When you are in the right mood, I’m not sure anything beats a good Power Pop song. Sure we shrug them off when we are talking to other “serious music” people as trite, simple or silly, but lets be honest…if your toes are tapping, your face is smiling and you can’t wait to get to the chorus there has to be something to it.
The moment I hear the phrase Power Pop I immediately think of Cheap Trick. To me the text book definition. Matthew Sweet is also up there near the top. Least we forget our friends from the Great White North The Pursuit of Happiness. Feeling old school, there has to be more than a handful of early Who songs to scratch that itch. Flash in the pan bands how about The Knack? Purely silly Too Much Joy.
At the end of the day, if I could only have one on my desert island it would have to be a lesser known band Material Issue. The 91 and 92 albums International Pop Overthrow and Destination Universe are real gems. If you are not familiar give them a spin next time you need to lighten the load.
So where do you all land on this? Let hear your thoughts on it as a whole and who really nails it for you?
Ha, great pick. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Early 90s I must have listened to Bandwagonesque a thousand time. One of my all time favorite lyrics, ever, is from The Concept.
Still she won’t be forced against her will
Says she don’t do drugs but she does the pill
Oh Yea, oh yea
Genre and sub-genre is always an interesting and sometimes hotly debated topic. One I’d like to see some discussion for Power Pop. In the earlier post from @geoB I’d strongly disagree with The Cars and Blondie (New Wave in my mind)…but to each their own. To me it is very guitar and drum driven with great hooks and well crafted lyrics but on the lighter side of serious.
Roon’s metadata supplier surely thinks TFC is Power Pop. The opening sentence of the review says
The gold standard of the early-'90s Power Pop revival…
@the_rev Weezer is one of my all time favorites. Surely guitar driven and light-hearted lyrics. Good one!
Decent track listing, good for party where you are not sure of your audience like a work gathering. Has the pop thing down, but for sure lacking in the Power.
Taking a look at what Roon thinks is Power Pop of my personal stash I see the Posies listed. I can see that. Dream all Day has all the elements. Also, the review gives another Roon medadata vote for TFC.
That’s one of the troubles with genres I guess. I don’t much care for them. The main reason I “classify” TFC as PP is I’ve heard others do so. When I saw the thread title they were the first band I thought of. I still wasn’t going to post but I checked:
and they were there, surprisingly close to the heart of power pop if the diagram is to be believed.
Splitsville (Incorporated and “The Complete Pet Soul”)
The Greenberry Woods
Velvet Crush
Superdrag
Matthew Sweet
Fountains of Wayne (especially the first album)
Super Deluxe (“Famous”)
If I think about it I tend to only use genres when trying to describe a band or song/piece of music to someone who hasn’t heard it. My poor taste and error prone genre classifications are favourite topics for follow on conversations. In truth, I don’t even like the use of “classify” here as in my eyes that verb implies a semi-formal process with rules, where in reality chaos reigns…
If you’re not familiar with these guys - The Records - or this album - Shades in Bed - then do yourself a favor and quench your Power Pop thirst with it.
For sure the godfather’s of power pop. One of my favorite concert stories ever. Wife and I are about five rows back right in the center, they start to play; halfway into the first or second song my wife gets hit in the head with a pick from Rick. She says “what was that” I yell he’s always throwing pics find it. I hit the deck and come up with an orange Rick Nielsen pick. Nice summer double bill in the Baltimore harbor with Blondie.
Fun stuff. They are a fun live band. Seen them twice. Once, in what seems like a different life, on new year’s Eve in a dive I Detroit. Surprised they played such a small venue. I was 17 or 18.
