Weekend Roundup.

First in Space-In the Red. Johnny Stanec and the boys from Youngstown are back with their fourth full-length, and it just might be their best, trading in the Replacements-style rock of the last album for a purer pop sound. Although you wouldn't tell from the driving opener "Letters from Hell", it becomes evident on tracks like the bouncy "Forward Progress" and the midtempo, Gin Blossoms-like "The Other Side", and "Now or Never" is straight-up power pop reminiscent of Cliff Hillis or Michael Carpenter. And you only have to in the red for $5 for a digital copy at Bandcamp.

CD Baby | iTunes



VA-Here Comes the Reign Again: The Second British Invasion. Andrew Curry has done it again. After last year's compilation of contemporary power poppers covering the lite rock classics of the late 70s, Curry has gotten another all-star cast together to tackle the next decade when all those British bands came out of nowhere thanks to the emergence of MTV. Now while last year's comp was my favorite album of the year, this one - while executed just as well - may not achieve those heights due to my own personal preference for those late-70s tracks versus some of the synth-heavy sounds of the early 80s. Still there's plenty here to enjoy (and even geek out over if you're a bigger fan of the era than I) and like on the last compilation, the best covers here are those that sound like natural extensions of the artists covering them. So the suburban milieu of "Life in a Northern Town" is a perfect fit for Fountains of Wayne's Chris Collingwood, and "Everytime You Go Away" sounds so much like a typical Linus of Hollywood track that I forgot it was a cover when listening to it alongside his most recent release. Also in this category are "Save a Prayer", which is in David Mead's ballad wheelhouse, and the pure midetempo pop of "Wouldn't it Be Good" in Cliff Hillis's hands. Then you have the reinterpretations, and the ones that work here best are Mike Viola slowing down "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" and Graham Alexander doing likewise with Tracey Ullman's "They Don't Know". This is another must for power pop fans.

CD Baby | iTunes

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, 11/22/11: David Mead-Dudes

Longtime readers of this site know that I'm a big David Mead fan, but his last release, 2009's Almost and Always, left me a little cold. It was an admirable effort as Mead's songwriting skills continued to shine, but musically it was a bit too subdued (no pun intended). So I was excited to hear that he enlisted the help of Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger (who produced his 2001 release Mine and Yours) for this record, hoping he'd return to a more upbeat - dare I say - power pop sound. And for the most part my hopes have been fulfilled, as Dudes may be Mead's most consistently engaging album since his audacious 1998 debut The Luxury of Time.

When he's at his best, Mead can seamlessly transition from a power pop gem to a brilliant ballad that sounds like a standard to what almost seems a showtune and back again. "I Can't Wait" opens the disc, and it's a fine midtempo number with a rolling melody that's reminiscent of the style found on his 2004 album Indiana. "King of the Crosswords" follows, and it's a rousing pop tune (complete with sax) about a crossword puzzle prodigy. Another standout is "Guy on Guy", which finds Mead at his lyrical best about a man who finds himself attracted to other men and features an old-time melody and a playful trombone. "Bocce Ball" is a quick 2-minute ditty with a Latin lilt that's insanely catchy (try getting its "bocce, bocce, bocce ball" chorus out of you head). The title track is another highlight; although the word "dude" begs not to be taken seriously, the song itself is a mature, melodic track and one of Mead's best.

The second half of the disc starts off in power pop mode with "Happy Birthday, Marty Ryan", probably Mead's most electric guitar-centric song in years, and also features "No One Roxx This Town No More", a R&B-inflected, ultra-catchy pop number that's of a piece with "Chatterbox" off 2006's Tangerine. And the holiday-themed "The Smile of Rachael Ray" is the kind of "instant classic"-sounding tune that seems to come second nature to him. The album closes with another winner: "Knee Jerk Reaction", a Paul Simon-like number reminiscent of "Me & Julio Down by the Schoolyard". Dudes is a welcome return to form for Mead, and without a doubt one of 2011's best.

iTunes

Also, it's highly worth your while (especially if you're relatively new to David Mead) to pick up this free 25-song sampler from Noisetrade, which features many of his classic tracks, some fine unreleased material, and the title track and "I Can't Wait" from Dudes.

New David Mead on the way.

David Mead was one of my favorite artists of the previous decade-plus, from brilliant albums like The Luxury of Time, Mine and Yours and Indiana, as well as one my favorite EPs of all-time in 2005's Wherever You Are. His output of late has been a little more erratic; I couldn't get into his side project Elle Macho and while Almost and Always (his last proper album from early 2009) had its moments, it was a bit too easy listening for my tastes (and that's saying something consider how much mellow stuff I like).

Anyway, he's back with a new album he's going to start recording in January titled Dudes and the most exciting aspect of it for me is that he's enlisting Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger (who produced Mine and Yours) to help out, so I'm hoping it'll be a more "traditional" David Mead album that leans somewhat to the rock/power pop side of things rather than Sinatra/Streisand territory. Mead, not unlike Bleu and Michael Carpenter before him, is offering a series of packages in order to fund the recording that get you all kinds of goodies - from $15 to get the album early to $100 to listen to demos and have input into which are selected for the album, all the way to $2500 where he comes to your house and plays a set. Here's a video telling you all about it:



Too bad Weezer beat him to putting Jorge Garcia on the cover; he would have been perfect for an album titled Dudes.

In honor of Michael Jackson...

...here's one of my favorite artists, David Mead, with a cover of "Human Nature":

AbPow rewind: David Mead's Wherever You Are

One of the first things I ever did on this blog was anoint this EP the best of the decade. I still stand by that proclamation. "Make it Right" just popped up on my iPod, and since we didn't have Lala embeds back then (the dark ages of early 2006), it deserves one now:

More new David Mead.

Last month we gave you the link for the first half of the new David Mead album Almost and Always, and now here's part two:

New David Mead!

Longtime readers of this blog know what a David Mead fanboy I am, so I'm quite pleased to pass on the news that his new disc, Almost and Always, is available for download through NoiseTrade. Well, the first half of it at least (for now). Click on the widget below, and you get the option of a free download by telling five friends, or pay what you want. I'd urge the latter, since there are few artists more deserving.

EP of the Day Year Decade?: David Mead-Wherever You Are

Many (if not most) of you are probably familiar with this one, but if anyone reading this isn't, buying this EP should be the next thing you do. Now. It's that good.

If EPs were eligible for consideration in the Audities poll, this would have been my favorite album of 2005. Even as a 6-track EP, it was better than all the other full-lengths I heard; had Mead simply added 4 tracks reciting the Mellonville Phone Book to get it to album length, it'd still be my favorite.

The backstory of this EP is somewhat interesting; these tracks were intended as a full-length Mead was recording in 2002. Label shenanigans intruded, and the project was shelved. Mead then released Indiana in 2004 after joining Nettwerk, and several of the shelved songs were reworked and included in that fine release (which incidentally includes a stunning cover of "Human Nature". Yes, that "Human Nature"). The ones left over saw the light of day in this EP released last spring, but believe me, these are no leftovers, just tracks about his time in New York City that didn't fit in with Indiana.

The six songs are split into 2 uptempo numbers, one midtempo track, and 3 slower ones. The uptempo numbers ("Hold On", "Make It Right") are pure pop at its best, with chrouses that will never escape your mind. They have kind of a good 80s pop sensibility to them, albeit (thankfully) without heavy synthesizers. The midtempo number, "Only a Dream", is another one with a refrain that just won't quit ("if you awake with a shake and shiver/from down in the depths of a mess you've seen/leave it behind, close your eyes/and remember, it's only a dream"), and the three slower ones (the title track, "Astronaut", and "How Much") have a real, understated beauty.

The best place I could find to sample it was Amazon. The snippets are short, but they get you right to the hooks (and you'll be hooked). Even better, this EP is available at (drum roll, please) eMusic right here. And if you sign up for the 50 free tracks, you'll have this incredible EP and 44 more to download (plus, you can grab that Copperdown or Caudill I discussed yesterday and even then still have about half of your freebies left).