{"id":28519,"date":"2024-11-25T05:30:39","date_gmt":"2024-11-25T10:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=28519"},"modified":"2024-11-25T07:38:32","modified_gmt":"2024-11-25T12:38:32","slug":"hundred-word-power-pop-reviews-november-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/25\/hundred-word-power-pop-reviews-november-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundred-word (Power Pop) Reviews, November 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

For this round of Hundred Word Reviews, it\u2019s a veritable feast \u2013 a panoply, a cornucopia\u2026 a surfeit, even \u2013 of power pop.<\/p>\n

\"\"Valley Lodge \u2013 Shadows in Paradise<\/i><\/b>
\nNew York City power pop bands tend toward the grittier end of the spectrum, with a street-level sensibility that nicely scuffs up what is too often a glossy sheen. And Valley Lodge fits neatly into that characterization. Strong hooks are joined by a powerful oomph, some tight vocal harmonies (that occasionally recall Kiss, of all things, but in a good way). The band is a trio, but on this record they\u2019re joined by a half-dozen friends helping out on guitar, keys, vocals and whatnot. \u201cHanging Around\u201d is shamelessly derivative of the Cure, but hey: if yer gonna steal, well, y\u2019know.<\/p>\n

\"\"Aerial \u2013 Activities of Daily Living<\/i><\/b>
\nFrom Scotland comes this outfit. But their chugga-chugga approach to power pop doesn\u2019t recall Teenage Fanclub nearly as much as it does the American strain of the substyle. Many of the songs have a naggingly familiar character, a kind of \u201cI\u2019m sure I\u2019ve heard this tune before\u201d quality, but within the context of power pop, perhaps that\u2019s as much a feature as a bug. As appealing as their riffy tunes are, Aerial shines brightly when tackling the winsome balladry of tunes like \u201cHollywood Ghosts.\u201d And they lean in a melancholy, chiming pop direction for \u201cRun These Lights.\u201d Varied and solid.<\/p>\n

\"\"Colman Gota \u2013 Don\u2019t Stop Playing Guitar<\/i><\/b>
\nWhen we last checked in with Colman Gota<\/a>, he was working with Mitch Easter<\/a> and the dear departed Chris Garges. Now he\u2019s working with producer John Pfiffner, house engineer at Mitch\u2019s Fidelitorium. Gota\u2019s latest features songs with a generally sunny disposition; his slightly nasally vocal delivery gives a homespun character to the songs, even when they\u2019re high energy with slashing power chords. Seventeen songs is a lotta songs, but the quality standard here is pretty high; recommended track is \u201cTwo Chords and a Lie.\u201d Gota does favor ba-ba-ba vocalisms, which I like but which may not be for all tastes.<\/p>\n

\"\"Caddy \u2013 s\/t<\/i><\/b>
\nIf I didn\u2019t tell you (or if you didn\u2019t know already), you\u2019d likely never guess that Caddy is from Norway. They deliver the power pop with a roaring, hard \u2018n\u2019 heavy style, and they bring the melody. Fans of Cheap Trick and Material Issue are prime candidates to be won over by this outfit. They didn\u2019t rock this forcefully back in 2018, as I recall<\/a>. But Caddy\u2019s sophisticated-meets-muscular approach here serves them and their songs quite well. They remind me a bit of Gladhands. If you know me, that\u2019s high praise indeed. Caddy\u2019<\/i>s easily the best of this hundred-word-reviewed lot.<\/p>\n

\"\"Vinyl Kings \u2013 Big New Life<\/i><\/b>
\nThis collective of seasoned players and writers sounds very much like what they are. In fact, if I played you the opening\/title track, you\u2019d think, \u201cHey, is this the long-missing Volume Two<\/i> from the Traveling Wilburys?\u201d Yeah, the similarity is almost too<\/i> close, from Harrisonesque slide guitar, multiple lead vocals, lots of shimmering acoustic guitars, and\u2026 you get the idea. Elsewhere they sound a bit like Cloud Nine<\/em> era George Harrison. On \u201cSmoke Rings for Renee\u201d they move in a baroque, string-heavy direction that suggests Harry Nilsson. Does it all hold together cohesively? That\u2019s for you to decide, my friend.<\/p>\n

NOTE<\/b>: All of these titles (and more, o\u2019course) are available from Kool Kat Musik<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For this round of Hundred Word Reviews, it\u2019s a veritable feast \u2013 a panoply, a cornucopia\u2026 a surfeit, even \u2013 of power pop. Valley Lodge \u2013 Shadows in Paradise New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28520,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,55,65],"tags":[133,447,2904,1259,5555,5556],"class_list":["post-28519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-powerpop","category-review","tag-aerial","tag-caddy","tag-colman-gota","tag-kool-kat-musik","tag-valley-lodge","tag-vinyl-kings","cat-49-id","cat-55-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28519","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=28519"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28611,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28519\/revisions\/28611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}