Dominic Lavoie - Round Trip

 

I like to think thatI know everything about the genres I cover, I obviously don't and this more than underlined when you listen to an album as wonderful as this. Even more surprising when you discover that this is Lavoie's 7th (count 'em) album.

Portland Maine's Dominic Lavoie is joined by Full On Voltron to offer up one of the great Pop Rock albums of recent times. Beautifully arranged and performed, it sounds so modern and yet equally Retro. Lavoie's dulcet tones dominate the album, but is the arrangements that make the album so great.

From the funk driven opener, 1.21 Charliewatts to the anthemic closer Norumbega, not a minute is wasted, Round Trip is absolute Gold dust. Built on Vocal Harmonies and riffs with massive choruses, it is an album that benefits from raiding the instrument cupboard.

You'll hear Farfisa, Sax, Clavinet and Brass are all present, yet none interfere with the sheer catchiness of song after song. Lavoie is not afraid to include a blistering Guitar solo. Sunkist Bliss 90s Superhaze is an example of this, a song that is in tune with the new breed of Guitar Pop.

Yet at other times, songs are like a bigger sounding Ben Folds or Andrew Gold. There are hints of Glam Rock and Americana.  Instrumentally, Karmic Rodeo sounds like The E Street Band on The River, all mouth organ, keyboard runs and twanging Guitar. 

Martin The Martian, the latest single is flawless jaunty Jangle Pop with a hint of New Wave. But, this is an album to be listened to from start to finish. Maybe the sound of the summer, it certainly is a feel good affair and a joy to listen to. A corking repeat listening singalong album.

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

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M Ross Perkins - What's The Matter, M Ross?

 

After the slightly embarassing self congratulatory 2 million celebrations, it is back to catching up on the backlog of album reviews that we want you to hear about. Who better to start the avalanche than the wonderful M Ross Perkins.

Perkins has the knack of hiding lyrically dept self confessions into great Pop songs. This is his third outing and he is calmly asserting one of the great Pop Singer Songwriters around. Very 60s in vine and Jngling wherever possible.

His last album, E Pluribus M Ross was and still is sensational. It hit our Best 100 albums of 2022, you can read my review here. His third outing feels a little more mellow than the second, but it is stacked high with great great Guitar Pop.

There are also four interupting interludes that break up the album. Recorded old outside segments enquiring What's The Matter With? All unrelated to Perkins, sort of like Frontier Psychiatrist. They should Hittite, but instead drag you in.

These are in complete contrast that the 60s Melodic Pop that surround them. There are diversions of course across the15 tracks. A Date For One is Acoustic and a little Simon and Garfunkel. That's Fine is very West Coast, almost Country, Rock.

Bouquet is a splendidly put together affair, edging into Psych Pop, but covering multi genres, all in just over two minutes. But it the Pop that enthrals most. The jangling Merseybeat of Hey Man/Hey Self, The Beatles 1964 vibe of Gone (In The Morning).

The Byrds like, Crying In My Sleep even gets a little Jeff Lynne. The UK Beat of Spiritual Kick with its Lennon like vocal and there is even an almost Bossa Nova easy listening smoothness to I Feel So Numb. The whole album has the feel of a musician who knows what he wants to achieve and M Ross Perkins does that and more.

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

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Two Million Hits

 

It is gobsmacking to get to 2 million hits as IDHAS approaches its 9th birthday. The second million took just two and a half years. Thanks are to the artists who are covered. There are those who say that there is no great new music. IDHAS is proof that if you find the right artists, there is an engaged audience out there who want to hear and read about it. Thanks to the musicians. This place is about them.

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Listening To This Week Playlist

 

A little earlier than usual, here are the 26 songs that make up this week's LTTW. May the best one yet. 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, so the following there is nowhere near our one here. Only 24 of the 26 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 Optdemics and Ryan Cassata songs are not on Spotify)

Link To Spotify

Las Gargantas - Profecia Autocumplida

DelCobras - Untied (She's The One)

Shortwaves - History Man

Optdemics - No Good Deeds (Not On Spotify)

Spiders On Drugs - Postcard From Amsterdam

Parent Teacher - Fire Door

Faces On Film - Where Love Goes

Faces on Film · Where Love Goes

Moberod - Pieces

Chatterbox - Dark Days

John Steer - Writing On The Wall

John Steer · Writing on the wall

Flutter - When You Love Somebody

Tin Cry - The Revolution Started (With A Song)

[Eagle Noise] - Joni Mitchell

The Slow Summits - Dream On

The Infamists - Lonestar Woes

SOPE - DYBIRL

The Electric Sons - Don't Need Much

The Electric Sons · Dont Need Much

The Fisherman Three - Out Of Style

Matilda Grace - Not Your Ex Yet!

Shoemaker Levee - The Resistance

Cupid And The Cowboy - Last Of The Red Hot Luvas

A Grieving Mind - My Heartache

Nordic Slang - Clever Cliché

Nicholas Shaw - Lovesick

Ryan Cassata - A Knack Of Overthinking (Not On Spotify)

Lola - I Came Here To Conquer

Lola · I Came Here to Conquer

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The Chemistry Set - An Introduction To The Chemistry Set (2CD)

 

Oh how I love The Chemistry Set. Paul Lake and Dave McLean started out in 1987 and they are still here, offering up delightful Psych Pop. It is also another chance to celebrate Fruits De Mer, a label that is a beacon of light in the UK that blows away the tumbleweed.

Too many people think that FdeM is a label of way out Psych, it isn't at all and this is partially proof .I reviewed the last album from The Chemistry Set, Pink Felt Tip, and it was in our Best 100 Albums Of The Year. You can read that review here.

This double album is a compilation of their intensive career on the label, Selected by the duo and gives a sense of just how Pop they could be especially when they enter Toytown, which they frequently do. Indeed, just listen to Lovely Cup Of Tea and realise how close Toytown could get to Madness.

This Will Never Happen Again is top notch Jangle Pop that sounds New Wave, something that you can imagine Rockville singing. Marvel at the harmonies. Albert Hoffman is magnificent Psych Pop demonstrating and wit as well as just how catchy they can be.

I've chosen three songs that I love. But there is 2 and a half hours of music here to delight in. Included is something from the debut solo releases of both. They are in touch with music across the decades, at times a little Syd Barrett, XTC, Brit Pop etc.

The release will be hard to find now but the likes of Shiny Beast still have copies here. There may also be some in the usual good UK Retaillers. Fear not though, you can pick up the songs and albums on The Chemistry Set's Bandcamp site here.

You can find out more about the set here.

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The Setting Son - Cul-De-Sac

 

Wow! Proving that Caper Clowns are not the only good thing to come out of Denmark are Caper Clowns, of which you will hear more of in the next few days, Sebastian Kristiansen's The Setting Son are back with their fourth album, the first since 2012's Before I Eat My Eyes And Ears.

I thought I had heard the last of them, so you can probably see the smile on my face from wherever you are. A couple of singles have trailed the album on the Listening To This Week Playlist. but I didn't expect as great a returning album as this.

I know many of you know of my love of Psych Pop and this lot took on the mantle of my beloved Orgone Box between 2007 and 2012 with three splendid albums. The best description of what they do is sort of mix Psych Pop with Brit Pop.

Here are three minute songs that never outstay their welcome. Melodic to the extreme with choruses to die for. Beautifully performed and arranged with killer riffs. They are probably the nearest Psych Pop band to Guitar Pop. Any song could be a single.

In a way they are bringing Psych Pop to the masses but the way of UK Beat, Pop Rock and Jangle Pop. Just listen to how anthemic (Do You Want To Know) It is, pure Brit Pop. But then compare it Sleep which is swinging Carnaby Street Psych Pop of the highest order and my favourite thing here.

I Still Can't Decide What I Want is glorious Glasgow second half of the 80s Jangle Pop that adds a blistering Guitar Solo.. All 10 songs will light up your life, an album to listen to from start to finish. I can't put completely into words how over the moon to have The Setting Son back. Better not be 13 years to the next one.

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

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Shortwaves - Mental Health In The Information Age

This is great and back to what we are primarily known for. From Weezer's Blue through to Tsar's self titled debut, a world of wonderful melodic Power Pop was unleashed in the States. Whilst we had Brit Pop over here, the States was less Retro, bringing a Guitar led melodic Pop that made Summer seem like all year round. Some UK bands, such as Silver Sun, got it.

However, this was an American led thing that demonstrated how life affirming Power Pop could be. Pop song were back in focus, aided by the likes of Not Lame and Kool Kat. There's been much less of it since, it has become a forgotten art. Even Weezer seem to have lost the plot.

Shortwaves are a quartet from Dallas, a state not necessarily known for the genre, and they give people who were around in the past, a big poke to realise what fun it all was. But more importantly, this may all be new to the younger audience that we have picked up and I am certain that they will be enthralled.

Mental Health In The Information Age is wall to wall goodness, full of hooks, riffs and big big choruses. Guitar driven without ever being noisy. The pace doesn't let up, it is ace at everything it attempts and the quality control is top notch.

The problem with this sort of album as time went on was one of front loading. Three great opening tracks that became singles with songs that followed being more filler. There's not a bit of that here. Picking any of the 12 songs here as preference would be difficult. Indeed Track 11, Just Like You, may be the best thing on show.

There's even room for an instrumental, Dances With Cats, that is as engaging as what surrounds it. The album takes me back, but also as its place in the now. It is a chance for the next generation to hear something different and even discover that great past. What an absolutely cracking listen!

You can listen to and buy here. 

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Fib - Heavy Lifting

 

You know how much we love Angular Guitar Pop, I've preached about it wherever I've been. Growing up with the early XTC stuff, moving forward to The Sugarplastic and onwards to Field Music and The Futureheads.

It seems a long time since I've heard it, being so immersed in the new, indeed Philadelphia based quartet, Fib's self titled debut album. The follow up here is even more inventive. This sort of thing relies on constant shifting within songs or else it can all sound the same. Fib do this with ease.

PS, for instance, gets very close to Devo, but as you might expect, there are hints of Talking Heads and Discipline era King Crimson. The time signatures are very Prog at time, but yet there is a real melodic feel in all the songs despite the constant changes within songs.

It takes to the closer, Outro, to get near Pop and that is then taken into different directions by the twin guitar attack. Mutuals, the opener, is probably the most accessible, very close to Field Music's early work. But the whole thing is an incredibly inventive listen. Particularly, if you are as much a fan of Indie as Prog, as indeed I am.

This inventive Indie is what I spend of most of my downtime with and few do it as well as Fib. The need for Three Chord Guitar Pop is something to admire, but when a band wants to stretch across genres and surprise you, the applause is even higher here. This is absolutely wonderful!

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

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