The Best 50 Powerpop Albums according to RYM

Voted "Bellybutton". Pity about a lot of stuff that shouldn't really have been here at all.

a couple of very odd definitions of powerpop here. copper blue?

"Copper Blue" I can understand, as it has those very catchy tunes that are typical of the powerpop genres (although it is obviously primarily indie rock/pop).
But "Pinkerton" I find has little to do with powerpop at all. Same about "Third", which is probably only in the list because the first two Big Star albums were undeniably powerpop.

Went "Jesus of Cool", just because.

fronsting on the beater by several zillion miles

no Field Day? :^(

no fountains of wayne either

Not sure whether I'm supposed to vote for my favorite album on here ("I'm The Man") or my favorite that I would loosely consider powerpop ("Mass Romantic") or my favorite that's definitely powerpop ("Marshall Crenshaw" or maybe "Girlfriend").

nobody really cares, if that makes it any easier.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

the first Cheap Trick is the best but my favourite is Runt

"Pity the first four on the list (and, in fact, most of the top 10) aren't really powerpop,"

Oh Geir.

Power pop's always been a weird, fucked-up pseudo genre. It's all the stuff that's too rockin' to just be pop, and too pop to just be rock.

Anyway, not sure what I'll vote for. Big Star, probably, though only one of their albums is really power pop. Or maybe that first Joe Jackson album. Or maybe I'll go for the Exploding Hearts, since they're probably not going to get a lot of other votes… Hmm. I could just listen to Cheap Trick's "Southern Girls" over and over forever…

"nobody really cares, if that makes it any easier."

almost

I'm going to vote for the Raspberries 1974 Starting Over. Oh wait. It's not on here. Screw this poll.

^^^seriously wtf

these RYM lists are terrible sorry Herman

oh wait Geir started this. I am not sorry!

dont bring me into it!

voted Posies narrowly over Jellyfish, Big Star, Squeeze, Brendan Benson, etc.

The Bongos - Drums Along the Hudson

No Superdrag, no credibility.

but seriously, the first Weezer album

Some strange choices here (how is Tim power pop?). Went with Jesus of Cool. Seeing Nick next week in fact!

Then tell him to hurry and reissue "Labour Of Lust". The quicker the better!

stumbled upon a few completely classic real powerpop records this year if you like Big Star you have to check out Meet the Scruffs and The Toms-s/t. and the best dB's record is Like This, fwiw. who cares

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

haha too many voted for "1 album i want to get a vote for" and another one runs away with it.

noone voted big star thinking everyone else would.
i voted for the posies. yay me.

jesus pee smelling christ

hahaha this is a joke right

i dunno, i remember being surprised at husker du's dominance in a couple polls in the past, maybe there's a silent majority of mould superfans on ILM

with a few exceptions that list looks like a list of Records Ian Is Least Likely To Listen To.

but yeah, copper blue is probably the best thing there.

The winner is an OK indie pop album, but pretty far from powerpop IMO. :)

stumbled upon a few completely classic real powerpop records this year if you like Big Star you have to check out Meet the Scruffs and The Toms-s/t. and the best dB's record is Like This, fwiw. who cares

― outdoor_miner, Friday, October 9, 2009 12:16 PM (7 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Not sure why/how I've been sleeping on the Toms. Good stuff!

Missed this...Would have voted for Black Vinyl Shoes by a mile, followed by Something/Anything? or Marshall Crenshaw (even though Field Day's better). And the Only Ones' "Another Girl, Another Planet" is my single favourite song on the list.

I just took a look at this for kicks. Let me just say:

SUGAR ? !? !?

Sorry, but that freekin FLOORED me! Above Jesus of Cool?!!? Above Black Vinyl Shoes?!!? Above ANY of the Big Star records?!!? Jellyfish? The Records, Dwight Twilley, The Who Sell Out(?!!?)...?

But Nooooo!!! It Sugar by a landslide... No disrespect to Sugar; they're a fine band and all. But... DAMN...

The Sugar album shouldn't have been in the list at all, blame the RYM users for defining it as powerpop (and ILM's non-powerpop loving members voting for it in this poll)

Sugar: Copper Blue 18
Big Star: Radio City 4

O_O

the Toms are one of my favourite power pop bands. I always liked their songs better than all the others on those yellow pills comps.

Would've voted for Heaven Tonight or Cheap Trick, and after that Look Sharp, though I never would have thought to call that one a powerpop LP -- even though it has way more power in its pop than most anything else on the list. (In fact, there are lots of albums here that I don't understand why they're here, and I can name scores of powerpop albums that should be here -- like, where the heck is Get The Knack? And if Joe Jackson counts, why not This Year's Model?) After Joe Jackson, I'd probably go for Jesus Of Cool even though I still think of it by its proper American title.

Runnersup: Beat, second Weezer, second Joe Jackson, Exploding Hearts, in some order or other. (Don't technically know those particular Badfinger or Only Ones or Flamin Groovies albums, though I bet they'd be in the running, too. Don't get why Sugar is on the list over say New Day Rising, and why earlier Replacements LPs aren't up there.)

Hell, really, they should've included Rick Springfield and 38 Special and Bryan Adams and Babys albums. (But it's not surprising they didn't.)

Don't get why Sugar is on the list over say New Day Rising

xhuxk OTM, as usual.

Yep - the 1st 3 Cheap Tricks, the Flamin Groovies Sire Recs releases, 20/20... I cry ballot box stuffing! LOL

Hell, really, they should've included Rick Springfield and 38 Special and Bryan Adams and Babys albums. (But it's not surprising they didn't.)

Agree about Rick Springfield, but not Bryan Adams. He is mainstream heartland rock, not powerpop.

Btw. Rick Springfield is defined as powerpop at RYM: http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/rick_springfield

Your search - "mainstream heartland rock" "bryan adams" - did not match any documents.

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ok i just don't even understand what's going on hear wrt poll results

and i really really like Copper Blue

I think Rick Springfield may have left out the power.

hear here

Something I found on Radio Ready: Lost Power Pop Hits 1978-1983. Most of them should have stayed lost, but I like this. Not jangly, not crunchy--it's a side of power pop that's more like speeded-up moodiness along the lines of Del Shannon or Gene Pitney.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eaSvfwjLng

hey someone put my thing on the 'tube! if this doesn't work it's track 10 at about 29:05.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZCfSiT76bM

nice, tsf! in answer to yr prev question i’d file that in predom crunchy

Sweet "Carolina"!...The link I posted just above has disappeared; I think it was this:

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

ha! it took me a while to figure out what the question was but it's been 13 years.

A quick list of some of my favorite power-pop songs, as I understand the term--where I'm coming from, as Stevie Wonder might say:

1. "Girlwish," Fudge (1991)
2. "Not Me," Shoes (1977)
3. "Another Girl, Another Planet," Only Ones (1978)
4. "Mannequin," Wire (1978)
5. "Any Other Way," Posies (1990)
6. "Consider Me Gone," Jellystone Park (1991)
7. "Big Blue Bus," Stupid Cupids (1987)
8. "I'll Be There," Windbreakers (1985)
9. "Shake Some Action," Flamin' Groovies (1976)
10. "Southern Girls," Cheap Trick (1977)
11. "Oh, Grateful," James Dean Driving Experience (1987)
12. "Completely," Seaside (1991)

I've bypassed the '60s, because there's too much thinking involved if I don't.

― clemenza, Wednesday, 26 May 2010 00:34 (fourteen years ago) link

Old post but wow at some of the deep cuts here like (obscure pre-Clinic band) Jellystone Park... I just found a copy of that flexi and it's awesome. Jame Dean Driving Experience also one my top favorites. Fudge too of course. Great stuff.

Evan -- Thanks...I actually downloaded Jellystone Park and James Dean Driving Experience (and possibly Fudge) from an old blog called I Wish I was a Flexidisc (long gone). Amazed you came across a physical copy.

If you never saw it, preserved on Wayback Machine (with nothing but dead download links, I'm sure):

https://web.archive.org/web/20241130091544/http://iwishiwasaflexidisc.blogspot.com/

Ah! Yes, I've been looking for a download of Jellystone Park. Do you still have that? Otherwise I'll just need to rip my own copy.

That blog looks amazing... I'm sad I never came across it back when it was active. I'd love to download most of what I'm seeing there.

As far as coming across a physical copy - yes I've been lucky to find a lot of rarities from that time and place as it is a huge interest of mine. My collection is getting pretty stacked! Also despite the fact that I'm stateside so the UK stuff is tougher to come across in the wild.

Evan -- Not sure how mad you are for this stuff, but: when I was downloading everything 20 years ago, I put together 10 CD-80s from the Flexidisc site: I Wish I Was a Flexidisc, Vol. 1-10, 279 songs...I think I can duplicate all the CDs, just need to figure out how; if you want to cover postage (from Canada), I could get them to you sometime in the spring.

https://dbs-repercussion.blogspot.com/

This dB's-centered bootleg blog covers a lot of power pop ground and more (e.g. Big Star & Alex Chilton, Elvis Costello, The Feelies, Game Theory, Jason Falkner, Lloyd Cole, Mitch Easter, Nick Lowe, Robyn Hitchcock, and every spin-off and side project of the dB's). Scroll through the list of artists on the right-hand side of the page.

Thanks clemenza!!! You don’t have them backed up on your computer then do you? A link download through wetransfer would probably be less trouble but depends on the steps involved in duplicating the discs I suppose. Like whether you need to rip them either way.

Let me investigate--will get back to you via board email.

wtf at the results for this

I'd say four of the top five at least fit my own (very loose) parameters for what counts as power-pop. Sugar doesn't really--not that I don't like songs by them, just not sure they belong. (And yet, and yet...I'd probably be okay sneaking "Books About UFOs" or "It's Not Funny Anymore" onto a power-pop mix-CD, so I can't really defend excluding them.) But the runaway winner should have been Black Vinyl Shoes.

if you weren't the sole voter for Black Vinyl Shoes then it was probably me, unless I just missed this poll at the time

My first post here mentions missing the poll, so could well have been you--well done, if so.

I was curious how RYM's evaluation of power-pop has changed in the last 15 years.
Only 23 of the records listed here are still in the top 50 of their chart. The greatest tumble was down to # 210 - The Only Ones.
Sister Lovers and the two Rundgren records are no longer classified as part of the genre, although the "Couldn't I Just Tell You" single is.

Evan: I sent you board email.

Thanks - received! I don't check that email account much so naturally delayed. Also I miss things here until I stumble my way back through threads.

Anyway, massively appreciated for sure, let me get back to you as I have A LOT going on right now (baby on the way next week).

Oh I meant to ask too, is it that entire blog across the 10 discs then?

congrats evan!

thank you!

Baby, power-pop, baby, power-pop, baby...your focus should be the new baby, yes. (Congratulations.) I think the 10 discs probably cover everything.

Baby, power-pop, baby, power-pop, baby...

Sounds like the chorus of a particularly meta power-pop song.

(Congrats, Evan!)

thank you!!

Also shown here (if sorted by added) is my major haul this month - kind of a last hurrah of vinyl collecting for a little bit.

https://www.discogs.com/user/razenave/collection

Two of my favorite powerpop songs are Bram Tchaikovsky's "Girl Of My Dreams" and The Records "Starry Eyes", both found on the excellent "DIY - Starry Eyes" Rhino comp. I love me some Big Star but the British lads did something a bit different that I connect with.

Ever heard Too Much Joy's cover of "Starry Eyes?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPLKvlJFlj8

or Dr Janet? Yo La Tengo/Screaming Trees/Das Damen one-off

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qssa-dOpM3M

Pretty good--not as good as I remembered.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2p0RuoO-a4

I was so into Too Much Joy in '92-'94ish, somewhere in there.

Haven't listened to 'em since ... I wonder how they hold up?

They're still making music! Or rather, they're back to making music: they put out an album in 2021 called Mistakes Were Made, their first since 1996, that I thought was really great. I haven't spent as much time with the follow-up, All These Fucking Feelings, but they're definitely worth catching up with if you were ever a fan.

Recent Music League power-pop round revealed the track Tears by The Crocodiles that I would instantly have no reservations calling the greatest power-pop song of all time and maybe one of the best pop songs of all time. Thanks, whatever your username is on here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh01Rv6Z-28

The album is amazing too

I listened to my second* Cheap Trick album today - One by One - off the back of Chuck Eddy's comments in Stairway to Hell which I'm having fun re-reading atm. And I kinda forgot how tough they were (not really as Beatlesy as advertised, except the Paulieisms on "If You Want My Love") but mostly it reminded me of.. Slade! 80s Slade, even, which I enjoy a lot. But "She's Tight" and especially "Saturday at Midnight" and "I Want Be Man" are very clattery and mechanical and weird (without entering 'zolo' territory per se). Parts of the latter might as well be KFMDM. Is this really considered one of their weakest?

*My first was The Doctor, naturally.

One ON One ahem

Get to those early ones! "Downed," "Southern Girls," "He's a Whore"--they had both ends of the spectrum covered ("jangly" vs. "crunchy"--see earlier in this thread).

Having re-read that again I feel like I'm having an especially cursed week vis a vis typos. Subeditor needed pls.

The first Cheap Trick looks like my next port of call. But I was sorta tempted by Dream Police which I figured was sorta their top of the mountain 'let's move our newly-expanded audience along with us into slightly more esoteric territory' album. Sorta tempted because what would it sound like without the context of earlier albums? And is it even true?

I like the song a lot, don't remember anything else about the album. I was kind of late to them myself--I bought Dream Police when it came out, but I think that was my first CT album. I had some radio familiarity with their two big hits before that. I think they were definitely looking to expand their audience, but maybe, until their late-'80s success (no interest in any of that myself), they were caught in the middle of nowhere: too metal for new-wave, too pop for metal, etc.

That Crocodiles song is enjoyable! Best power-pop song of all time? Of course. Definitely.

i was the Crocodile Tears submitter... believe i came across it a couple years ago trawling streaming service new zealand 80s playlists looking for jangle obscurities, or maybe clicking through "similar artists" when finding an interesting group thereon. it's definitely an interesting album veering from roy wood / deaf school type oldies gone slightly overegged towards split enz type tamely berzerk new wave prog, but really the only song that sticks with me is the single. i guess it was a pretty fair hit in new zealand, #17 in 1980. and you gotta love a band that makes the two singers one female one male feel equally weighted and natural, it creates a sort of self-contained world of "we can sing from any romantic perspective and comment on it".

jenny morris recorded an inxs b-side cover of jackson in 1985 that is probably her most interesting post-crocodiles recording.

i'm in the process of putting together a history of female lead vox power pop chronological 100 song playlist starting from precursors like wanda jackson (settled on "whirlpool") and etta james with "tears" of course included. there's so much good modern stuff, it's fun to narrow it down to the best options.

I'd love to hear that when you finish it

i was the Crocodile Tears submitter... believe i came across it a couple years ago trawling streaming service new zealand 80s playlists looking for jangle obscurities, or maybe clicking through "similar artists" when finding an interesting group thereon. it's definitely an interesting album veering from roy wood / deaf school type oldies gone slightly overegged towards split enz type tamely berzerk new wave prog, but really the only song that sticks with me is the single. i guess it was a pretty fair hit in new zealand, #17 in 1980. and you gotta love a band that makes the two singers one female one male feel equally weighted and natural, it creates a sort of self-contained world of "we can sing from any romantic perspective and comment on it".

jenny morris recorded an inxs b-side cover of jackson in 1985 that is probably her most interesting post-crocodiles recording.

― mig (guess that dreams always end), Friday, January 24, 2025 11:46 PM

"Tears"' profile in NZ was sustained a bit by both Jenny Morris' big solo hits / supermarket bangers ("Body & Soul"/"She Has To Be Loved"/"Break In The Weather") and a fairly dire/slick '92 re-recording, as well as being prominently sampled in the Headless Chickens' Cruise Control (funny how Flying Nun's biggest chart hits were from a more-or-less grebo band).

When you were trawling for NZ jangle obscurities, did you come across Christchurch's The Perfect Garden? Recorded late 80s but not properly released until 2018-ish.

Very late but I also think lack of inclusion of the Smithereens is a crime.
Also Syd Straw's Surprise!

xp no i hadn't heard The Perfect Garden, this is an excellent ep

Cherry Red had a really cheap deal on a 3CD set of early Shoes material 73-78.
Already reduced plus 20% off during January. So came out at about £8.

Haven't really heard the contents but the band self recorded 3 or 4 lps before they got signed to a larger label.

20% off any old product on Cherry Red label with a code that's on the label website. Until end of month.
So I think might be any non new release product specifically on the sub label of the name.

that Shoes box is well worth it for £8. I've got most of it already but there's a few bonus tracks there I don't think I've heard. not sure I've heard their Bomp single tbh although it's just different versions of songs that appear on their other records

Syd Straw's Surprise

Hmm, other than the dBs cover, I don't hear any power-pop on this; country-rock, folk-rock, Americana, some kinds of art rock...