The Absolute Powerpop Top 75 of 2011: The Top 10

As I had hinted elsewhere, I'm doing something different this year at the top of the list. Because I didn't have a clear-cut, slam-dunk #1 disc of the year, I've decided not to arbitrarily designate one. So instead I'm presenting my top 10 in alphabetical order. They could each be #1, or they could each be #10. Either way I highly recommend them all and hope you already have all or most of them in your collection.

Phil Angotti-People and Places. Sweet, McCartney-esque pop from a veteran musician whom I belatedly came around to. "Me and Donnie Vie" was one of my favorite tracks of 2011.

Cirrone-Uplands Park Road. An audacious debut for this Italian band, who draw as much from Big Star and Badfinger as they do contemporary power poppers. Perhaps 2011's best "traditional" power pop album.

Marco Joachim-Hidden Symphonies. Joachim's previous rootsy, Wilbury-ish release in no way prepared me for this tour de force which I originally only mentioned on the site in passing. A bright ELO/Beatles melange, it really grew on me.

Steve LaBate-The Dead Art of Letter Writing. LaBate's Replacements-meet-The-Clash solo debut was an impressive achievement for a guy better known as a Paste Magazine writer/editor and a member of a rock-comedy act.

David Mead-Dudes. Reuniting with Adam Schlesinger, Mead got his mojo back and came up with the singer/songwwriter album of the year. "The Smile of Rachael Ray" was named NPR's Song of the Day last week and deservedly so as it might have been the most poignant thing he's written.

Meyerman-Who Do You Think You Are? A rare achievement for this New Jersey band - not only did they craft a power pop album with killer hooks and riffs, they also crafted a power pop album that's a meta-commentary on the state of power pop and being in a rock band. On whichever level you enjoy it, it's definitely a revelation.

Michael Oliver & The Sacred Band-Yin & Yanxiety. Since Cliff Hillis decided not to release an album in 2011, Michael Oliver did it for him. Like the former Ike/Starbelly pop wizard, Oliver has an effortless way with a melody and a hook, and he writes intelligent lyrics to boot. What more can you ask for?

The Red Button-As Far as Yesterday Goes. So they'll probably never top 2007's album-of-the-year-on-this-site She's About to Cross My Mind. So what? If Swirsky & Ruekberg can keep releasing discs as pop-perfect as this folowup, I won't complain. Instead of making Cross My Mind 2, they took a chance and decided to tackle the 70s singer-songwriter milieu. I'm thinking that 80s synth-pop will be a tougher nut to crack, though, should they decide to advance another decade next time.

Brandon Wilde-Hearts in Stereo. And here's the David Grahame/Emmit Rhodes/early solo McCartney album of the year. "Candy Apples" and "Ooh La" would be the near the top of my favorite tracks of 2011 list, were I to make one this year.

Miles Zuniga-These Ghosts Have Bones. At long last my favorite half of the Fastball singing/songwriting team released a proper solo album, and it's a gem. Mature, lyrical, hooky and assured, it's a nice blend of pop styles that reveals Zuniga as the songwriting pro he is.

CD of the Day, 9/20/11: Meyerman-Who Do You Think You Are?

It's easy for me to become complacent about all the power pop (as broadly as I definite it on the site) I listen to, to the point where it can kind of fade into the background. Don't get me wrong - just about all the music I listen to and review on this site is music I really like, or even love, and is worthy of your listening time (and dollars). But a few times a year I get shaken out of my complacency when I get to hear a record that makes me say to myself "this is why I listen to power pop". Who Do You Think You Are?, the debut album from New Jersey's Meyerman, is one of those records.

This is classic Power Pop with 2 capital P's. It's also very "meta" - a power pop album which is mostly about being in a power pop band and a band's relationship with its audience. So while it has the sound of a number of power pop bands running through it like Cheap Trick, The Raspberries, Butch Walker, The Shazam, it has the looking-at-it-from-the-inside sensibility of The Replacements or Local H. Opener "Intro Tonight" basically thanks you for listening, and rewards the favor with an infectious, melodic tune that all but invites you to handclap along. They continue this "opt-in" request with "Permission to Rock You", another throat-clearer that still rocks, and finally get down to business proper with "Get to You", one killer hook and riff after another that you'll swear you heard before but sounds fresh and new.

Elsewhere, "Seconds" is a tough rocker that's wistful yet crunchy, and if "Immaculate Mansions" gives you a 60s/70s classic rock vibe, it's probably because the album was mixed by The Grip Weeds' Kurt Reil, another feather in its cap. "Tour of Japan" continues the self-referential theme with an ode to how our kind of music is more appreciated overseas than in the USA while its "teenage symphonies" line is a nod to Brian Wilson (and by extension, Velvet Crush). Meanwhile, "New Direction" is a footstomping number that explores the tension that occurs when a band offers a new sound which risks alienating its fans while trying keep from sounding stale, and "Indecision & Inertia" honors its title by being a halting, midtempo number, yet still works.

If anything, Who Do You Think You Are? could be considered the "Community" of power pop albums. Like the TV show, it's very much about itself while still delivering the goods, ironic but not sardonic. On the one hand, it rewards you for being in on the joke while on the other it's still an excellent representative of its genre if you'd rather not think too hard about it.

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