Pow! Pow! Power pop thread!

[Famous Mortimer]

Great name, surprisingly great power pop band. The Elvis Brothers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmYd7KjTSYc

Sounds a bit Squeeze crossed with Stray Cats, I suppose?

[Head Gardener]

[Butchers Blind]

A few that came up recently on my mixes that have that power pop sensibility:

[Butchers Blind]

And Sloan return with their 13th album

[itsfredtitmus]

GREAT

[itsfredtitmus]

havent listened to this genre for eons but ive been craving it recently

best jellyfish pastiche that mcfly

[itsfredtitmus]

its not ~really~ power pop (so why you posting it then?) but ive always loved when 90s bands forget it isn't the 80s any more and sounding like 91025 yes or scritti politti or it bites isnt in because it comes out like aor jellyfish

music for showing off your new bose speaker system, in the 90s

[Stoneage Dinosaurs]

Not anything obscure by any means but I've finally begun the process of fixing a massive musical blindspot of mine and properly listening to Elvis Costello. Just been listening to This Year's Model and Armed Forces and am wondering why I'd never bothered before. Just fantastic off kilter super melodic stuff. I think it's probably because I never used to get on with his voice, always found it a bit try hard and annoying. This time I think it really properly suits the music.

[Famous Mortimer]

Mo Troper, rather decent lo-fi power-pop person, wrote a fun article about power pop last year which you can read here.

But more importantly, their record label, Lame-O, has made a Spotify playlist, which you might enjoy. Well, it's rather short at the moment, but I presume it'll expand a bit.

[The Pink Chunk Jazz Band]

Find myself listening a lot alone to maybe not power pop but this album of melancholic heartbroken power rock by Robin Lane and The Chartbusters

Love love love don't care don't cry

[Kankurette]

I'm glad someone's posted it in this thread because I was looking for it recently, so I could ask - are Beulah power pop?

Elvis Costello was at his best with the Attractions, Spike aside.

[The Culture Bunker]

Elvis Costello was at his best with the Attractions, Spike aside.

Well, and 'My Aim is True' too. That's miles ahead of 'Spike', of which I only really like one song.

They've been mentioned a couple of times on this thread (this page included), but I just picked up my first Sloan album today ('Navy Blues') - looking forward to exploring more.

[Kankurette]

I thought My Aim Is True WAS with the Attractions. I might be getting it confused with another album though.

[The Culture Bunker]

No, his backing band there were US pub-rock imports Clover (minus future mega-star Huey Lewis, as he was the singer). No future Attractions involved - they were put together for the subsequent tour.

[McChesney Duntz]

They've been mentioned a couple of times on this thread (this page included), but I just picked up my first Sloan album today ('Navy Blues') - looking forward to exploring more.

And explore you should. Twice Removed and One Chord to Another (the two that immediately preceded NB) are close to perfect, and all of the other ones are hardly slouches in the tune department. Dig in; dig it.

[Kankurette]

Sorry to dig this thread up but are Split Enz/Crowded House power pop?

[itsfredtitmus]

havent listened to this genre for eons but ive been craving it recently

best jellyfish pastiche that mcfly

i like that fellas shirt

[itsfredtitmus]

Sorry to dig this thread up but are Split Enz/Crowded House power pop?

definitely but only after when phil judd left and they stopped being rinky dink prog like genesis. you can draw a line from squeeze/crowded house/enz to jellyfish but who'd wanna do that but me

[Kankurette]

I prefer Split Enz's music (and I love Squeeze!) but also prefer Neil Finn's voice. I've been getting into both bands a fair bit after hearing an all-female tribute album called She Will Have Her Way (there's also a male one called He Will Have His Way).

[famethrowa]

Sorry to dig this thread up but are Split Enz/Crowded House power pop?

I'm thinking no. Enz are too wacky and arty, and House seems mainly balladeer territory. Both bands have songs that could be shoehorned into PP, but I think the heart is too dark, there's always some miserabilism bubbling under. Love em both btw, lifelong fan.

(for some reason I love the moment at 1:45 where Neil emerges from the house into an 80s backyard party, gives drummer Paul a cheeky nod, is passed a guitar and blasts out the 5-note solo. So carefree and cheery. Much like the moment in Don't Dream It's Over where he whispers something friendly to Paul, goes outside into the green field and puts on a nice jacket. Simple stuff)

[PaulTMA]

Therapy and Urusei Yatsura FFFF lol

[The Culture Bunker]

I'm thinking no. Enz are too wacky and arty, and House seems mainly balladeer territory. Both bands have songs that could be shoehorned into PP, but I think the heart is too dark, there's always some miserabilism bubbling under. Love em both btw, lifelong fan.

Yeah, Crowded House are one of the few bands I still enjoy from my childhood ('Recurring Dream' would have been one of the first CDs I ever owned, bought when it was recently out) and as fantastic a singer/songwriter Neil Finn is, I think they're maybe lacking the "power" part of it on most of their material. Maybe it's the absence of edge/aggression, or some other factor that I can't articulate.