Boy Wonders - Character Study

 

Fancy some great Power Pop? Well let me tell you about it. Pittsburgh Trio offer up a great melodic collection of songs for their second album. There's a fair amount of Jangle to enjoy, but also a good deal of variety.

All the prerequisites are present, big choruses, killer riffs and small, but beautifully formed, solos. We Could Be Yours opens up with a Jangle Pop entry and a top notch middle eight, but elsewhere there are wider departures.

The Trio are locked together tight, never so more than on Polygraph which has more of a Post Punk, slightly Noise Rock departure and is built on a Billy Duffy like Riff. Enfant Terrible is much more Merseybeat and Sister Suzie goes all UK Beat.

Little Black Shadow is more of a reminder of the Scouse Pop headed by The La's and Loss Adjustment may be the best thing on show. It mixes UK New Wave with a Psych Pop Riff and achieves its aims wonderfully well.

Dreaming In B/W slows things down beautifully as the closer. Slightly 70s Pop Rock, well arranged and performed with big hints to 60s Guitar Pop and another ace outro that takes the song past the 7 minute mark.  

The Song is such a mesmerising listen that you wonder excitedly about future direction.of the band. The     album flirts around the history of Power Pop and is produced in a Guided By Voices manner.. What's not to like? A cracking listen!

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

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Hidden Pictures - Well Hell

I first discovered Hidden Pictures in 2020 with the release of a 30 song anthology that covered their previous three albums and it was a revelation.  There have been singles since, but I never expected a fourth album and yet here it is. 

Released strangely on Boxing Day, so I hope this gets remembered when 2026 lists are being compiled. Richard Gintowt has again crossed from Oakland to Kansas City and it is like they have never been away. Well Hell is a stunning Pop Rock album.

Gintowt is as lyrically adept as ever, the songs are stories with killer lines. His vocal remains something at ease with the mellow, Petty like at times, but also able to adapt to street drawl and the material is wonderfully melodic and variety laden.

The title track is fine Americana and Hayward Hall Of Justice and Poweder Blue head into Country Rock, but the majority of songs on show are Guitar Pop heaven. For instance, Stealing The Tapes still sounds as ace Power Pop as it always has. A great duet with Heidi-Lynn Gluck.

Wedding Singer (Going Through A Divorce) is an absolutely hypnotic listen, mellow but incredibly affecting). Only Memories is Power Pop themed lyrically, but actually Jangle Pop. Screen Time is more New Wave and bitter, yet incredibly melodic.

Steamroller is rockier, built around some great guitar and a killer riff.  Mommy's On Molly mixes 90s Rock with Power Pop and may be the best thing here. A splendid return from one of the most underrated bands. Let's not make it a decade to the fifth album.

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

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After The Fire - Bright Lights 1974-1983 (6CD)

 

With being all about the new, I don't often go back to the past, but After The Fire have a special place in my heart.US listeners won't have heard a lot of this stuff, but will have heard the band's cover of Der Kommissar. I was introduced to them by one of my favourite school teachers, unusual as that may sound.

Steve Brown was our History teacher, he awakened my interest in History through O and A Levels. The school had a cottage in Capel Garmon and a group of us were taken there for a welcome few days. It was 1979 and listening to music was a big part of the few days. 

I remember the girls playing Rumours a lot, but "Mr" Brown played a couple of albums that we had never heard. One was from Writz, the other was the Laser Love album by After The Fire. I had no idea that either were Christian Rock acts, I'm not sure that I would have gone looking for them, knowing that.

It didn't matter because the pop was so great. I was smitten with what I heard of the Laser Love album and soon after bought it. Songs like the title track and One Rule For You were great New Wave Pop, a little synth heavy, but this added to the joy as this was before the Synth bands and it was slightly unusual to hear them away from Prog.

Indeed, although unknown to me at the time, their debut album, Signs Of Change, was essentially a Prog album and this 6 Disc set reveals beautifully the journey from Prog to the great Pop of the follow up, second album, Laser Love. Disc 2 in this set is a wonderful adventure. I only got a hold of Signs Of Change after the release of the next album, 80-F.

........and what a wonderful album 80-F is. One of the great lost Pop Rock albums. Every song a winner, bravely opening up with an instrumental and then followed by pure joy. Killer choruses on the wonderful Only Love Will Make You Cry, Wild West Show and Billy Billy. 

Then there is the magnificent keyboard runs on Starflight, Peter Banks finest moment. It really is an album that should be reassessed and many will hear this for the first time. I never knew that the album was initially refused by CBS and was largely re-recorded using some of the songs from the Laser Love sessions. 

Some of those initial recordings are featured here. The big time seemed to be calling, the BBC featured them as part of the Rock Goes To College TV series and a support slot to Queen in Europe should have helped. But the follow up album, Batteries Not Included had a strangely low key release. A shame because it is a really good album, perhaps not as strong as the previous two, but still a fine listen.

Then the Der Kommissar cover version took off in Canada and the States. It was a song on the ATF album, the first released in the States and featured tracks from the previous three albums. The label tried to get the band to reform without success.

The story didn't end there, Studio Sessions, essentially demos from 1982 were released in 2006 under the album title AT2F and that is included here on Disc 6. This is a really splendid collection that will interest both fans and newcomers,

My story doesn't quite end there. In the My Space days, maybe 2006 ish, I conversed regularly with Peter Banks who was happy to talk about the band and what he was doing then. He remained so likeable and keen to share his love of music and experience as the founder member of After The Fire. Both he and Andy Piercy are interviewed in the booklet.

You can buy the set here. Cherry Red have, as usual, dome a fine job. If that is beyond your budget, please do try and grab 80-F. As I say, it is one of the great lost albums.

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Listening To This Week Playlist 29 December

 

The festive season and not doing Christmas songs catches up with us a bit this week. However, these 16 songs offer up something as great as ever. Absolute Quality! Cotton Mather fans will be delighted with the return of the opener. 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. 

Future Clouds And Radar - The Man Who Would Be King

Amateur Ornithologist - Winter Sun

The Projectors - Foreign Affairs

Heavy Sweater - I Heard

Alex Pester - Pearl And Dean

Super Cassette - A Man Was Never One

Plastic Manmade Sunshine Machine - Green Children Of  Woolpit

Supramundane - The Stars Are Very Bright

Tom Minor - Change It!

Tom Minor · Change It!

Somehow Sentient - A Certain Level

Joseph Nagle - Remember As You Say Goodbye

The Simpletons - When Will You Reply To Me?

Lighten Up, Francis - Sell The Smoke

The Eternal Lights - Maybe I'm Naïve

Erratix - Keepin' On Top

Keyton - Lucid Dream

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Sykofant - Red Sun

 

I covered Oslo's Sykofant after its 2024 release and it sort of reignited my faith in human nature. We are, essentially a place for Pop Rock and Indie, yet many of you know that away from here I am a massive Prog fan and this is proper Prog, not a plastic version of this.

The reaction from listeners was brilliant, it became a really popular review, hitting our 10 most popular for the next few months. I hoped you might like it and knew how many of you are Custard Flux fans and it warmed my heart to read the messages. A big plus for our diversions. That review is here.

The band are back with an EP, I call it an EP, but the three songs add up to almost 23 minutes, as long as some Power Pop albums that I receive. The good news is that is every bit as good as the self titled album, it may be even better.

The quartet master the genre without ever seeming retro. The title track is the most melodic, almost Neo Prog and close to Pop Rock at times. It underlines how in control of what they do. If this were the 70s, the label wouldn't be able to keep up with demand.

Ashes is very early 70s Pink Floyd, Embers is heavier, killer chunk riffs yet still manages to find Alex Lifeson's early Rush like melody interludes, a mind blowing listen. The longest track on display. Red Sun is an incredible listen explaining why I love the genre so much.

You can listen to and buy Red Sun here.

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The Finest Hour - Things We Said When We Were Younger

 

From Cleethorpes on the English East Coast, here are to wish you a melodic Pop Rock Christmas. Vocalist  Paul Kavanagh has a vocal that suits the genre really well and the three guitarists light up Guitarist, Rob Bywater's songs.

The sound is really big, beautifully arranged and produced bringing out the benefit of those three six stringers. Built on big riffs, hooks and killer choruses, you find yourself standing back and revelling in the melody, yet also allowing yourself to sing along, even shake your fist.

Although Pop Rock is a catch all genre, the band aren't afraid to step out. Brighter Day is fine 70s Classic Rock with a cracking Drum stomp and I defy you to not join in on the chorus. Everything & Nothing has big hints of Pop Punk.

Tired Eyes gets all Country instrumentally whilst Reality goes more 90s Rock although the Guitar Riff is more Lynyrd Skynyrd. Medicine is top notch Power Pop. Kavanagh even adds a song and Doubt is a big Brit Pop anthem.

Candle Wax visits Jangle Pop mixing it with 80s AOR and the opening title track starts things off splendidly, a sort of summary of all that the band can do and adding a Killer Riff. Extraordinary Guitar work on a song that gets a little rocked up Runrig at times. 

Things We Said When We Were Younger is a statement of the joy of the Electric Guitar. Cracking songs that get you moving and singing. There used to be a lot of these type of albums, sadly this seems to be an outlier, a wonderful one. A storming listen.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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Dead Billionaires - More EP

 

We loved the Dead Billionaires album, Disaster Preparedness Colouring Book. So much so that it was well placed in our Best 100 Albums Of 2023. The Richmond, Virginia Power Trio are back with a new EP. More Indie Rock with a social conscience and these 4 songs are top notch.

They call themselves Ramshackle and they are, but I wish more bands were if this is what they come up. They are a locked in threesome and certainly Guitar led. At times, they are a little Green Day, but remind me more of Tsar.

They are no heads down band, direction changes match the killer riffs and they certainly know how to offer up a catch all chorus. Slowly Shifting Change is 100mph and completely grips you. Dead Billionaires, the song, is much slower and mighty close to Power Pop another memorable chorus.

Hopes And Dreams is classic Indie Rock, a little AOR, a little Emo and lyrically adept. It would make a great single. Busted Sideview Mirror is exactly what Pop Punk should be with not a robotic talky vocal in sight. I love what this lot come up with. Catchy, yet hypnotic.

You can listen to and buy the EP here. 

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