December Mega-Roundup.

Making up for lost time with a mega-roundup with twice the albums!

Latvian Radio-Give in to the Night. Patrick Westoo & friends continue to deliver the goods on their seventh album, and it's more of the upbeat, buoyant pop they're known for. Combining new wave and power pop, the standouts here are the breezy "21st Century Shakedown" (complete with horns), the danceable title track, and the almost jangly "She's Back to Kill Again".

iTunes



Goodman-The Era of Buckets. It's been over 2 1/2 years since we last heard from Michael Goodman, but it was worth the wait. His latest collection of tuneful and insistent indie pop is another keeper, with the highlights being the opener "Don't", "Watch Your Mouth" (both reminiscent of AC Newman's work in The New Pornographers), and the heavy power pop of "Shallow (Completely Shallow)".

iTunes



Fallon Cush-Stranger Things Have Happened. Fallon Cush (a/k/a Australia's Steve Smith) is another returnee to these pages as he continues to mine a consistent career threading the needle between indie rock and alt-country, or as I've said before, Teenage Fanclub meets the Gary Louris-led Jayhawks. "Sleep Her Away" might be the quintessential Fallon Cush song with its sweet chorus, and "The Key" finds the alt-country side of things emphasized a bit more. Also of note are the lovely acoustic guitar ballad "Yaraman" and the Band-esque "Tempo over Time".

iTunes



Slumberjet-World of Sound. After a 9-year hiatus from their first collaboration, Barry O'Brien & Duncan Matiland team up again as Slumberjet. Both have had fine solo careers (with Maitland's Lullabies for the 21st Century clocking in at #2 on my 2010 year-end list), and here the whole is even better than the sum of the parts with tracks such as the Beatlesque "Round x 2", the infectious and rocking "(Theme from) Our Street", the could-have-been-an-80s-hit-with-its-synths "Across the Divide" and the McCartney-influenced "The Big Snow". A welcome return and a year-end list contender for me.

iTunes



Saul Glennon-North on Broadway. Saul Glennon is not a solo artist, but rather the name of an Ohio band derived from a Batman comic which riffed on the whole "Paul is Dead" rumor with Saul standing in for Paul and Glennon for Lennon. With that kind of background story, you won't be surprised to see the band draws from 60s and 70s British rock and pop and North on Broadway is a love letter to the area of Cleveland in which they grew up during the 70s. It's also one of the more pleasant surprises I've come across this year with one catchy guitar pop tune after another. From the Todd Rundgren-esque "Hello '76" to the Merseyside sounds of "Meet Me at Morgana" (with shout-outs to McDonald's and the old "special orders don't upset us" Burger King theme) to the whimsy of "Cause I was 15" it works as well as a concept album as it does a collection of cool tunes.

iTunes



The Inside Passenger (Cliff Hillis)-The Inside Passenger. The Inside Passenger is the alter-ego of the great Cliff Hillis, and this short (12 minutes and change) EP is a departure for him, hence the different name. Instead of the pristine power pop he's know for, Hillis has branched out into a more atmospheric sound which he compares to the likes of Grizzly Bear, Fleet Foxes, Elliott Smith, Sparklehorse and Nick Drake. While this aren't his usual toe-tappers, songs like "Truth Be Told", "Listen to Your Mother" and "If I Swam the Seven Seas" see Hillis's melodic gifts put to use in the context of some beautiful, haunting music. Listen for yourself below.

iTunes

Midweek Roundup.

Goodman-Isn't it Sad. NYC's Goodman is back with his second full-length, following up last year's What We Want. Isn't it Sad is another collection of tuneful indie pop, with the standouts being the power-popping title track, the midtempo "I'll Live Without Your Love", and the 80s-influenced "Like What They Like". A must for fans of AC Newman and Robert Pollard.

Bandcamp only



Evil Arrows-EPs 1 & 2. Evil Arrows is the latest project from Bryan Scary, well-known to readers of this site and the power pop community in general. His early releases were tuneful but suffered from a bit of ADD, but he later dialed it down and now with Evil Arrows he's honed his craft and put out an engaging pair of EPs with more apparently to come. We'll take these first two, released within about a month or so of each other, as one album. From EP1, "Romancer" finds Scary in playful mode, with a rollicking tune festooned with a lot of "la la la"s, "Silver Bird" has a Jellyfish vibe to it with its baroque piano parts, and "The Lovers" reminds me of Queen. On EP2, things take a turn for the cheeky with the frantic "Last Living Doll" and "Putting My Heart on the Pyre" recalling Scary's early work, while "Shadow Lovers" channels the early 70s glam rock of Sweet and Gary Glitter. It's great to have some more Scary power pop again.

iTunes (EP1) | iTunes (EP2)




The Orange Opera-Land of Tall. The Orange Opera is led by Kevin Hambrick, who has written hundred of songs over the years and was even featured in a documentary about being a musician in Fort Wayne, Indiana. His experience shows in his intricate popcraft, which fits in thematically with the two artists featured above as piano-based indie pop. Opener "Coy" is clever and catchy, somewhere in between Ben Folds and The Format, and "Happy" fits that bill as well. And don't miss "We Were Laughing", which is McCartney's "Nineteen Hundred & Eight Five" meets Jellyfish.

CD Baby | iTunes

New Goodman single.

I don't normally review singles but I'll make exceptions from time to time for artists previously featured on the site, and Goodman is one such exception. On the heels of his fine full-length What We Want, he has a two-song release ("Use Me"/"Dawdling") available now on Bandcamp at "name your price". The first track is not a cover of the Bill Withers classic but instead a new composition, as is "Dawdling", and they're both in the vein of the "jumpy power pop" that characterized What We Want. So if you liked that album, you know what to do here.

Bandcamp

Weekend Roundup.

Goodman-What We Want. Goodman is Michael Goodman, a 22-year-old New York-area musician with some impressive pop chops. What We Want is his first full-length (he released an EP in early 2012), and it sounds like the work of a veteran singer-songwriter. Perhaps the artist Goodman most reminds me of is The New Pornographers' A.C. Newman in that his catchy pop is supported by a sense of nervous energy. Opener "Night Person" is a great example of this, with a restlessness right lurking underneath its frenetic melody. Elsewhere, "Waiting" offers a earworm chorus, and "Yawning" almost re-imagines Roy Orbison as an indie popper. My favorite track here is "Fever", which is pretty much a slowed-down "Sugar Sugar" that comes off as that song's neurotic (if not evil) twin. This is some impressive work, and Goodman has the potential to become one of the more interesting artists in the genre.

CD Baby | iTunes

John Amadon-The Bursting Sheaf. If Goodman's point of reference is AC Newman, John Amadon's is Elliott Smith, an artist he resembles vocally as well as stylistically (and geographically as well, hailing from Portland, Oregon). This was apparent on his outstanding debut (2011's Seven Stars) and on the follow-up he gives us more of the same. After clearing his throat with the fun 2-minute instrument "Saltwater Crocodile", Amandon gets down to business with the lovely and laid-back "Walking the Shoulder" which also owes a debt to Alex Chilton (another artist he bears a vocal resemblance to). The piano-backed "Set Stone" moves with purpose, and the midtempo "Two Hunters" features a slightly western noir sound that reminds me of Joe Pernice's "Bum Leg". But Amadon can also rock out a bit, as evidenced by "Sisters of the Blue Horizon" (which really does sound like something that came off Big Star's third album) and "Taking My Field Away" which wouldn't have sounded out of place on Smith's posthumous From a Basement on the Hill. This is top-notch stuff, and a welcome listen for those of us who miss his two greatest influences.

CD Baby | Bandcamp