MAY 2023 REVIEWS

by Mike Baron

THE ANDERSON COUNCIL: The Devil, the Tower, the Star, the Moon (JEM)

Anderson Council has been around since ‘99. Their newest is my introduction to the band and now I’m a believer. Loaded with bridges and hooks, the Anderson Council is exemplary power pop, drawing on a half century of influences to deliver sweet harmonies and a perfect balance of major and minor chords, which all great power pop must. The fast pulse of “Alone With You” evokes the Brit band Farrah, but you could say the same for the Hollies, the Turtles, and Throwback Suburbia. “Times on the Thames” evokes Italy’s Radio Days, which illustrates how power pop has permeated the world. If I didn’t know Radio Days was Italian, I would swear they were American. “Give It Time” shows the Anderson Council has absorbed Brit Pop, the Hollies again, but also Gerry and the Pacemakers. The Anderson Council doesn’t sound like those bands, but you can hear the echoes. “Messes Up My Mind” has the minor/major thing down cold, the end modulating into the universal Beatles chord. A hint of Nashville creeps into “Untrained Eyes,” with its flat-pickin’ banjo, and “Untrained Eyes” sounds a little like the Jefferson Airplane, with a hint of guitar dissonance, like that drop of black paint in a bucket of white, which only makes the white brighter.

“The band adopted The Anderson Council, a moniker from blues musicians Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. (Note: Pink Floyd took the first names.)”

CHRIS CHURCH: Radio Transient (Big Stir)

Chris Church’s tart, sleekly angular pop combines swirling eddies of electronica with a thumping bottom. There are no antecedents. Church has created his own instantly identifiable sound. “GCRT” bangs out of the gate riding one chord with half steps up and down. “I Dont Wanna Dance With Me” throws a chord down like a pontoon bridge and duck walks across. “I Think I Think I Like You” is the only track that sounds like mainstream power pop, with its Bill Lloyd-like melody. A bumptious Elvin Bishop-like bass anchors “Already In It.” Despite the absence of sweet harmonies and hooks we associate with most power pop, Church has created a compelling record that is sui generis. And we know it’s on purpose, because this is the same man who recorded Backwards Compatible.

REDRAWN—A TRIBUTE TO THE PENCILS (Kool Kat)

The Pencils formed in North London in 1980 and released a couple of singles before disbanding in 1983. Kool Kat impresario Ray Gianchetti got wind of the band, and after hearing a couple singles determined to track down their only album, which he found on a German label. Kool Kat released the Anthology in 2012. One listen will convince you that the band, headed by Den Pugsley, were power pop geniuses on a level with The Raspberries, Badfinger, or The Beat. Now, eleven years later, Kool Kat has released a two album tribute, twenty-three songs by twenty-three of the foremost power pop practitioners, and it is glorious, beginning with the Jetz’ rendition of “I Won’t Lie.

You hear traces of so many great bands, such as Gerry and the Pacemakers, in Automat’s version of “If You Really Wanna Hurt Somebody,” the ineluctable pulse of the Plimsouls or Angel City in Sunbourne Road’s “Watching the Tears,” or the hushed tones of The Millennium in Moon Dancer’s “Paper Heart.” Pugsley uses the bassline from “Tears Of A Clown” not once but twice, on both versions of “You Say You,” here performed by Jim Trainor. The Stayawakes’ version of “I’m Still Waiting” gives equal time to minor chords.

The Glad Machine’s wild, arcing guitar solo highlights the good bones of “I Won’t Lie.” Traces of 10 CC leak from Jamie Cook’s version of “Paper Heart.” The Parallax Project’s “You Say You” reprises those “Tears Of A Clown” chords. The bridge in Threeleggeddog’s version of “Pictures Of Paris” smacks you in the head. Other contributors include Ex Norwegian, 1957 Tail-Fin Fiasco, and Nick Frater. Listening to this album gives the same sense of discovery as Hiram Bingham felt when he first laid eyes on Macchu Picchu, or Hernan Cortes seeing Tenochtitlán for the first time. Only you can dance to it.