Late April EPs & Singles Roundup.

Steven Wright-Mark-Wake Up! This EP is the first new music from NYC's Steven Wright-Mark since 2012's Plastic World, and it's great to have him back even if it's only four tunes. But it's a case of quality over quantity as all four tracks are pop gems that will appeal to fans of Cliff Hillis and Michael Carpenter. "Just a Dream" features a great call-and-response chorus, "Runaway, Baby" adds some Tom Petty influence to the mix, and "Whisper in the Wind" is a top-notch ballad. But the lead single "Underground" is worth the price of admission alone, one of 2020's best songs to date. It's a thinly-veiled commentary on the state of things today, but is anything but preachy and features handclaps and an irresistible chorus. A shoo-in for my year-end EP list.

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Steven Wright-Mark · Wake Up!

Mitch Linker-I'll Take My Chances EP. Speaking of long absences, Hartford's Mitch Linker brings us his first new music in 13 years. Perhaps best known for the short-lived power pop band The Day Traders, Linker serves up a slick four-track EP that could be called adult contemporary in the vein of Josh Rouse or David Mead. "Given Everything" and "I'll Take My Chances" are the standouts here, mellow gold for a new decade.

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The Explorers Club-Ruby/I Wonder What She's Doing Tonite. Like presidential elections and Summer Olympics (though maybe not this year), The Explorers Club has been releasing new much precisely every four years since 2008. This two-song single is a preview of the two albums they have coming out this summer, one consisting of originals and the other all covers. We get one of each here, with the original "Ruby" a great example of their glorious sunshine pop finding the mean between 60s California pop and Merseyside. "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonite", meanwhile, is a cover of the 1968 Boyce & Hart top 10 hit that's of a piece with band's sound. This is all making me eagerly await the full-length releases.

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Creamer-Hideaway. Phillip Creamer's debut album was one of my favorites of 2018 as it perfectly captured the early 70s Big Star sound, and his new single is more of the same - a gentle ballad that builds to an operatic crescendo. Hoping this heralds a new album.

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Bleu-I Wanna Write You a Symphony. Another artist from whom new music is always welcome is the irrepressible Bleu, and his new single is as a grandiose undertaking as its title implies with all of his trademark bells and whistles.

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Salim Nourallah-Building a Case. The man who brought us my favorite album of 2012, Hit Parade, otherwise has released several albums I've enjoyed but haven't been over the moon about. But this catchy new single about his lover "building a case against our love" demonstrates his clever charm and wit and wouldn't have been out of place on Hit Parade, so I'm highly recommending it.

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Early April Roundup.

The Foreign Films-Ocean Moon (New Songs and Hidden Gems). Bill Majoros spent most of the previous decade working on and releasing his 3-disc epic The Record Collector, the proper followup to his brilliant 2007 double-disc debut Distant Star. His latest offering is Ocean Moon, a more modest 9-track disc which starts off with six new tracks then revisits a trio from The Record Collector, recontextualizing them into a loose concept album of sorts about being in love, both with a woman and with the music of the 60s. The six new songs are all quite excellent, from the Zombies-like opener "Dream With Me Tonight" to the "sha-la-la-la-la" chorus of "Katie and the Crystal Hearts" to the latter-day Jeff Lynne stylings of the title track. Will these six new songs end up as part of some multi-disc release in the next few years? Stay tuned, but tune into these new ones now.

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High on Stress-Hold Me In. Like many, six years ago I was bummed to hear that Minneapolis rockers High on Stress broke up, and like many I'm thrilled that Nick Leet & company have reunited. Hold Me In sounds like they never went away, delivering a dozen tracks in the vein of The Replacements-meets-early Wilco. "Work Release" is a great opener, with "my heart's on work release" a metaphor worthy of some of Westerberg's best. "Dakota" features a country beat, "Never Got That Far" is a great folk-rocker with ex-Billy Pilgrim Andrew Hyra joining on vocals, and speaking of guest stars, Laurie Lindeen (of ZuZu's Petals and Westerberg's ex) duets with Leet on what's perhaps the album's best track, the yearning "Wish This Moment Gone". A return to form, if not an improvement on form.

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Surrender Human-Surrender Human. The Chapel Hill NC music scene might not be what it was in the 90s, but three veterans of that era have teamed up in their best effort to bring them back. Matt McMichaels (vocals, guitar) of the late great Mayflies USA joins Ben Folds Five bassist Robert Sledge and drummer Tony Stiglitz (Jett Rink, Chris Stamey) as Surrender Human, and their debut disc finds them in fine form. It's a mix of 90s slacker-era indie rock with an older and wiser pop sound, and fans of any of the bands these guys played in or with will love it. The bright rocker "Boxcar Reel" lets you know what you're in for, the catchy "Let You Down" could have been a staple on college rock radio stations 25 years ago, and "Girls Not Talking" is some nifty power pop. Surrender to this one.

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