Late February Roundup.

Ronny Tibbs-Lone Fry. Power poppers and indie poppers unite! - Detroit's Ronny Tibbs has given us 2019's first truly great release. Reminiscent of the likes of Nilsson, Brian Wilson and (a less frenetic-sounding) Bryan Scary, Lone Fry is a pop tour-de-force that opens with the brilliant "30-Year-Old Boy", a piano-based number complete with strings, backing vocals and a soaring melody. "All She Wrote" is first-rate guitar pop which recalls some of The Smithereens' moodier numbers, while "Watching Annie Over" sounds like a more fleshed-out Guided by Voices tune. "Mona Lisa" is another pretty piano-based track, and "Picture of Us" is where the Bryan Scary comparison comes in. Tibbs even throws in a couple of electronic-based danceable tracks with "Sunlight" and "Honourole" and then closes with the conventional power pop of "Breakout". Just call him Mr. Tibbs.

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Pale Hollow-Pilots. Still catching up on 2018 with this late-year release which found its way into my top 100 but warrants a special mention here because aside from being a fine album, it's the first we've heard from Cleveland's Michael Allen in 11 years. His 2007 debut was a great collection of folk/rock tunes with classic rock instrumentation which recalled the English countryside circa 1971, and the long-awaited followup continues in the same vein. "Can't You Hear the Highway" opens the album and encapsulates this sound perfectly, its easy-going melody getting a rock treatment. Tracks like "Trouble and "Empire" are almost bucolic, while the title track and especially "Flame On" are catchy uptempo rockers that would sound at home alongside The Kinks and The Faces. An enjoyable listen, although you may find yourself growing sideburns after you're done.

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Mark Crozer-My Home is a New Country. Whenever I compose one of these posts, I always do a quick search of my archives to see when the last time I posted on the artist. To my complete surprise I realized I've never featured a Mark Crozer album here despite him releasing several this decade, most of which made my year-end lists, so it's time to remedy this with his latest release. For the unfamiliar, Crozer is a classic power popper who's also spent time as a touring member of The Jesus and Mary Chain and by all means check out his back catalog. On the new one he grabs your attention out of the blocks with "Shock to the Heart", which reminds me of BOC's "Burnin' for You" with its prominent bassline and radio-ready melody. "Where I Come From" is another moody gem, "Turnabout Beach" is a slow-burner that'll grown on you, and "Lay With Me" channels solo Alex Chilton.

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Early February Roundup.

John Rooney-Joy. John Rooney may hail from Australia, but his latest release is southern-fried power pop mixed by Mitch Easter and produced by Don Dixon. Rooney, who in the previous decade released music under the Coronet Blue name, comes swinging out of the block with "Don't Give Up Now", a fun tune featuring horns and having an R&B feel, "Grant Me Peace" has a Van Morrison vibe, and "What Could Have Been" and "Delicious" bring the pop. Fans of a more soulful power pop sound will want to check this one out.

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Four Star Riot-Daylight. Catching up on a 2018 release which made my top 100, Four Star Riot hail from my backyard of Clearwater, Florida but it's not local favoritism that finds them here, it's ten tracks of top-notch pop/rock. There's plenty to like here - from the midtempo Petty-esque opener "Slayed Pretender" to the Gin Blossoms-influenced "Almost Daylight" to the 80s rock of "Oxygen" (which features assistance from Roger Joseph Manning Jr., who seems to get around a lot these days). Other standouts include the dense guitar rock of "Tunnel Vision" and the bright pop of "Anyone".

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Roving Reporter-Joie de Vivre EP. Roving Reporter is Seattle-by-way-of-New Orleans's Brett Barrilleaux new project and this 4-track EP is a solid debut of Elliott Smith-meets-Wilco indie pop/rock. "Forget About Me" recalls Smith's poppier offerings circa XO and Figure 8, while "Patterson Brown" is a catchy keyboard-based number. And "Another Note" is a warm, lovely track that goes down smooth. As the cliche goes, I'm looking forward to the full-length here.

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Todd Lewis Kramer-January EP. Todd Lewis Kramer is nominally country, or Americana, because he sings with a bit of a twang but his new EP is pretty much ear candy pop (or Popicana, if you prefer). "All of My Days" is one of my first favorite songs of 2019, a buoyant tune which the Gary Louris version of The Jayhawks would be at home with and "She Knows" is another uptempo pop confection, while the closing "Do I Ever Cross Your mind?" is from the Ryan Adams playbook of dusky ballads.

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