song is beautifully performed, arranged and produced, all sing along joy, but it is the band's ability to step out with noisier riffs and solos that marks them out. 

These songs are all sugar coated heaven. But there are also rockier affairs. The title track reminds me a lot of peak period Extreme, built around a razor sharp riff, but with a mega chorus and those choruses have always been the strength of this lot.

Gravity Sunshine also bursts in, but the chorus is all UK Glam Rock, handclaps and all. Can We Still Fall In Love This Summer is the anthem, a mix of AOR and Brit Pop that is totally engaging. Back To You is great Power Pop.

The big number is She Said, all 6 and a half minutes of it. It starts as a ballad, but builds and builds, adding a killer 70s Pop Rock solo. It really is great to have them back. I just wish that I could say that more often. Pop Rock gets criticised for being a bit mawkish, there is nothing of the sort here!

You can listen to and buy the album here. The CD is available from Friday 17 October on the Kool Kat label here.

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The Valery Trails - Winter Palace

The return of Brisbane's The Valery Trails with their fifth album is most welcome. They still sound a little like mid period The Church and The Black Watch, but the addition of Tim Steward and Skye Staniford has also taken the band into new areas.

Winter Palace may finally turn the admiration in Australia to a much deserved wider worldwide audience, particularly the States. Despite, essentially being an Indie Rock band, their trips into Psych Pop are as wonderful as ever.

Take for instance Vultures Of Lima which is wonderful Psych Pop, but enhanced by the Flute of Staniford. Our Love is 60s UK Beat, but again transformed by the Brass of Terminus Horns. You quickly realise that this a band not afraid to take chances and switch directions.

Leonard Said is much darker, all 80s Synth, that shouldn't necessarily work for a band that is so Electric Guitar driven and Staniford aids this again with ethereal backing vocals. This Is Not My Home is more Indie Rock with some stunning Guitar, riff and solo. The song shines even more due to what surrounds it.

People Who Are Gone is great Power Pop and Journey's End is a fine struming closer. Yet, the band are still in touch with their past as proven by the moody, brooding opener, Another Time. But the real stand out is pure Guitar Pop.

Everything Is Temporary is a superb catchy affair, all riff and melody, a song that would grace any album. Winter Palace is the sound of a band at the top of their game, willing to take their sound further. C'mon everybody, join the admiration!

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

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Faulty Cognitions - They Promised Us Heaven

 

San Antonio quartet, Faulty Cognitions sound very Brit, the rhythm section is very 78 New Wave, particularly the awesome basslines.  Yet songs venture into the Post Punk 80s that led to the Indie C86 joy. The band can do all three equally wave.

There is a real social awareness, Red Wedge-ish, but the underlying sound is a mix of the Dunedin years. Some of the songs would be big anthems in a lower fi way. All slightly aggressive Indie of the highest quality, riffaholic almost.

Yet, the band are not one dimensional, Don't Let Them See You Suffer is like a noisier Cure and Go To Hell is built on a wonderful Billy Duffy style Goth riff. They can also be endearingly noisy and aggressive in the style of Husker Du and perhaps more relevantly, The Replacements.

Tiny God is a mix of The Pogues and 90s Slacker Rock, beautifully in your face. There is also an ability to  calm things down. Rooting For The Void is under a minute long, but a sort of Front Porch all together now acoustic number.

That sensitiveness also opens the closer, Enjoy the Ride, which turns out to be one of the best New Wave songs of the year. Lest we forget,  Arsonist was a great introduction to the album, a splendid Indie Guitar Pop anthem with an underlying lyrical warning.

It is really impressive that Faulty Cognitions can change direction at will without the songs feeling out of place. They can come up for air, but rarely do and they strike me as a band that will be wonderful Live, all energy with songs that grab you at will. This is great!

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

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Ryan Allen - One Week Off

 

I am a big Ryan Allen fan as proven by the reviews on here.  Starting when he was part of that Michigan Wrecking Crew with Nick Piunti, Chris Richards, Legal Matters etc. I've been through his solo years and full band Extra Arms and now we are solo again, certainly this year.

This is Allen's second album this year. The premise was rather than take the traditional week's holiday, how about recording an album in a week. Not that One Week Off sounds as if it's thrown together. You would also not necessarily think that this was a solo album in which he does everything.

I have to admit that I couldn't quite take to April's Livin' On A Prayer On The Edge, if felt a bit too commercial. I prefer Allen when he has an edge and this is him bang back on form. He has the knack of writing and playing Indie Rock that is melodic, yet isn't afraid to Rock.

One Week Off has everything you would expect from the man. Big choruses, riffs and superb Guitar playing. He can rock your block off and then ease you down with a singalong chorus. Here, he is also happy to chances.

The Punk energy of Do It All Again, the jangling pacy Power Pop of Think Fast, the top notch Psych Pop of Escape Road are all absolute winners. What's That You Say sounds most like his band, Extra Arms, Back To The Bubble is primetime 90s College Rock, yet When Is Everyone Gonna Stop? is a great shouty slab of Garage Rock.

Don't expect Ryan Allen to come up for air, he doesn't do ballads. Even the Power Pop joy of Simple Pleasures has a rawness to it. Allen is a major talent, a master at melodic Indie Rock with an attitude. This is an album showing him at the top of his game.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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Listening To This Week Playlist 6 October

 

Better late than never. This week's LTTW offers up 27 songs. We've tried to provide another example of the range of music that we cover. Something for everyone and everything for some of you with discerning tastes. As well as the traditional version, we have put the playlist on Spotify and you will see the link below.  Only 25 of the 27 songs are available on Spotify.

The weekly playlist is largely for submissions, not just the usual stuff that we dig out ourselves. 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 the artists who appear here. 

The Spotify Version     (The Mommyheads and Johnny Marie songs are not on Spotify)

Link To Spotify

The Mommyheads - Race Car Brain (Not On Spotify)

The Happy Fits - I Still I Think I Love You

Barbara - The Contented Commuter

Livingmore - Hurting

Maria Monroy - Draw A Close

Creative Writing - Rain

Pedestrian Traffic - Ain't No Friend Of Mine

Crying Shame Records · Ain't No Friend Of Mine // Pedestrian Traffic

Mr Magpie - The Black Cat Swaggers (And The Night Rolls On..)

Supercobra - Someday

Strange Passage - Golden Rule

Zara - Chaos

The Happy Somethings - Fair Weather Wind

Brook Fox - Let's Drive Away

The Carolyn - I Thought You Were Dead

Johnny Marie And The Lonesome Petunias - She Caught Car Lights (Not On Spotify)

Former Champ - More Than You Give

Cotton Caves - Afraid

Friday Project - Pick Me Up (When I Fall)

The Downcast - Let Me Down

The Downcast · Let Me Down

The Penske File - Almost Young

Jeff Braun - Media

Cargo Cult - Poison Fame

Canada Hill - Little Maisonette

Canada Hill · Little Maisonette

Brock Taylor - You're Still With Him

Axel Holmstrom - Chilli

Maggot House - I Gotta Ghoul

DEGEYTER - Techno Tcherno

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The Mommyheads - No Quietus (Name Your Price)

As I start the review of this year's Mommyheads album, I have one concern. That is how hard it is to keep these words briefer than 20 odd paragraphs. "this years" is the key phrase. I know of no other band that offer up an album annually of such depth and invention.

A curious thing happened here this year. The band's 2022 album, Genius Killer, reappeared in our most popular posts of the previous 30 days and it has been there for months and months. It is currently the second most read review of that period.

This is the third album since that release, each every bit as good, yet that album has really gained a following here and gone over 10,000 views since the review was written. Fans of that album will be happy to know that No Quietus has songs that remind you of it, but as always, the band also move into different directions.

What a 2020s  it has been for the band, many think they are a new band, not one that has been around for four decades. They've become College Radio darlings and more of a touring band. All this makes me a little smug with being there from the beginning.

No Quietus, is as ever, as excellently played, arranged and lyrically adept as you might expect. There are nods to genres of the past. I'm Your Apocalypse is wonderful Prog, inventive Prog though, more Prime Time Radiohead than Gentle Giant.

If the band have a template or base station, then the title track is it. But there are also real surprises. Always Reaching is a foray into Disco Pop, Mommyheads Disco of course, with its driving Bassline, synth strings and funk.

It's Only Life is a ballad, a love song and it works beautifully. Wonderful vocal harmonies and a poptastic arrangement. Indeed, this and the cover art similarity to One Eyed Band with its darkness into light suggestion show a slightly different lyrical pattern.

Rather than concerns about the planet and society, the concentration is more a celebration of love and life. More about what's good about it than problematic. Strong is a real mellow slowed down song, again revealing impressive vocal harmonies and how good these guys are on their instruments, 

However, it is Race Car Brain that grabs me most. One of those great Adam Elk storytelling affairs that make you listen to every single word. Such beauty and depth. This may be the best Mommyheads album yet, but that is probably only until the next one. Consistently excellent, this band explains why I have a lifetime fascination with music.

You can listen to and buy the album here. The Vinyl and CD versions release on 7 November. I will update details on how to buy later this month.

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Former Champ - I Saw You In Paradise

 

There is not enough great Guitar Pop in the world. This is even more appropriate and relevant in the UK, so thank goodness for Glasgow five piece, Former Champ. After two fine EPs, we get the debut album and it is incredibly upbeat.

Focus may be on Claire McKay, as it tends to be on female lead singers. She has a fantastic set of pipes, but this lot are the sum of their parts. I Saw You In Paradise is so obviously an album that was recorded by a band in the same space and it shows. 

You would expect any Glasgow band to Jangle, Former Champ offer a little, but largely the sound is much wider and bigger. Beautifully arranged and performed, this is an album that restores positivity in a negative world. It is so damn melodic.

I could embed any of the 10 songs, so there isn't really a stand out, but I'm gonna mention a few of the tracks. I Promise (I'm Not Usually Like This) is lyrically angsty, but built on a glorious joyful riff. More Than You Give could be Garbage if they concentrated on the melodic more and less on the show off fuzz.

Running Back is top notch Power Pop, Kawasaki very 80s Glasgow Jangle Pop. Jonny is melancholic and moody, darker than what else is on show. Troubled Little Mind is anthemic, a perfect statement of intent half way through the album.

What is so special about I Saw You In Paradise is that lyrically, the band seem to care and deal with sadness by dressing it in life affirming instrumentals that make these incredible Pop songs resonate. They leave you much happier than before you listened. Guitar Pop is back folks!

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

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Creative Writing - Baby Did This

 

It is wonderful to have Creative Writing back after their January 7 Track Cassette release, True 90s. The band name is particularly apt for the US quartet because this is incredibly Inventive Indie, a little 80s in feel, but akin to the likes of IRS, not the 80s keyboard overload that you imagine anyone compared to that decade is.

A band that could be described as a Supergroup due to the members time in respected Indie bands. It is also fair to mention that they are ideally suited to Alvaro Lisson's excellent Madrid label, Merritorio Records.

There is a lot of variety here and the band are not afraid to Jangle, but that Jangle is darker, more insular, a little Garage, yet with a feel of Guided By Voices. They do remind me of Game Theory at times and I can give them no higher compliment.

Songs are built on riffs, memorable moody riffs, but the ones on the likes of Power Pop. They grab you in an hypnotic way and instrumentally is where the album grabs you. These are almost soundscapes, melodic, but gripping. The playing is so damn great.

It is an album to be played from start to finish showing how limited playlists can be. But there are personal standouts for me. Memory Light is more than a little heavier Dropkick or early Teenage Fanclub, fantastic Jangle Pop with a hint of the West Coast. Can't Thank You Enough even has a touch of Americana.

Just Woke Up is wonderfully dark and meandering and You may have heard Slice & Dice, a fine mix of Post Punk and UK Beat. But the best may have been saved till last. Rain approaches 8 minutes in length and is probably the best Psych Pop that you will hear all year.

You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on Vinyl or as a download. The Vinyl is dispatched from Madrid and Portland.

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Dimitri Toonen - Final Start

 

I was asked this week, by one of our earliest followers, what I listen to in my downtime. Well there isn't much of it with real life work and how consuming this place has become. Gone are the days of me contributing to Music groups, I rarely get on Social Media much. Having collected music for 50 years, I rarely listen to things gathered along the way. IDHAS has made me all about the new.

However, when I do spend time away from here, I do have a weakness for both Psych and Prog. In a lot of cases, it is too heavy for here, but I do introduce some of both here, but only when I think they may hit your spot, primarily if they are melodic.

Here we have such a choice. I'm enamoured even more by Dimitri Toonen because I discovered the album via a song submission for Listening To This Week. I understand that the word Prog can turn people off before listening.

I am fussy about what I really like for all Reviews here, but I do get put off by a lot of Prog. Plenty is wishy washy nonsense, particularly Modern Prog, which fits more in mediocre Pop Rock. I also avoid the wanky extended old style show off stuff. Music that is more about revealing cleverness than songs.

Final Start is a cracking listen. There is plenty of engaging Prog, in the style of latter-day Rush at times. But everything is beautifully arranged and performed, proper songs, changes in direction that enhance. Toonen is from the Netherlands, a country not naturally thought of when considering this type of music.

The album is aided by his gentlish vocal, not the sort of whiny style of some Modern Prog, but a voice with character and likability. Listening to this, I am reminded more of bands that are not really Prog, more Intelligent Rock.

Big Big Train were the only Prog band that I thought of. I compare him on many occasions of the likes of The Mommyheads and Tim Christenen. It is a little too complex for Pop Rock, but it isn't that far away. I've deliberately not discussed individual songs as this is an album to listen to throughout. I've picked my three favourite songs bit yours might be very different.

You can listen to and buy the album here. 

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Stacy! - Classroom Blitz! EP

 

The opener from Amsterdam quartet Stacy! adds to the UK Glam Rock revival with this 7 Inch EP which is also available as a download. The Beano style cover gives you an indication of what to expect, but this isn't just about Glam.

Make It Up mixes 70s UK New Wave, Pop Rock and Power Pop and even adds a poptastic Guitar solo. Wild At Heart is very 60s Bubblegum Pop, but instrumentally is a little crunchier. All 3 songs are more than enjoyable singalong joy.

Lyrically, they are a little basic, sort of I Love You, Yes I Do, but the riffs are memorable and the choruses strong and catchy. The three songs whet the appetite for what could be a really interesting full length offering. Fun packed and we all need a bit of that.

You can listen to and buy the EP here

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The Happy Fits - Lovesick

I absolutely adore The Happy Fits. I mentioned in the review of their third album. Under The Shade Of Green (here) that I felt the band were now too big for what we cover, being essentially a door opener for the new, but we do stick to some of our faves of our early days such as The Moomyheads (who incidentally release their new album on Friday)

I was fortunate to catch them on the up with the second album, What Could Be Better (here). That album had more of a UK feel, Brit Pop even. Guitar Pop had its very best marked out by the cello of vocalist, Calvin Langman. It was really unusual to hear the cello at the from of a trio,

The initial growth on Spotify and then the social media following by inventive constant Social Media led to that third album taking the New Yorkers stratospheric. So Lovesick has been keenly awaited, wondering how the departure of founder and Guitarist,

The addition of Raina Mullen and Nico Rose has added a new dimension. The sound is bigger, the arrangements are more dynamic and expanded. Langman's voice has never sounded better, it has been stretched to take on different directions and feel.

The Guitar Pop is as great as ever, but slightly more dynamic. But ventures into the likes of Americana, Torch songs and Pop Rock have shown a band at the top of their game. The results are dynamite. My other half gets a little tired of all the music that I listen to and she has very different tastes. On listening to Lovesick a couple of times, she burst out with a "this is brilliant" comment, a really rare thing.

That and many other things show what appeal The Happy Fits have. This is album of the year potential. The mix of Pop Rock and more earnest aching songs show how adaptable the band is. They have started a big tour of the UK, Europe and the States. I'll be in Manchester on the 17 October as a fanboy, not a writer.

You can listen to and buy the album here. The album can be bought as a double Viny LP here.

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Barbara - Barbara

 

There are two bands called Barbara that we adore. The American one who add Brass to songs that are experimental and all soundscape. Their second album, So This Is Living has been in out 10 most popular Reviews for the past 4 months or so.

Then equally appealing are the Brighton brothers John and Henry Tyldeman who follow a much more different Pop direction. Their second EP, Happy Days, was more of a mini album (our review is here ) and now we have the debut album and what a cracker it is.

They've toured with both The Divine Comedy and Haircut 100, so you can guess where they fit in. This is Pop Rock of the highest quality, easily directed to Soft Rock and Indie Pop, incredibly harmonic vocally with big arrangements and lyrical adeptness, but most importantly, fun.

The brothers write the songs, John handles the vocals, Henry the keyboards, but the group itself mould together to make these arrangements work. They were first brought to attention due to long time Anything Should Happen favourite, Paul Steel producing via the Brighton connection and he does a sterling job of producing and mixing here. His Pop Rock chops aid the impressive harmonies.

These songs take on multi directions in the same song. There are plenty of examples, but the masterpiece that is The Contended Commuter is the best example. A little Indiscreet era Sparks in parts, it chops and changes at random, almost three or four songs in one. 

At times, there is a slight Jellyfish feel at others 70s Pop Rock. There is also a slight vaudeville feel which provides a wonderful eccentric feel. There is so much to impress here. Pop songs built up into cracking variety and quirks. Go Buy! Magnificent.

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You can listen to and buy the album here. The album is available on Vinyl, CD and as a download. You can find more about the band here.

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31 Reviews in 31 Days In October

 

You may have wondered why there were a few less reviews than usual in September. Well...........

March and October are the traditional I Don't Hear A Single 31 Reviews in 31 Days months. There may be days without a review, but overall at least 31 Reviews will be posted over the whole of October. There will also be the 4 Listening To This Weeks. There will also be a new Here Is The News.

IDHAS has gone ballistic this year. There will be over 175,000 views this month. Heartwarming that people are interested in new music, long may it continue. We are planning some additional features that were originally planned for last month. 

But the increase in contact and listening has delayed this. I expected August to be quiet, it was far from it. Hopefully December will be allow time to get these implemented before the annual Best 100 Albums Of The Year.

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Listening To This Week Playlist 29 September

 

24 songs this week, all Top Notch. For a change we don't start with something crashing in. It is wonderful to hear the dulcet tones of Jon Auer again on the opener. As well as the traditional version, we have put the playlist on Spotify and you will see the link below.  Remember this is early days on Spotify for us, so the following there is nowhere near our one here. 

The weekly playlist is largely for submissions, not just the usual stuff that we dig out ourselves. 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 the artists who appear here. 

The Spotify Version    (The Sector Frontier and Faulty Cognitions songs are not on Spotify)

Link To Spotify

The Sonny Wilsons - Desert Song

Them Jones - Feel Right

Chris Lund - You've Got A Lot Of Nerve

Sector Frontier - Tears!   (Not On Spotify)

The Popguns - Oh Harry

The King Of Mars - Cracking Up

Evening Standards - Paynes Prairie

Phantom Dots - Phading

asalone - The Beat I Drum

Dimitri Toonen - Insignificant

Faulty Cognitions - Arsonist (Not On Spotify)

Repeat - Framed

Repeat · Framed

Jacqueline Tucci - Burning Out

smear - Way

smear · Way

Guy Bennett - Make It So Hard

Pynch - Microwave Rhapsody

Powers Of The Monk - Bread & Circuses

Powers of the Monk · POTM-Bread & Circus MASTER v1

Wes Anderson (With Nathan Aurora) - All Works Out

It's Irrelevant - I'M VERY FEEL

Ghost Rebel Club - The Anomaly

DelCobras - Someday Soon

Brighter Suns - Easier Than That

Bedlam - The Tower

No Lonesome - Great Eternal

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Evening Standards - Prairie Vida

 

This has really crept out and I wouldn't have known about it if it hadn't been our great friends at Add To Wantlist. I adored last year's The Shining, so much so that it hit our Best 100 Albums Of 2024. You can read my review here.

As I mentioned then, for a band with such a Pop Punk reputation, they have certainly branched out into outstanding Guitar Pop, Indie Rock if you like. If you thought The Shining was great (and it really was a popular Review) then this is its equal or probably better.

Slightly UK New Wave with footprints in Indie and even Power Pop, Prairie Vida is laced with Riffs and melody, you are just smitten throughout. The vocals of Chris Mott and Daun Fields resonate, both separately and together. 

Fields's sweet vocal tempers things beautifully and slow things down beautifully, whilst Mott's vocal handles the faster driven offerings. Added to the twin Guitar attack, you have an album of extraordinary quality.

When the quartet let loose on Ray of Light and Wild Horses another dimension is opened. Saints, sang by Fields, is Indie Rock with a memorable chorus. There's even a closer that mixes Americana and Melodic Rock with a Dylanesque opening verse and a killer Guitar solo.

There is also another point to make. Albums of this nature are usually less of a concentration on lyrics, but here these 10 songs are stories, the songwriting is top notch and that can get hidden in all the instrumental joy. This album will certainly feature heavily in our Best 100 of 2025.

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

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Absolute Losers - In The Crowd

 

Now to something more in line with what we became noted for. Absolute Losers are a Power Trio from Prince Edward Island, Canada and they offer up big sounding Guitar Pop, deliberately a little retro with much more variety that you might expect.

Listening to the opener, you'd expect to be about to listen to something similar to The Who, certainly they early years and if Pete Townshend did invent the term Power Pop this can be their tribute. But the album takes on many directions. 

Don't Go is jangling Merseybeat whilst the title track is more Brit Pop, Cast springs to mind. Yet, Kiss Of Death could be something from the Stiff Records label and adds some wonderful harmonies. Whereas, the album does sound very Brit, Eagerness is far more American, a bit Tom Petty in Heartbreakers mode.

You Never Say That You Love Me is great Classic Power Pop whilst For So Long is nearer Vintage Rock And Roll, with hints of Americana and American Graffiti. Your Colours has a wonderful retro Jangle Pop vibe.

In The Crowd is splendidly melodic and an album that shows admirable maturity for such a young band. Excellent produced and arranged, vocally harmonic and really catchy. The time in the Studio has paid dividends and the whole thing is as enjoyable a listen as you could wish for.

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

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Them Jones - Instructions For Re-Entry

 

I feel more than a little guilty to have ignored Them Jones since my 2020 review of The Saturn Cinema which you can read here. This is the third album since and takes the total to 7 for the Philadelphia five piece and it is wonderful.

Many of you know that two ways to my heart are through Psych Pop and Pastoral Pop. Instructions For Re-Entry does both brilliantly, but adds a whole lot not more. At times, it is wonderfully hippy-ish, but the arrangements can be like soundscapes or even Shoegaze with more words.

It is the arrangements that stand out, ethereal at times but with big footprints into Pop at times. Songs can whisk you away, but then catch you by surprise with the addition of a surprise instrument or Guitar intrusion, yet on other occasions they can even sound a little Madchester.

A song like the wonderful Extras In Mine is inspiring Trippy Psych, but also gets close to The Dukes Of Strasosphear. Even the excellent, more straight ahead, Almost Home reveals slight changes of direction, this time edging to Pop Rock.

Pop Rock is served even more on the slower A Distant Sound which adds Violins and the standout song, Feel Right, even adds English Horn. Human sounds a little Revolver, but could also be on the soundtrack 60s European Film soundtrack.

This is a tremendous album, more Psych than The Saturn Cinema, but it is wonderfully arranged in its instrumentation, melody and vocal harmony. An exceptional offering that you could prefer the term Pastoral Psych. Excellent!

You can listen to and buy the album here. 

....................

Chris Lund - Surveillance

 

This is a wonderful Pop Rock album. If this were the 70s or 80s, the pressing plants would struggle to cope with demand. But times have changed and it is hard getting noticed anywhere. Pop Rock is such an all encompassing genre, Leo Sayer to Bad Company, that the walls move in.

Cheap Trick manage it (and there is a song here, Got Me Running, that could be prime time CT) but they have a fanbase that take along their kids and grandkids and despite decent new albums, their setlist is still about the hits. 

Surveillance reminds you of many of the best. Badfinger, Big Star etc. It rocks at times and the Guitar riffs and solos are as great as the arrangements. The only way for it to catch on is for you tell your friends, because when anyone hears this thing, there is a fair chance that they will be hooked.

Touch And Go is built on a fine Jangling riff and sounds very 60s, Merseybeat even. Blow Up Night is anthemic, the kind of the revived Aerosmith might come up with and the chorus is again Cheap Trick like. Swallowed is all Psych Folk Pop, really engaging.

Sing Bird Sing even gets a little Lennon - McCartney and Crazy Driver is great Power Pop. You've Got A Lot Of Nerve even flirts heavily with Psych Pop. God Loves All His Children has a slightly mawkish title, but is wonderfully melodic and more than a little Beatles 1967 and even gets near to Queen on the solo.

Lund is no overnight sensation. A career approaching three decades, through Loser, International Pop Overthrow and Lund Bros. But his solo stuff has taken on even greater dimensions. As well as a fine set of pipes, he is an extraordinarily good guitarist. Listen to the album and then tell everyone you know how great it is.

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

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Sector Frontier - Sector Frontier

 

Another Alter Ego, this time from our long term favourite Dave Cope. Just as with Elvis Eno, this is another artist known in a different genre. Makes a change when the fake band are actually a real life artist instead of all this AI nonsense that seeps everywhere.

Sector Frontier mine the territory from UK New Wave to Post Punk. Very 1978 - 1981 before dressing up seemed more important than the music and all the money was spent on videos. The results are brilliant, Cope has always been a man with a thousand ideas and this may be his best ever.

The first three songs go down very different directions. Love Goes Out The Window is prime time New Wave with its nod towards the poptastic 60s and 70s as the original time was. Tears! is all 1980s Sparks and  Why Can't We Get It Together? gets very close to a popped up UB40 with its Reggae bassline and slashing riff.

The variety is endless. You experience 80s New Wave, AOR and celebratory Chic Disco Funk. Goth, Angular Indie and Synth Pop, Star Quality could be Pete Wylie after a night at Erics. I Do My Best On The Dance Floor could be played at Blitz and be subject to dozens of remixes.

Sector Frontier are described as the forgotten vanguard of Post Punk Britain and this album is just that. Also hidden towards the end is the magnificent Hanging The Hangman, part Synth Rock, part 60s Psych Pop, part singalong Pop, it is a crackerjack of song.

This may not be a real band, but the material is from an artist who has gathered a growing audience with Pop Rock, Folk and Classic Rock. This is very much a diversion, maybe a one off, but I hope not because the whole 11 songs are a cracking listen. Inventive yet Retro.

 

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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The Prize - In The Red

 

You don't want the most anticipated album of the year to be a letdown and thankfully it exceeds all expectations. We've been waiting for this since hearing the extraordinary Wrong Side Of Town EP three years ago. You can read my review of that here.

Essentially, this is full in tune with the new noisier breed of Power Pop that has revived the genre. But In The Red is much more than that. This is anthemic, mixing the fun and vibe of the UK New Wave with hints of Glam Rock and even guitar assaults more akin to 70s Classic Rock.

A band with three guitarists is never gonna be mellow and laidback, but this is pure power, a melodic Guitar attack built on Riffs and memorable solos. But the songs are also singalongs and you can even shake your fist at times. 

The Melbourne five piece shake the living daylights out of you. Had It Made is UK Glam Rock with the emphasis on Glam Rock, Drummer Nadine Miller's turn on vocals lights up proceedings as she does on the Loose Lips album, particularly on First Sight which turns out to be a real Guitar blast out.

Indeed the Guitar wig outs are the most appealing thing here, solos that you expect on a Rock album, not supposedly a Power Pop recording. You should also get yourself prepared for the intro riff on Reaction. There is a surprising Jangling Pop Rock closer in Silver Bullet.

That closer is the first time that the band come up for air and be thankful of that and the raucousness of the album. It is also worth mentioning that From The Night still sounds as great a singles as it first did. In The Red is a celebration of the Guitar is well in contention for Album Of The Year.

You can listen to and buy the album here. If you are buying the Vinyl in the States, you should buy it here. The album is available on Vinyl, CD or as a download.

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