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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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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1 comment:
thx for the Steven Wright-Mark info - he's new to me and I downloaded some of his stuff. Also, have you heard the Last Bees second EP? It just dropped. More great stuff by perhaps my favorite new artist in the past year
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