this 200 best POWER POP albums list is filled with stuff i've never heard of

i like that though. sooooo much 90's stuff. i have no idea. Carpet Frogs? Brainpool?

but then i hear something cool like this and its worth it to seek things out. sometimes.

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

http://rateyourmusic.com/list/jgnikkila/shake_some_action__200_greatest_power_pop_albums/1/

The Tommy Keene, Orange Humble Band, Game Theory, Cotton Mather and Loud Family albums on this list are all awesome.

Scott, get thee to Martin Newell's back catalog! Solo, Cleaners From Venus and Brotherhood Of Lizards, it's all sub-Andy Patridge goodness.

Tears shed here for the omission of Baby Lemonade, Cockeyed Ghost, and William Pears from that list.

some of the brotherhood/cleaners stuff makes me think that guided by voices got all their inspiration from that guy. but i guess gbv was making music around the same time. so maybe its just an accident.

i think at least half of that list is unknown to me. maybe even more. Walter Clevenger & the Dairy Kings!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS6FVWFAcOg

i coulda swore this was a super old thread

oh lol i was thinking of this First 10 albums you have heard from the top POWER POP albums at RYM

congrats skot, you're making geir threads now

but his list was another list! i think. this is a very 90's-centric list from some book i've never read.

Scott, get thee to Martin Newell's back catalog!

Ha, I clicked on the link before reading the rest of the thread and was thinking "This sure sounds a lot like Cleaners From Venus" Great song anyway!

Am always up for some more power pop, I should read this book (or at least the full list).

i mean i don't think i even saw the nazz on that list and yet their number 6 album is by Chris Von Sneidern. Chris Von Sneidern?????

i think i have a martin newell album in the store. i knew he was xtc-related, but i didn't know how. or that he was the cleaners guy.

Some odd omissions -- no Let's Active or Bangles -- but a lot of good stuff on the list. Glad to see Jupiter Affect, though I don't think I'd actually rate it above the Three O'Clock.

It does miss the Mayflies USA, probably my favorite '90s power-pop band. Their first two albums are great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dZhmS0zWwM

'power pop' is such a weird slippery term, even compared to other nebulous rock subgenres -- so many bands that sound exactly like power pop bands but aren't categorized that way because they're too popular or predated/influenced the idea of power pop or are more closely aligned with some other genre term. i love a lot of power pop bands but calling them that almost seems backhanded, like wait a rock band plays really tuneful songs with lots of energy? are we giving them credit for doing something they're SUPPOSED to do?

well, yeah, and you also rarely see ELO or Abba on power pop lists and really how many bands were more powerfully poppy than those two?

something they're SUPPOSED to do?

No, I think you might give, say, the Raspberries credit for melodicism and harmony that rock and roll was not obligated to reach for.

I think "power pop" is a real thing, even if it's hard to draw clear lines around. I basically think of it as guitar-rock music with heavy influence from the Beatles/Byrds/Beach Boys axis (rather than the Stones/Hendrix/Zeppelin axis that gave us hard rock, metal, etc).

Lengthy attempt to pin down power-pop on this thread:

The Best 50 Powerpop Albums according to RYM

(And a Mayflies YouTube from tipsy.)

Couldve sworn geir started a thread complaining about this list a long time ago

and people wonder why i hide poll threads. SUGAR!!!

Robots love power pop, too: http://everynoise.com/engenremap-powerpop.html and http://rd.io/x/QUPlBzN2gVw/.

Glenn! needless to say, you have dominated my listening habits for days now. I listened to a ton of Sloan because of you. And i rekindled my love for everything trembling blue stars.

Sugar at #1 isn't the ideal result, but I think "Your Favorite Thing" can be fairly described as power-pop, and pretty great at that.

Nice collage--the Sneetches, even.

(And a Mayflies YouTube from tipsy.)

Yeah, I have probably posted the Mayflies on every power pop thread on ILM. They were good!

Applaud the fandom. I'm forever posting the same Rushmore and Boogie Nights clips on various threads.

and people wonder why i hide poll threads. SUGAR!!!

― scott seward, Saturday, August 24, 2013 3:03 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha i swear there is an unwritten rule of ILM that anytime anything Bob Mould is an option in a poll, it will win by a landslide. no idea why.

Would surely lose a "Favorite Bob" poll to the folksinger.

Hey glenn, I know that these playlists are auto-generated, but do you have any input at all into the specific tracks chosen for each artist/album? Cause "Inverness" is as perfect a choice (for Loud Family, for power pop) as I can imagine.

I write the code that picks the songs, so I have "input", but it's conceptual and general. That is, the same code handles every genre, only the data differs from case to case. It changes over time, too, so next week it might be something else.

Everyone should seriously check out the Toms record if you haven't already.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etjI6oLG_HA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etjI6oLG_HA

Green's debut (#66) is astounding, one of the great debuts in history. If there was a Big Star of the 80s/90s, it was Green.
http://youtu.be/BrH87zE04Os

dancing hoods (#136) is pre-sparklehorse mark linkous. don't remember much about it other than there wasn't too much in it that would predict sparklehorse.

sex clark five (#71) is a longtime fave by a group of alabamans making weird little nuggets of faux british guitar pop, kinda like guided by voices with one or two fewer marshall stacks.

richard barone and james mastro (#194) was a bongos side project that sounded pretty much like the bongos but smaller and wasn't bad at all iirc but it's been a long time.

d.l. byron (#163) was backed on this particular album by billy joel's band, which we recently learned in the elton john poll thread was not as good as elton's band. he went on to write pat benatar's "shadows of the night." his full name is david byron, but he should not be confused with uriah heep singer david byron,

before forming the barry holdship four (#198), barry holdship fronted '80s rockers let's talk about girls, which also featured his brother bill holdship, better known as that guy from creem magazine.

soul engines (#173) belong in every worst-band-name thread ilm has ever started, obviously.

enuff z'nuff were (are?) a hard-rockish band who could write reasonably catchy hooks and sing nice harmonies, which might cone close to a dictionary definition of power pop. but they looked like a hair metal band. i never completely understood their cult following, which was considerable.

(they're #167, for the record)

i once played on a bill with cliff hillis and i'm pretty sure we both slept on the same living room floor in albany that night. it wad a good show!

(oops, he's #77)

there are four bongos-related albums on here (#106, #119, #190, #194), but their amazing debut, drums along the hudson, is, bizarrely, nowhere to be found.

Enuff Z'Nuff's Ten is close to a perfect record. Long gone are crazy hair metal solos (and hair metal lead guitarists) and the band essentially becomes the Donnie Vie show. The album's that bookend it are great too, but slightly darker in tone. Check out "There Goes My Heart" and you'll be sold.

i saw parthenon huxley (#84) this summer at a freebie in the park, performing as a stand-in for jeff lynne in "the orchestra," an elo semi-cover band, alongside the guy who played paul in beatlemania and a couple of elo side-people. which maybe says more about how i value my free time than it does about parthenon huxley, who presumably was getting paid.

Someloves worth checking out.

I thought the Mockingbirds was referring to Graham Gouldman's pre-10cc band from the '60s, but it's an unrelated '90s act. The other Mockingbirds should have been on this list too.

this list has made my week and possibly month/year

i love 20/20. almost as much as Shoes.

oh yeah i get it. but there are lots of girl twee-pop/indie/post-punk/etc bands who would fit on a list like this.

Agree with that. I argued on the other thread that She Mob, Scrawl, some Bikini Kill, some Vivian Girls, etc. count as power pop for me.

Sad boys singing wistfully about idealized girls they'll never know--nature of the genre. (Female equivalent: girl groups of the '60s.) I know that's a broad generalization, but it covers a lot.

― clemenza, Tuesday, August 27, 2013 12:25 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Scott Miller (Game Theory and Loud Family, both on this list) used to describe his songs as "young adult hurt-feelings-athons." That nicely covers the genre for me.

i could never get into game theory. i really tried. i know people worship them. i bought their stuff cuz yeti mike would write about them so much in his chemical imbalance zine.

no sloan on this list. seems surprising.

sloan kind of the great hope for a lot of powerpop types.

also: no milk 'n' cookies!

I also never got way into Game Theory, but the best-of "Tinkers To Evers To Chance" nails them for me.

Sloan - I loved the first EP and album and then followed them for years with each release offering significantly diminishing returns.

Sad boys singing wistfully about idealized girls they'll never know--nature of the genre.

nature of 75 percent of all art, no?

(the other 25 percent being happy boys singing lustfully about idealized girls they met last night, aka hair metal and hip-hop.)

I don't know. I'm not sure that's how a lot of early power pop strikes me. Eric Carmen's songs can be really wistful, but I think it was often a pretty upbeat genre.

It is "power pop" after all.

My favorites of the genre are definitely Shoes and Toms.

Tommy Keene is amazing but the mid-eighties sound doesn't work for me, so I love what I heard of the first record but am a huge fan of the 90s stuff.

Also checked out that Green record on youtube and was loving it.

This is probably my favourite female power pop ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MugWrKFcGS8

Thing is, I don't think most people would classify it as such. And I'm not sure why.

Britpop/shoegaze/twee should count IMO but does seem to be ignored whenever these lists are put together.

I also think you can be wistful and upbeat at the same time, as with the Shop Assistants song.

god i loved that shop assistants album so much when i was a teen.

shop assistants hell yeah. this too is good female power pop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1so-4rS38A

Glad you posted that. "Crash" is deservedly famous, but I always thought "Stop Killing Me" was just as amazing.

or even Lush. they made some good peppy poppy stuff.

do the hummingbirds belong here?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5caZlgENIxA

that was kind of a hit though, but it played alongside the primitives all the time on my radio station so that's why i thought of it

http://cache4.asset-cache.net/gc/888511-004-judges-holding-score-cards-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=gcBmCzVLdnA6iPn9FcKAHM2J6iOkfDNiHCI7PDb4jl5sXKHKgtwCjZGQJSz9qzvnjByvwKh2jEqK%2FYpyxcIjvw%3D%3D

It's in!

i wish they had the early EP by The Sighs on youtube. and the first single. the EP is ESSENTIAL power pop. from the early 80's. they were a big deal around here in the 80's/90's but not really elsewhere. very good band. i still want to find their 90's stuff. i never look for CDs though when i go to stores. even the 90's atuff is really really good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM0ZVKtEBfI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1EDYmbyz-g

i don't know if this link still works but here's the EP and single. so great.

http://shotgunsolution.blogspot.com/2011/07/sighs-sighs-ep-bonus-shes-not-girl-i.html

So, I used this thread as inspiration/jumping-off point for part of my show on WNUR (ahem...Mondays, 6:30-9pm Central).

Here's what I played:

Game Theory, "I Mean it This Time" - The Real Nighttime
Green, "I'm Not Going Down (Anymore)" - 7"
Marshall Crenshaw, "You're My Favorite Waste of Time" - Marshall Crenshaw
Tommy Keene, "Kill Your Sons" - Songs From The Film
Teenage Fanclub, "About You" - Grand Prix
Shoes, "Say it Like You Mean It" - Ignition
LMNOP, "Constant Change" - elemen opee elpee
Velvet Crush, "Window to the World" - In The Presence Of Greatness
Richard Barone and James Mastro, "Angel in My Pocket" - Nuts And Bolts
Richard X. Heyman, "Catalina" - Living Room!!
Big Star, "O My Soul" - Radio City
The Loud Family, "Take Me Down (To Halloo)" - Plants And Birds And Rocks And Things
Richard Lloyd, "Number Nine" - Alchemy
The Bongos, "Mambo Sun" - Drums Along The Hudson
Redd Kross, "Neurotica" - Neurotica
Big Star, "In the Street" - #1 Record

I hadn't heard that Tommy Keene album in years -- and man that song (didn't catch that it was a Lou Reed cover) was a rocker. I sorta skipped through the whole thing looking for the what to play and I agree that the mid-80s production has not aged well. Also, I hadn't heard that LMNOP album in like 20 years, I bet. Really fantastic. And the station had the Richard X. Heyman album, but it hadn't even been opened yet! Twenty-some years and still sealed.

the hummingbirds do belong here!

you can be wistful and upbeat at the same time

Sure. Possibly my favorite power pop, though, is like "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend." And I think a song like that represents a genuine strain of the genre that's separate from its wistful aspect.

"Favorite Waste of Time" is fine, but "Our Town" is Marshall Crenshaw's best, most poper-poppy moment

More Green, from their 3rd (1989) album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNrWZBzP6_I

I have that Clovis Roblaine album on the list - it's hardly a lost power-pop masterpiece, but it does make me want to check the turntable to make sure i didn't leave it on 45 whenever i hear it

It's been a while since I listened to the first Marshall album, but I remember it as being a little spare, more of a singer-songwriter LP. Some great songs, of course--"Cynical Girl" is my favourite. The big production of the second one seems more squarely in the realm of power-pop: "Whenever You're on My Mind" is fantastic.

i think the reason i haven't delved deeply into the 90's stuff is because i'm still not anywhere near the bottom of the barrel as far as 60's and 70's stuff goes. there's so much there. so much i haven't heard. plus, i'm always scared of what the 90's stuff is gonna sound like. 90's rock sound kind of a touchy subject with me. i love this album. there are so many 70's/early-80's records like this. really good ones.

http://i1.sndcdn.com/artworks-000043922666-mu5eyc-crop.jpg?5ffe3cd

Unforgivable omission: Myracle Brah--Life On Planet Eartsnop

Best song is Good Day To The Night, a stone cold classic power pop doozy. But it's not on youtube. Here is another killer kut from that rockin' LP. Dig "Action Reaction." I'm telling you, it's a gas.

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

plus, not to mention all the old diy/poppunk/powerpop/killed by death/chuck warner stuff i will only ever hear a small portion of. endless. do you know how many diy poppunk singles were put out in 1979? nobody knows. they're still finding more.

You probably know Creme Soda--they were obscure at one time (I'd certainly never heard of them), but somebody reissued their LP a few years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKBL1FZR8Qw

aw hell, speaking of power pop singles put out in 1979. in honor of replacement replacement david minehan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8SMDoanED8

(though if there are official rules of power-pop, i'm guessing that not starting the vocal until nearly a minute into the song may violate one of those rules.)

I've always said and I still say that this is a great power pop album. (Their only one that I think really qualifies.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqSRFvmcCj0

That Creme Soda album is really unusual. Different styles and some out-of-time '60s sounding tunes. Very garage in an appealing way.

I don't know if it's ever been reissued officially unless the LP reproduction out now that includes the original labels was put out by the band or by the label that originally put it out. There was a piece by Greg Shaw about them on the original back cover - can't remember if it was a piece he'd written about them or if they were just liner notes he did for the record.

I don't know--I took it from some blog a few years ago. Very good; saved four songs after I burned it.

I count Pleasant Dreams as maybe the best Ramones album past the first four. I like it much better than Too Tough to Die--the song tipsy posted, "It's Not My Place (In the 9 to 5 World)," and "You Sound Like You're Sick" are all great. I think Leave Home is their greatest power-pop album, though: "Oh Oh I Love Her So," "Carbona Not Glue," "Swallow My Pride," and (most of all) "Now I Wanna Be a Good Boy," which defines the upbeat + wistful combination I mentioned above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Vt7pjsAmAQ

Growing up I always thought of the Ramones as punk but now having listened to so much power pop it seems much more like the stuff we have been discussing here than, say, the Sex Pistols.

Yeah, the Ramones very quickly--by the second album--turned the punk part of themselves into a 100% cartoon. Not that it wasn't a cartoon on the first album, but I think there was also some genuine menace on the likes of "Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World" and "Loudmouth" and a few other songs. They still continued to play with that aspect, but I much preferred their power-pop side (why I don't care for a lot of Too Tough to Die). That was the Joey (pop)/Johnny (punk) push-pull, wasn't it?

Regarding the actual list of the 200 Greatest Power Pop Albums, I'm glad to see Jason Falkner getting some respect (one of his albums gets listed at #129). Not sure though if i would have picked the one album listed. It's by no means bad, but most of Falkner's stuff is so good, it's hard to choose. The album listed consists primarily of demos, but even these are melodic gems.

That reminds me, where is The Grays one and only, but most excellent, record?

Okay, starry-eyed power pop folks--found what I think is a great one on this pile of home-burned CDs (which I didn't pay close attention to the first time I listened to them) I've been working my way through: "The Lovers" by the Pictures. Three or four good ones on their 2001 album, but this is the best.

http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/The+Lovers/5Rq65b?src=5

I love Jason Falkner but his solo albums can be frustrating listens. He pumps out the most amazing verses and bridges and then the choruses tend to fizzle. IMO his best work was in collaboration (Grays, Jellyfish).

And no wonder Anne Soldaat's album had so much good stuff - Falkner worked on that too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_tbp-e1t3w

I'm not a huge power-pop fan per se, and I'm especially suspicious of "great lost" bands in the genre. That said, the Shivvers compilation, while uneven, is *very* impressive at times. I think "Remember Tonight" was the first track to really make me sit up and take notice. Very Bangles-y, to my uninformed ears.

RIP Tommy Keene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj8bo9tpT0s

Wildly anti-thankful for that. 59. What a great songwriter.

Oh, well that royally sucks. :-(