Alan Haber's Pure Pop Radio

We totally spaced on yesterday’s universe-wide Star Wars holiday, but Yoda’s cool with that brain freeze…as long as we carry on (see at left) with our Four-Day New Music Songfest. And so we will by bringing you our reviews of three outstanding platters now playing in rotation on Pure Pop Radio.

And now, to get our program off and running…

David Brookings and the Average Lookings | David Brookings and the Average Lookings Sixteen years on from his first solo release in 2000, Richmond, Virginia native, and current California resident David Brookings is set to release his new album, a typically infectious collection of songs centered around his pleasing, catchy melodies and his smooth, inviting voice. Songs like the mid-tempo pacer “Hearts” work around sumptuous melodies and clever chord progressions. The very America vibe of “Don’t Stop to Doubt Yourself” is a clear winner, as is “The Optimist,” a song about riding a wave of positivity.

David exhibits a healthy sense of humor too, in the title of the record, the cover photo, which depicts him as the only one facing the camera, and in the shuffling, country-tinged rocker “I’m in Love With Your Wife,” in which a shameful, overly confident, loose-lipped narrator confesses his empty love for women, singing “I can have any girl I know/Cause I was in Derek and the Dominos” and “If you think you’re living the dream/I played lead guitar in Cream.”

We’re playing seven of these hardly average sounding songs in rotation: “Hearts,” “The Optimist,” “Don’t Stop to Doubt Yourself,” “The Basement Room,” “I’m in Love With Your Wife,” “Place We Can Go,” and “Come Back Home.” David Brookings and the Average Lookings, produced by David, Isaac Fischer and Don Budd at Tone Freq Studio in San Jose, California, is the best album yet in a catalog full of solid releases. Top shelf all the way.

Erik Voeks | “Tired of Feelin’ Alone” and “Mondrian” Longtime Pure Pop Radio favorite Erik Voeks returns with his latest single release, pairing an exciting guitar-driven, horn-accented Rolling Stones-ish pop-rocker, “Tired of Feelin’ Alone,” with the short and sweet ballad “Mondrian.” As we said back in April when we added his last single, “She Loved Her Jangle Pop” b/w “Blue Water,” “New Erik Voeks is always a good thing. A great thing, actually.” And we stand by those words here in the merry month of May.

The Redhill Valleys | The Redhill Valleys This ostensibly Americana band from up north in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada got in touch and charmed us with their melodic, multi-genre approach to their music, which turns out to be perfect for Pure Pop Radio’s eclectic mix. Guitarist Danielle Beaudin, drummer Tim Allard, and bassist Chelsea McWilliams (all three sing) know their way around a good tune, as they prove with the four-on-the-floor, uptempo “Waiting,” the pretty, acoustic picking, harmony-rich “Either Or,” and “Wrong Way Turns Out Right,” a dreamy, melodic wonder. These songs, plus “Can’t Be Alone” and “Lay Me Down” are now playing in rotation. Welcome.

That’ll do it for today. Tomorrow: Much more. More new music that will absolutely blow your mind. Pure Pop Radio makes it happen right here and on the air!

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