It's Karma It's Cool - Thrift Store Troubadours

 

I seem to have a realisation of what I used to do today, a bit of nostalgia trip. Firstly, I was reminded how great Power Pop can be with the excellent album for The Rallies. Now I'm reminded of the ASH days with It's Karma It's Cool's Jim Styring and later tonight, there is a special Back To The Future 10 Songs Mix.

I don't need to go into my past relationship with Jim as it is mentioned in the two album reviews on here. Woke Up In Hollywood is here and Homesick For Our Future Destinations is here. Both albums were in the respective Best Of Year Lists.

It does warrant mentioning how far Styring has come from the Popdogs CDR EP. It is also vital to mention that this is a quartet and the contribution of Martyn Berwick (Guitar), Mikey Barraclough (Bass) and Danny Krash on Drums. Berwick is also the producer and that production is the stand out here.

Homesick For Our Future Destinations is a great album, but it is a little dark at times, maybe due to the times in which it was recorded. Thrift Store Troubadours is more in line with the swagger and chipperness of the albums that came before 2021. 

The band's sound is hard to denote. I suppose you might choose Classic Rock, but that wouldn't count for the Pop Rock and Psych Pop. Indeed Ghosts Wear Jeans even sounds like great American Rock, not bad for a band from Lincoln and there is a pure UK Glam Rock solo that warmed my heart. That solo could easily fit on The Hoople album.

IKIC have always been known for big opening tracks and How Be You Be Blue doesn't disappoint. It starts all Psych, but morphs into a middle section that is part 70s Pop Rock, part Prog whilst remaining incredibly melodic. Berwick's solo is again jaw dropping.

Old Bones might still be favourite song, nine months on from its single release, it is Melodic Rock at its very best with a killer chorus. Jenni, We're All Fighting Wars borders on Folk, with a great double tracked verse vocal and a great additional female vocal from Gabby Porter.

Broken Heart Foundations is ace Power Pop, The Terms Of Letting Go is beautifully laid back and Vacations In A Taxi Cab is wonderful 60s UK Beat Pop. Roll The Credits reminds me again of the Mental As Anything comparison, but also swings.

The best may be saved until last. City Kids reminds me of how great the band are with an Epic. It is an incredibly jaunty, a little Indy Pop at times, but suddenly bursts into a big slab of Pop Rock. The song is ambitious, but the time absolutely flies by, you are gripped. It is splendidly arranged. 

Peter Holsapple is also on three songs which adds to the excitement. But this is a band at the very top of its game. I'm not even sure that Pop Rock even deserves an album of this quality. Well done You Four! Higher than Highly Recommended!

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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The Rallies - It Must Be Love

 

The return of The Rallies is a reason to celebrate. It seems like yesterday that their second album, Upside Down, was released, so it was surprising to see that it has been almost four years. You can read the IDHAS Review here. 

It Must Be Love feels much more Power Pop than its predecessor and could be a revival of the genre. After the turning point of all the "Is It Power Pop?" nonsense, the genre suffered greatly. It wasn't the bands, it was the fans, largely people of my age who seemed to thrive on all new music is crap agenda.

Great bands didn't seem to want to be associated with the genre and headed towards a different more appreciative audience. At the same time Indie Guitar Pop's revival welcomed a brilliant set of new bands that had a slightly harder edge and gathered a younger, more engaged audience. Great writers seemed to drift away from Power Pop, IDHAS included.

This album is a reminder of how great Power Pop can be and enough time has passed for people to realise how great the genre can be. It'll take some time for people to come flooding back and the younger listeners to catch on, but albums like this will certainly be a big help.

It Must Be Love contains all the requisites for a great Power Pop album, melody, great vocals, catchiness, big choruses and memorable riffs. It also reveals that Power Pop has a history, well covered here, from Merseybeat to Jangle Pop and all between.

Steve Davis has a wonderfully gentle laidback voice that suits the material perfectly and allows the versatility. No Other Road for instance is splendid 70s Pop Rock, but instrumentally is more at home in Americana, even Country Rock. Yet Turn It Up is great late 70s UK New Wave Power Pop.

All I Ever Knew is an 80s version of the genre, whilst Out Of The Blue is great Jangle Pop. As Long As could be a song from a Jigsaw album, but Are You Hearing Me? is classic UK Beat, even Merseybeat. Never A Doubt has most in common with Alt Country.

Give Me The Truth has a killer riff that dominates the song wonderfully and the title track mixes Glasgow Jangle with Rock and Roll. It manages to sound modern, yet harks back to the great Guitar Pop of the 60s and that Jangle is thrilling.

It Must Be Love is a superb reminder of Power Pop has the ability to get the toes tapping and the choruses accompanied, The catchiness is like an epidemic and the playing exemplary. The key is the melody and this album excels at it.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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The Projectors - The Projectors

 

We head back to Victoria in British Columbia, a place that seems to continually introduce great bands. The Projectors are a five piece and offer up a splendid 7 track Pop Rock affair that is incredibly melodic and unafraid to cross the genres whilst always remaining on point.

Congratulations has a real feel of The Strokes, a poppy version maybe and certainly a less repetitive one. Indeed. there are even hints of Franz Ferdinand. Lost In Space heads even further into that angular FF scene with its angular guitar and driven Bass. There is the added joy of a killer riff that closes the song.

Slow It Down is built around a groove with the rhythm section in complete sync that borders on Funk.  Tired of The Small Talk has a Talking Heads feel instrumentally, but the Guitar sound is half Glam Rock and half Adrian Belew. 

When The Lights Came up is another song built on the two very different riffs of guitarists, Robbie Shirriff and Layten Kramer, very Post Punk, but also Angular Indie Rock. Valentine sounds as though it has been recorded in Bowie's Berlin instrumentally, yet maintains an IRS version of New Wave.

Concessions sounds the loosest song here, you notice it more because the rest of the album is incredibly focussed. It is another splendid vocal from Dylan Rysstad who is also the songwriter and these are not ten a penny throwaway tunes.

This is a real Indie Pop Rock joy. The big take is how important a rhythm section is to the sound of a band. Drummer Justin Dauphinee holds everything together, whilst the Bass Player Ryan Newman is an absolute killer. His Basslines are akin to the likes of Colin Moulding and is exceptional. This is a wonderful album, proving that Indie doesn't have to be heads down, it can also be intelligent.

The album was originally released in April 2022, but this remaster sound wise is the bees knees and was released last Friday. You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on CD for only 10 Canadian Dollars and the download is a bargain at 2.99 Canadian Dollars.

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Alex Lahey - The Answer Is Always Yes

 

I've talked a lot recently about the revival of Australian Pop Rock, so it is worth returning to Alex Lahey, who first perked my interest again in the country, revealing that there was far more to the musical scene than good ole boy Rawk. I knew that of course, but the artists were getting much harder to find. 

2019's The Best Of Luck Club was an amazing second album, Power Pop at heart, but with an ability to follow much harder Guitar led adventures. It made our Best Of Year albums, deservedly so, and it remains a great listen. You can read our review here. 

So it is interesting to look at her third album and see how she has progressed. Thankfully, she just keeps getting better and better. Lahey still makes great Power Pop, but easily enters both Avril Lavigne and Sheryl Crow territory. What does mark her out though is her adeptness with a lyric.

There is both a mature writing about the world and her place in it, but also a commentary on failed relationships and Australian life. The songs are delivered in a wry way, not necessarily with angst, more a bemusement. She can also be self effacing, particularly on Permanent. 

There are also marked departures from what is assumed to be her template. They Wouldn't Let Me In, for instance, is classic 80's New Wave Synth Pop. The title track is the closer and plants a firm foot into bigger Rock, almost Stadium Rock.

Good Time even kicks off the album, which is where the Sheryl Crow comparison is most apt, with the line "Everyone Is A Bit Fucked Up, But They Think They Are OK." It is a great commentary on the world today, very apt.

Congratulations is a fantastic song about Exes getting married. The Sky Is melting is splendidly laid back, intense and emotional. But both On The Way Down and Makes Me Sick point to the glories of The Best Of Luck Club.

The Answer Is Always Yes feels like a much more rounded Pop Rock album, stretching out into much bigger musical world. Lahey manages to do this without losing any of her bite or integrity. It should gather her an even wider audience and certainly deserves to. Highly Recommended!

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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Listening To This Week Playlist

 

Welcome to this week's LTTW playlist. 24 songs this week that show new music is thriving and this helps prove why. A splendid selection awaits your ears. Play them all at once or dig in and out because they are up for a week.

This weekly fayre 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.

Lucifer Sunshine - I Get High

The Jack Knives - Are You Listening?

King Lemon - Nothing To Look Forward To (first)

Bleako's Nuclear Disco - Yellow Stereo

Eyelid Cinema - Eros

Bradley Stewart & The Thornbirds - The End Is Not the End

Redfir - Flyby

Anatomy Class - Wrong Side

Big Wheels - Hurricane Therapy

Belling The Tiger - Human Vessel

Young Romantics - Walk Down

Paul Cherry (featuring Kate Bollinger) - OBO

Playing Dead - Passion Fuels

Cold Equations - Eraser

Go By Ocean - Say Man

The American Hotel System - Seattle

The Vumms - And If I

Gringo Star - Get To Know You

Vince Nerone - Hits For The Radio

John McAteer and his Demands - My Old Band 

A Lens To The Sun - Everything I Do

JD & the RetroRyders - Hold On To Your Love

Crash Kountry - Redleaf

Tim Sorbs - wa-cha-do

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Shangri-Lass - Over & Over EP

 

Shangri-Lass is Sheffield's Sister Wives bass player Rose Love and this is a splendid debut EP. It completely caught me by surprise, largely due to the variety across the four tracks. Incredibly inventive left field pop is the connecting part, but this is wonderful.

The opener, Parallel, is very 60s Groovy Baby, but is spectacularly bass driven with ventures into Psych without losing the girl group vibe. Father's Daughter is pure Debbie Harry, but she would be wearing flares and backed by The Glitter Band in a cracking slab of 70s UK Glam Rock.

Dragonfly is a cover of the Peter Green era Fleetwood Mac song, although you wouldn't know that with its synth led arrangement which is both moody and magnificent, almost a Thriller Film Soundtrack, it mesmerises. The Scandal is probably the nearest connection to Sheffield.

Sheffield was the home of Electronic music for a good few years, but that was over 40 years ago now. But The Scandal embraces that time, but also branches out into a Psych Pop driven wonder that could be a BBC Radiophonic Workshop production with Bananarama on the chorus. Highly Recommended!

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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IDHAS Ten Songs Mix 56

The latest 10 Song Mix is a bit different this week. It does contain some of the usual Pop Rock centric songs, but I've also tried to stretch out a bit and show some of the diversity of what we cover. The result may have resulted in the best mix of songs that has ever been featured. It includes the return of The Lilac Time and one of my favourite bands of the past couple of years, Buddie.

It is just short of 40 minutes and it may be very well be worth setting that time aside to listen to this complete. If you leave part way through, you'll miss things like the 70s Classic Rock of Calico Mantra or the Guitar riff on Slam-Piece.

As well as revealing that new music continues to thrive, it demonstrates how buoyant the Indie scene is. Of course, you will note the return of The Supernaturals. The songs are not placed in the order of preference, just in a way that flows.

 Here is the playlist of the ten songs this week :

01 Fall Awake - Someday

02 Pretty - Food For The Moon

03 Buddie - Game Of Global Consequence

04 Arkavello - Home Sweet Home

05 The Lilac Time - A Makeshift Raft

06 The House Of Jed - Coming Off Pretty

07 Family Worship Center - The South

08 Lexi Noise - Slam-Piece

09 Apache Rose - Cabin Fever

10 Calico Mantra - Insta Clout

IDHAS Ten Songs Mix 56

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