{"id":29624,"date":"2025-06-17T05:30:30","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T09:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=29624"},"modified":"2025-06-17T12:09:55","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T16:09:55","slug":"hundred-plus-word-reviews-for-june-2025-rock-pop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/17\/hundred-plus-word-reviews-for-june-2025-rock-pop\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundred-(plus)-word Reviews for June 2025: Rock\/Pop"},"content":{"rendered":"

I launched my hundred-word review format years ago as both a way to provide coverage to deserving music and as an exercise in concise writing. This go-round I stick to the former while (in some cases) abandoning the latter. Simply too much good to say about these albums. Any one of them could end up on my best-of-2025 list. Maybe yours, too.<\/p>\n

\"\"Louis Philippe & the Night Mail \u2013 The Road to the Sea<\/i><\/b>
\nIf one were somehow to cross Martin Newell, Bill Pritchard and Burt Bacharach, the result might sound something like Louis Philippe. With a baroque pop sensibility that calls to mind some of the greats \u2013 Van Dyke Parks, Emitt Rhodes, Van Duren, Andy Partridge, Thomas Walsh (all of whom I\u2019ve interviewed, by the way), Philippe makes music that\u2019s catchy and intelligent. And he doesn\u2019t write the same song over and over six different ways: the delectable \u201cPictures of Anna\u201d is nothing at all like \u201cWhere Did We Go Wrong.\u201d What both \u2013 and the rest of the tracks here \u2013 share is status as sophisticated and alluring pop of the very highest order.<\/p>\n

\"\"Chris Church \u2013 Obsolete Path<\/i><\/b>
\nI\u2019ve written about Chris Church before. He\u2019s that rare talent who can (and does) make music in a wide variety of styles, all with passion, commitment and authenticity. He\u2019s the sort of artist who makes lesser talents consider throwing in the towel: \u201cIf he<\/i> hasn\u2019t hit the big time, well\u2026\u201d Church\u2019s latest is a collection of shimmering pop-rock songs that highlight his skills as a songwriter and vocalist. But it\u2019s more than that: Church\u2019s finely-tuned arrangement gifts serve up baroque, semi-acoustic gems like the title track, the complex and razor-sharp hooks of \u201cSit Down\u201d (shades of Jason Falkner), soaring tunes like \u201cI Don\u2019t Wanna Be There\u201d and so, so much more. Without checking, I\u2019m pretty sure I\u2019ve characterized at least one of his previous albums as his best yet. Obsolete Path<\/i> is so damn good that it renders such praise\u2026 um, obsolete.<\/p>\n

\"\"Secret Monkey Weekend \u2013 Lemon Drop Hammer<\/i><\/b>
\nThere\u2019s a running gag among my close affinity group of music fiends: we\u2019ll voice three random words in a row and claim the resulting phrase as the latest Guided By Voices tune. (Try it; it works). I don\u2019t know if this North Carolina trio of Jefferson Hart and his stepdaughters Ella and Lila had something similar in mind when they named their group and their second album, but that playful yet literate approach to rock shines through in any event. An irresistible mix of na-na-na \/ ba-ba-ba vocalisms, chiming guitars and sturdy, memorable songwriting makes this a fine listen. No frills, no filler, Strong riffage, deep grooves, emphatic and catchy vocal work provide \u2013 to borrow the title of the album\u2019s opening track \u2013 \u201cSo Much Joy.\u201d If all that doesn\u2019t move you to put Lemon Drop Hammer<\/i> on your must-get list, there\u2019s the fact that it\u2019s produced by Don Dixon. Your honor, the defense rests.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Bongos \u2013 The Shroud of Touring: Live in 1985<\/i><\/b>
\nThe Bongos were among the most tuneful and pop-oriented (in the best possible way) of the so-called college rock era. Their two best-known releases \u2013 the Numbers With Wings<\/i> EP from 1983 and 1985\u2019s full-length Beat Hotel<\/i> \u2013 are exemplars of the group\u2019s style. Though it wasn\u2019t their goal, The Bongos handily beat other acts like The Three O\u2019Clock at their game. I never saw them live in their prime, and even in my bootleg collecting days I don\u2019t recall stumbling upon any board tapes of their live shows. So the appearance of this vintage recording is a true gift. The band is absolutely on fire, rocking much, much harder than they did on record as they tear through songs from both of those records plus tunes from their pre-major-label debut Drums Along the Hudson<\/i>. \u201cNumbers With Wings\u201d seethes in a way its airy studio counterpart barely hints at. Listeners who only know them from their studio releases will find their breath taken away at this spirited, fiery set. Essential.<\/p>\n

\"\"Comet Gain \u2013 Letters to Ordinary Outsiders<\/i><\/b>
\nFans of \u201880s alternapop\u2019s lesser-known corners \u2013 in other words, those who appreciate Television Personalities, Aztec Camera and the like \u2013 will definitely want to know about Comet Gain. Perhaps they already do. The group makes emotionally resonant pop. Typically, I find spoken-word interludes a bit mawkish, but in the hands of David Christian and his associates, those bits and the music around them bring a tear to the eye. With songwriting smarts that suggest Difford and Tilbrook with their hearts even more prominently on their sleeves — or Belle and Sebastian on a particularly good day — Comet Gain turns out tune after tune of beauty. The group understands the importance of the proverbial spaces between the notes, and they’re always ready with a catchy lick \u2013 be it from a horn section or something else. If Morrissey wasn\u2019t so weepy, undependable and so much of an arsehole, he might make music like Comet Gain. Letters to Ordinary Outsiders<\/i> is an album that demands \u2013 and richly rewards \u2013 quality time spent absorbing its virtues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I launched my hundred-word review format years ago as both a way to provide coverage to deserving music and as an exercise in concise writing. This go-round I stick to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29627,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,51,62,65],"tags":[378,4357,5723,4401,5724],"class_list":["post-29624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-pop","category-rawk","category-review","tag-bongos","tag-chris-church","tag-comet-gain","tag-louis-philippe","tag-secret-monkey-weekend","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29624","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=29624"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29635,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29624\/revisions\/29635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}