The Power Pop Thread / Best Songs In The Genre

Manfred Mann
Pretty Flamingo (1966)

Highly offensive song about "the male gaze" (seriously, stop using this expression ffs), and extreme objectification, that is told from a patriarchal POV and is entirely heteronormative............. also offensive to flamingos.

A crucial song in the genre ........in 1966 anyway......... when shockingly no one used any of those terms

The Boyfriends
I Need Your Love (1978)

This song was covered by The Ramones in the early 80s - on album - think about that - The Ramones covered an in period song by a band no one really knew and that was a similar type band.......that's quite odd - and so is the song which is missing a bridge entirely ........and is the kind of song that totally should have a bridge ......

The Beards
This Girl

This is what passed for an all-girl "supergroup" 20 (21 actually) years ago before boygenius went all OMG we're gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, are in relationships that are polysomething - which we used to just call "fncking a lot of different people" back in the day............with conflicted (ex?)Christianty (see the aforementiioned fncking), and bad poetry and went straight into #1 on the charts bitches....

The Beards had 2 "stars" back in 2002 - Lisa "Don't Call Me Johnny" Marr and Kim "I was in the Pixies briefly" Shattuck and they were,  pretty ace  - but they only got to make a brief LP - because even though they liked boys (mostly?), wrote a love song (about boys - ew) - that was still all the cis, heteronormative, Patriarchy would allow them to make.

Now that story is more Power Pop than you can even make up .......always an Angel - never a God as they say....

Kurt Baker
Anchors Up (2023)

This year has had disappointing new singles by interesting artists - Coach Party, Jeff Rosenstock, The Heat Inc. ...........but this is a good surprise:

Kurt Baker made 2 pretty great Power Pop records 10-ish years ago - Brand New Beat (2012) and the Rockin' For A Living EP (2011) - when no one else was really playing Power Pop at all - but after that he often sucked - sometimes embarrassingly so.......but this new song - a weird, slick piece of professionalism that sounds like Loverboy trying to sound like Cheap Trick playing Dad Rock is a total guilty pleasure Summer song - with his best buddy and frequent collaborator Geoff Palmer - who has had his ups (my #3 album of 2021) and downs (everything he then did in 2022) himself....

One of the secrets of Rock music taste - Power Pop especially - is being able to disseminate your buried treasures from buried trash.......

The Partridge Family's "I Woke Up In Love This Morning" is great in a way that The Knack's more "legitimate" "Frustrated" can never hope to be - especially as Power Pop .......... which gets us to Luxury Sweets - great name btw - who were never particularly good really.............except for this song.........which they totally stole from the The Exploding Hearts formula - and which just proves Luxury Sweets knew who to steal from really........

Crash Street Kids - Little Girls (1982) - ~ 8 / 10

Sort of like if The Replacements had only aspired to be The Records, and were nice guys who were also sober - this band were so far underground they were practically instantly buried.........Little Girls is maybe the best album from 80s Alternative Minnesota that's not by the Mats / Husker Du ..........one of those minor classic Power Pop albums like The Shivvers compiled LP or Wanna Meet The Scruffs? that separates people who like Power Pop............ from lunatics who obsess over it........

Begging to be reissued...... it has in the meantime found a whole other life on Youtube, streaming and CD-R..........

Full album link below the video btw:

Sept 10, 2023 4:19:13 GMT -4 pacinoyes said:

The Speedways - Triple Platinum (Compilation - 2023 / 2018-2023 Released Oct 27th, 2023) - 9 + / 10 - reviewed on vinyl

My favorite current band .........and yeah one of these days they're going to break my heart..........but not yet...........

A 12 song "Greatest Hits" ("Triple Platinum" yeah right) designed for people too stupid to have gotten the word yet - 4 songs from each of their 3 sensational albums - and the 4 songs from the 1 man band debut are re-done with the full 4 piece band now

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This is out today - streaming - on Youtube.......One of the best "best ofs" ever in this genre? All of their 3 original albums are worth buying but if you still don't get it and want to see what the big deal is........give it a listen on Youtube or somewhere else.......

Game Theory
I've Tried Subtlety (1986)

How sad is the story of most Power Pop? Scott Miller wrote this song - Part Paul Westerberg, Part Peter Case, Part Alex Chilton - and he did that fairly often too........his reward for it? Consistently underselling albums - an erratic career arc and eventually a later suicide.

Game Theory could make a terrific, cherry picked box set that would make fans of 80s American indie lose their minds - the problem is actually picking their best stuff......this song is one of them and is always left-off.......their music is screaming to get used in a TV show or movie......and they get overlooked even all these years later by Power Pop fans......