Tag: Power Pop
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Plain White T’s ‘All That We Needed’ (2005)
Despite the fact that I binge listened to “Hey There Delilah” in high school (along with 99.6% of my graduating class), saw Plain White T’s live at an L3 when they opened for The Matches, and consider Jimmy Eat World one of my favorite bands of all-time (more on that in a second), I never…
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Nazz ‘Nazz’ (1968)
We’ve talked about Todd Rundgren’s solo career before but his musical journey began with Nazz, a Philadelphia-based band he co-founded in 1967. Nazz was sort of a band in name-only based off what I’ve seen. Put another way, it was essentially a showcase for a young Rundgren to wield full creative control as songwriter, arranger,…
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Bowling for Soup ‘Drunk Enough To Dance’ (2002)
Bowling for Soup carved out a pretty cool niche as a band who could make comedy rock songs that had element of truth to them. There was their iconic “Girl All the Bad Guys Want” single off this album that made them super popular and regaled a story that pretty much every dorky high schooler…
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Fountains of Wayne ‘Welcome Interstate Managers’ (2003)
Fountains of Wayne was best known for their 2003 hit “Stacy’s Mom” which was basically everywhere (and I mean everywhere) when I was first starting high school. The band was fronted by Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger and basically was more of a creative side project than a career-defining pursuit for its members, which is…
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The 1975 ‘The 1975’ (2013)
I hadn’t gotten too deep into The 1975 until a few weekends ago when me and the family were driving home from a weekend in Chico. It’s a three hour drive which certainly lends enough time to get a few full album listens in. With my wife being a huge Taylor Swift fan it made…
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Marshall Crenshaw ‘Marshall Crenshaw’ (1982)
Marshall Crenshaw channels classic influences like Buddy Holly and the Beatles without sounding overly derivative. It’s a fun little jangle pop record, filled with crisp guitar work and tightly structured songs that do their damnedest not to overstay their welcome. There’s actually a good amount of complexity swirling underneath in both the vocal melodies and…
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The Band CAMINO ‘tryhard’ (2019)
I remember hearing the opening guitar riff of “Daphne Blue” for the first time a few years ago and being totally blown away how fricking gorgeous it sounded. The hazy distortion, the reverb, the sweet delays, all vintage 80’s fare meets modern pop production until everything sounds massive. It was one of those songs that…
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Elvis Costello ‘My Aim Is True’ (1977)
Juggling a day job as a data clerk at Elizabeth Arden, Elvis Costello squeezed recording sessions for My Aim Is True into six four-hour sessions, tracked on a shoestring budget with little time for polish. The urgency bleeds through in every note. Backed by the American country-rock band Clover—who were blissfully unaware of the sardonic…
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The Goo Goo Dolls ‘Dizzy up the Girl’ (1998)
Buffalo, New York in the mid-80s was the unassuming cradle of The Goo Goo Dolls, a scrappy trio carving their niche in the hardcore punk scene. With John Rzeznik’s gritty guitar riffs and Robby Takac’s punk ethos their sound was raw and in your face aggressive (yes, really). They were far from the polished, radio-friendly…
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Andrew W.K. ‘I Get Wet’ (2001)
At the end of the day rock and roll is meant to be fun, and a guy like Andrew W.K. gets that. I Get Wet is a riotous, adrenaline-fueled ode to reckless abandon, capturing the sheer joy of living in the moment and completely disregarding whatever responsibilities await tomorrow morning. The album is a wall-to-wall…
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The Promise Ring ‘Nothing Feels Good’ (1997)
As a certifiable emo kid in my teens there were a few albums that had an outsized impact on many of my favorite bands. I didn’t know it at the time, but some of my favorite artists like Taking Back Sunday, Dashboard Confessional, and Jimmy Eat World owed a ton to Nothing Feels Good by…
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The Replacements ‘Tim’ (1985)
By 1985 Minneapolis-based The Replacements had carved out a space in the punk rock underground, but Tim marked their shift toward a sound that began to explore the roomier horizon of alternative rock. With their ragged guitars and Westerberg’s soulful voice, The Replacements blended punk’s sharp edge with a melodic sensibility that gave them a…
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The Who ‘My Generation’ (1965)
Released in 1965, The Who’s debut album My Generation not only defined the sound of British rock but also marked the band’s explosive entry into the music scene. With its raw energy, catchy melodies, and rebellious spirit, the album captured the essence of youthful defiance. Tracks like “My Generation” and “The Kids Are Alright” resonated…
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Smoking Popes ‘Destination Failure’ (1997)
Smoking Popes lead singer Josh Caterer was famously obsessed with big band tunes, and that love affair helped him develop a vocal style that was decidedly unique in the punk rock world. You can hear the influence Caterer had on his contemporaries when you listen to Alkaline Trio bassist Dan Andriano, whose vocal style and…
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Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer ‘Self-Titled’ (2002)
As I wrote in my writeup for Circa Survive’s magnum opus On Letting Go, I’m a huge stan for Anthony Green. From my perspective everything he touches is gold: The obvious element which makes it work Anthony Green. Green’s prolific artistic output as both a member of multiple bands (he currently fronts four of them)…
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Dan Hartman ‘I Can Dream About You’ (1984)
I Can Dream About You is a quintessential 80’s album that perfectly captures the era’s vibrant energy and cheesy earnestness. Blending pop, rock, and synth elements, Hartman’s powerful voice cascades over arrangements whose bias for danceability hides some pretty excellent melodic choices. If you close your eyes and listen closely you can hear the influence…
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Patrick Stump ‘Marvel’s Spidey and His Amazing Friends’ (2024)
As a parent of two young kids you get exposed to (dare I say completely deluged with) programming geared toward children, from TV shows to music to toys. And while some of it is relatively disposable and grating, there exists some really solid offerings that you can’t help but sing along to– Bluey is filled…
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Forever The Sickest Kids ‘Forever The Sickest Kids’ (2010)
There was a brief moment in the late aughts where neon pop punk reigned supreme. That genre adopted all the elements from the early 2000’s pop punk wave of bands like Blink-182, The Starting Line, and Fall Out Boy and took it a step further, introducing even more formal power pop song structural elements and…
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The All-American Rejects ‘The All-American Rejects’ (2002)
The year was 2003 and I was a newly minted Middle School graduate entering high school. I was getting heavily into music, compulsively buying records at a fervid clip, and the local radio station Live 105 was putting on their annual summer concert festival BFD (short for Big F***ing Day) during the halcyon summer months.…
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Wallows ‘Nothing Happens’ (2019)
Nothing Happens is the debut studio album from Indie Pop group Wallows, who has taken the city of Los Angeles by storm in the past few years. One of the primary reasons why? The band is comprised of B-list actors Dylan Minnette (best known for his role as Clay Jensen in the Netflix smash hit…
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Tom Petty ‘Full Moon Fever’ (1989)
Full Moon Fever was Tom Petty’s debut solo album after taking a hiatus from his longtime backing band The Heartbreakers, a similar career path that Bruce Springsteen took when he released Tunnel of Love in 1987 without the official backing of the E Street Band. My love for Petty has been well chronicled (you can…
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All Time Low ‘Wake Up, Sunshine’ (2020)
Veteran pop punkers All Time Low returned to their roots on 2020’s Wake Up, Sunshine and in the process scored the biggest chart-topping song of their career with “Monsters”. Despite the fact the band has been around since the early aughts and been a mainstay in the pop punk scene for over 20 years (which…
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Blondie ‘Parallel Lines’ (1978)
Blondie’s Parallel Lines is a study in evolution. Originally a punk rock band with their self-titled debut in 1976, Blondie managed to break out of the underground in the US and make the jump into the Top 40 with the release of Parallel Lines. Adopting elements of New Wave and dance pop, while still retaining…
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Third Eye Blind ‘Third Eye Blind’ (1997)
Third Eye Blind is one of the albums I’ve put off writing about for over a year since I started this project of listening and writing about an album a day for the one distinct reason that it’s an absolutely perfect album. Hard stop. There isn’t a song on here that I skip. I make…
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Something Corporate ‘Leaving Through The Window’ (2002)
In the early aughts pop punk scene Something Corporate stood out for one distinct reason– lead singer and songwriter Andrew McMahon. His use of piano as both a composition tool and for lead hooks was unique in the genre and immediately set the band apart from their peers sonically in a way that was similar…
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Weezer ‘Blue Album’ (1994)
Weezer’s debut album Weezer (more commonly known as the Blue Album) took nerd rock into the mainstream and kicked off what has since been a massively successful career. The album was produced by the great Ric Ocasek of The Cars fame, and his power pop influence can be heard extensively throughout the record in all…
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Lit ‘A Place In The Sun’ (1999)
A Place In The Sun holds a special place in my heart in that it features “My Own Worst Enemy” which is the first song that I ever played live in front of a group of people. During eighth grade my middle school held a Talent Show where students were invited to participate. It was…
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Cheap Trick ‘At Budokan’ (1978)
Cheap Trick’s At Budokan served role similar to The Allman Brothers Band At Fillmore East and Johnny Cash’s At Folsom Prison in that it was a live album which served as a jumping off point in their career. The album received heavy airplay following its release in 1978, transforming Cheap Trick from a marginally successful…
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Jimmy Eat World ‘Bleed American’ (2001)
I love a great album opener. It is a manifesto for an album that not only sets the stage but also defines what comes after it. Bleed American has an incredible opening song. The title track is hands down my favorite Jimmy song of all-time for about a million different reasons, the primary one being…
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Cyndi Lauper ‘She’s So Unusual’ (1983)
Cyndi Lauper is an icon in nearly every sense of the world. Her wild hairstyles, feverishly flamboyant in all their neon glory, is a distinct calling card she’s continued to this day ever since introducing punk fashion into the pop mainstream. Her work as an advocate for the LGBTQ community during a time when it…
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Huey Lewis & The News ‘Fore!’ (1986)
Huey Lewis & The News occupy a spot in music history as one of the quintessential 80’s power pop bands. They had this folksy charm that was undeniable– from the classic rhythm & blues and doo wop influences, to the gorgeous soft rock chord progressions, to the full band sound. Everything about Huey Lewis was…
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Rick Springfield ‘Working Class Dog’ (1981)
Ed. Note: Welcome to Sound City week here at Music of Matthew dot com! This week we’ll be covering some notable albums recorded at the legendary Sound City studio in Los Angeles, which was covered in great detail in Dave Grohl’s excellent 2013 documentary “Sound City”. Rick Springfield has been somewhat of a punch-line for…
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Sugarcult ‘Start Static’ (2001)
Start Static will forever remind me of freshman and sophomore year high school. It’s where Sugarcult sort of started and ended for me in terms of any sort of regular listening cadence, and outside of the off the cuff nostalgic spin of “Stuck In America” once a year or so, it’s safe to say it’s…
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Everclear ‘So Much For The Afterglow’ (1997)
90’s alternative rock holds a special place in my heart for a variety of reasons— it’s the almost comically distorted guitars, the undeniable influence of pop music, and the punk-like aggressiveness of the drums that make everything sound big and heavy, and lyrical themes that frankly pull no punches in the story they’re trying to…
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