{"id":27464,"date":"2024-04-28T05:30:11","date_gmt":"2024-04-28T09:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=27464"},"modified":"2024-04-26T13:46:35","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T17:46:35","slug":"reviews-five-new-power-pop-or-power-pop-adjacent-titles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/28\/reviews-five-new-power-pop-or-power-pop-adjacent-titles\/","title":{"rendered":"Reviews: Five New Power Pop (or Power Pop-adjacent) Titles"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Emperor Penguin \u2013 Gentlemen Thieves<\/i><\/b>
\nThe hardest-rocking of these five new releases, Gentlemen Thieves<\/i> folds in glam and other rock styles to create a memorable set of songs. A strong emphasis on melody nicely balances the crunch. There\u2019s swagger without macho nonsense, and a strong pop sensibility means that middle eights are carefully crafted. Check out \u201cWhat\u2019s the Worst That Could Happen,\u201d the album\u2019s opener and a tidy distillation of everything that makes this London band something truly special. The band\u2019s three vocalists are a wonderfully varied lot, and that may well be Emperor Penguin\u2019s biggest of many assets, their secret-est weapon. \u2018Tis a gem.<\/p>\n

\"\"On the Runway \u2013 Tell Yourself It\u2019s Pretty<\/i><\/b>
\nTell me you want me to hear a power pop band from Memphis and you\u2019ve got my attention. The Bluff City has a proud tradition that includes Big Star, Prix, Van Duren and the Scruffs: great artists all. And while Dave Norris\u2019 On the Run makes music that doesn\u2019t ape the sounds of those greats, he clearly understands what makes a good song. He drinks from the same well that informed those who came before. There\u2019s a breezy, melancholy-tinged vibe to tunes like \u201cLoser of the Year\u201d one that suggests what Jackson Browne might\u2019ve sounded like if he, y\u2019know, rocked.<\/p>\n

\"\"Armchair Oracles \u2013 Nothingeveris<\/i><\/b>
\nWith a chiming-meets-crunchy musical character, Armchair Oracles make music that hits the heart. Creamy harmonies suggest Teenage Fanclub, but the thick guitar textures recall Cheap Trick. The often make their musical point in compact fashion: \u201cNeurons\u201d is over in under three minutes;, leaving the listener wanting more. Happily, there is more: Nothingeveris<\/i> serves up as dozen instant classics. Though you won\u2019t detect it in their sound, the group is from Norway, where they\u2019ve been crafting top-flight material since 2008. Highlights here include \u201cAddicted to the Ride,\u201d \u201cUndertow\u201d and the plaintive ballad \u201cSkyhigh,\u201d but the whole disc is solid. Highly recommended.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jordan Jones \u2013 And I, You<\/i><\/b>
\nThe piano that opens \u201cEnvelope of Skin\u201d suggest Burt Bacharach or The Carpenters. The sweeping cellos that follow call to mind Ben Folds. Opening his seven-song EP in this way works in lovely fashion. From there, Jones\u2019 brand of ork-pop unfolds to add his close-mic\u2019d vocal. He\u2019s a more rock-leaning modern-day artist in a Harry Nilsson mold. Sophisticated adult pop doesn\u2019t get much better than this. He channels Carole King on \u201cLove Song of J,\u201d a track that (in another interview) he suggested might be the best thing he\u2019s written. Listen to this EP and you\u2019ll realize that\u2019s saying something.<\/p>\n

\"\"Wesley Fuller \u2013 <\/b>All Fuller No Filler<\/b><\/i>
\nSwooshing wind and pulsing synth introduce \u201cBack to Square One,\u201d the first cut on All Fuller No Filler<\/i>. Those textures hint at a kind of Who\u2019s Next vibe, but that\u2019s a red herring. Instead we have tight guitar pop more in a Raspberries vein, with plenty of handclaps and analog synth lines that recall Sweet and other exuberant \u201870s rock-popsters. While the music is rooted in that era, there\u2019s a timeless quality to the songs and arrangements. Flawlessly assembled, the album has that one-man-band feel (in the best way) that brings to mind Emitt Rhodes, Todd Rundgren and similar auteurs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emperor Penguin \u2013 Gentlemen Thieves The hardest-rocking of these five new releases, Gentlemen Thieves folds in glam and other rock styles to create a memorable set of songs. A strong […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27469,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,55,62,65],"tags":[5411,5409,5413,1259,5412,5410],"class_list":["post-27464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-powerpop","category-rawk","category-review","tag-archchair-oracles","tag-emperor-pengion","tag-jordan-jones","tag-kool-kat-musik","tag-on-the-runway","tag-wesley-fuller","cat-49-id","cat-55-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27470,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27464\/revisions\/27470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}