New on Pure Pop Radio 3-11-21: Famous Groupies’ Furry with the Fringe on Top

March 11, 2021 ~ Alan Haber's Pure Pop Radio ~ Leave a comment

By Alan Haber – Pure Pop Radio

Famous Groupies | The Furry White Album (2020)

Seanair Patrick “Paisley” McKenzie isn’t the first rediscovered or discovered-for-the-first-time-after-a-long-time compositional savant I have encountered, but he is clearly the most prodigious, as evidenced by the trove of delightful songs from the sixties and seventies, both complete and in-process, left in the hands of his grandson, Kirkcaldy.

For three albums now, the latest being The Furry White Album, a glowing love letter to the sounds of yesteryear, Kirkcaldy and his five-piece band of merry fellow travelers have, along with some perfectly placed guests, been tidying up Patrick’s creations and recording them for posterity and our mutual enjoyment. The Furry White Album, 17 songs strong, helps spread the Patrick love with Wings’ Laurence Juber, Rosie Abbott, and retro-pop purveyor Dana Countryman in tow; the results are marvelous and earworm inducing.

Channeling, through Patrick’s wide-angle lens, certain of yesteryear’s classic, original pop scribes, Kirkcaldy and crew draw lovely sound pictures that celebrate the sounds that will undoubtedly last a lifetime. To wit: “Little Bird” reminds one of the pure, aching honesty of Paul McCartney’s bouncy piano balladry; “Maggie’s Farm” calls for steady toe tapping as its bluesy pop filters through a bagpipes-colored, faux Appalachian workout a la the Band, and the Nilsson-esque “Ghostwriter” channels a courtship worthy of Eddie’s father.

The songs of The Furry White Album speak for themselves; the performances are perfectly played. That Kirkcaldy continues to mine the output of his talented grandfather and present it to us in a succession of releases is a continuing gift that keeps on giving. The Furry White Album proves that good songs that touch the heart and soul can originate and thrive in any decade.

Another Famous Groupies collection, The Chameleon Sessions, is promised for this year. Begin saving your pennies now.

Where to Get It: Famous Groupies

Alan Haber’s Pure Pop Radio is the premier website covering the melodic pop scene with in-depth reviews of new and reissued recordings, interviews and a wide variety of features.

Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation, Winter 2021, Episode Five: Dropkick’s Andrew Taylor

March 9, 2021May 25, 2021 ~ Alan Haber's Pure Pop Radio ~ Leave a comment

By Alan Haber – Pure Pop Radio

Andrew Taylor

Up in Scotland, even as this pandemic year rolls on, musicians, kind of heart and pure of soul, look for ways to connect with listeners; Andrew Taylor, singer, songwriter and leader of Dropkick, in his garage, guitars and equipment surrounding him, plays during scheduled lockdown concerts of a sort, just him, seated and secure, strumming and singing, one song after another a gem polished to a fault and delivered as signed, sealed and delivered panacea.

As it happens, and as a wonderful respite full of delight, Andrew has corralled 30 quite gorgeous examples of Dropkick’s beauty from across the group’s catalog; that grouping, The Best of Dropkick, contained within a quite beautiful package designed and crafted by Alan Lennon, packs the purest punch on vinyl with an additional 20 examples of Dropkick’s musical art included on CDs, but any way you pick up the package increases the joy you will experience hearing Andrew and the band do their thing.

Andrew and I got together for a fun and informative chat for the latest in the current series of exclusive Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation shows, all recorded in See! Hear! Pop!, our finely-tuned, video-riffic sight and sound format; our half-hour get-together is now yours to savor.

After you’ve seen and heard the two of us warble, you should spend some minutes delighting yourself with a few of the songs included on The Best of Dropkick (including a lovely, brand-new song, “Into the Background”). I predict you will love what you hear.

Enjoy.

Where to Get It: Bandcamp

The Best of Dropkick by Dropkick

Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation, hosted by Alan Haber, is the internet’s premier talk show presenting melodic pop music artists talking about their work. New episodes appear here exclusively on the Pure Pop Radio website. Podcast versions of previously-aired episodes are archived here.

Alan Haber’s Pure Pop Radio is the premier website covering the melodic pop scene with in-depth reviews of new and reissued recordings, and a wide variety of features.

Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation, Winter 2021, Episode Four: Coke Belda

March 2, 2021June 1, 2021 ~ Alan Haber's Pure Pop Radio ~ Leave a comment

By Alan Haber – Pure Pop Radio

Eight years ago, a Facebook post by ex-Merrymaker David Myhr, now a successful, and rightly so, solo artist of the melodic pop variety, compelled me to check out the music of one Coke Belda, whom David suggested was terrific.

David was right.

Eight years later, five albums and 10 single track covers from a wide variety of genres into a career marked by excellence in the art of melodic pop writing and performing, Coke Belda was on my mind, as he often is, because, for one thing, he is my good friend, and for another, he has amassed a body of work that always rises to the top of the heap. Because? Because he is just that good, and consistently so.

Because I no longer operate my Pure Pop Radio station, where I played Coke’s music for people who would have no recourse other than to love and enjoy it, I must now employ other means to get the word out, which I do within these pages and on my Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation shows, where Coke answers my questions and we all get to find out things we didn’t previously know about him.

It was this particular road map that I had in mind when Coke and I sat across from each other (well, side by side on a Zoom screen, which is the way the world communicates in this pandemic year) and talked about his latest release, the second containing nothing but joyous covers of Bee Gees songs, and his albums of original songs, mostly played from A to Z by Coke who can strum, keyboard and percuss at least as well as the best of them, if not more so.

We talked about a lot more, too–about songwriting, designing an arrangement for a particular song, recording, and so on. It was one of Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation’s patented deep dive chats, where time was not an object but detail certainly was. The back-and-forth was capped by a live, acoustic performance by Coke of his song “1968,” which appeared on Coke Belda 4. Now, that’s the way to serve up a moment.

You can see, and hear, for yourself by clicking on the video interview below, presented in See! Hear! Pop!, Pure Pop Radio’s finely-tuned, video-riffic sight and sound format. Coke is on the left; I am on the right, and always the twain met, for about 80 warm moments.

After you’ve enjoyed our interview and Coke’s lovely acoustic performance, feel free to click on the links below to listen to some of the songs we talked about. You will enjoy them all, I believe, like I do.

Where to Get Coke Belda’s Music: Bandcamp

Alan Haber’s Pure Pop Radio is the premier website covering the melodic pop scene with in-depth reviews of new and reissued recordings, and a wide variety of features.

New on Pure Pop Radio 2-24-21: The Sun Sawed in 1/2 is Beach Bound, Philip B. Price is in Lockdown, and Lee Feldman is On the Road

February 24, 2021 ~ Alan Haber's Pure Pop Radio ~ Leave a comment

By Alan Haber – Pure Pop Radio

The Sun Sawed in 1/2 | “Beaches in Bali” (2021)
One of five songs to appear on Beaches in Bali, the first of three EPs being released this year by the vaunted St. Louis popsters the Sun Sawed in 1/2 (alongside “Dear Always,” “Dried Cherry Blossoms,” “Good King of the Summer,” and “Soft Away”), “Beaches in Bali” is a welcome breath of fresh melodic pop air.

Opening with a slow, soul-tinged mix of T. Rex- and B.B. King-isms, this deliberate pop-rocking love song chugs along with a glittery, Paul Buckmaster-ish string arrangement atop a George Harrison kind of Beatley production. Dave Farver’s elastic lead vocal and Joe Zeitlin’s cello work are among the delights your ears will thank you for. Oh, and Tim Rose, who wrote the song, also produced this rather catchy earworm with its catchy melody in tow.

The Beaches in Bali EP is pegged for an April release, with the other two EPs coming later this year. New music from the Sun Sawed in 1/2 is more than welcome (their last album, Elephants Into Swans, came out in 2013), as you can probably determine from the preceding paragraphs.

Right now, “Beaches in Bali” is only available on YouTube as a preview of the treasures that are to come. And, without further ado, here is the first treasure:

Philip B. Price | Oceans Hiding in Oceans (Signature Sounds, 2021)

Inside looking out, enmeshed in a billowing haze of a pandemic broadside, Winterpills’ chief, Philip B. Price, found himself inspired, although probably not for the usual reasons. Moved to feel and report on the emotions passing all around him, he set out to put pen to paper, so to speak, and help explain life as he and we now know it. He also decided to play all of the instruments and sing all of the vocal parts on this extraordinary album.

Oceans Hiding in Oceans, Price’s affecting follow-up to 2019’s Bone Almanac, plays like an informed chronicle of dreams and emotions that have defined our pandemic year, in the form of catchy pop songs. Adopting a seasoned poet’s stance, the singer-songwriter-as-troubadour burrows deep into the current scheme of our lives, eyes and ears wide open, wanting to understand. The album, 11 songs strong, functions as a sort-of nesting doll, as each musical layer is brought to bear.

“Intention is everything / It is the root and the branch,” Price sings knowingly in the penultimate song, “Intention is Everything.” Structured in a fashion similar to John Lennon’s explanative “God,” Price sings a register of observations, a catalog of sorts, one notation after another, trying to figure it out. “Tiny stars are all falling,” Price sings. One by one by one, each star falls and tells another part of the tale.

Price’s melodies, exquisite and charming, are resounding pop leitmotifs communicated in the face of his dreamlike lyrical exposition, delivered atop spare instrumentation that lets the words do the talking. With a poet’s eye and a songwriter’s ear, he presents his pandemic year observations in a lyrical, sometimes cinematically-nightmarish light.

It all starts out so peacefully with a love song, of all things (“This is the Last Thing”); the first, next and last things to know are “I love you.” But, as in many of our living, breathing experiences during this pandemic year, there is room for a certain amount of shade: “Bright bright my loving light / I’ll be your sand and your satellite / Flooding light at midnight / Right through your line of sight.” Or, in the alternative, that shade may just be the narrator protecting his loved ones.

From that hopeful opening, we are treated to a faux tug of war–us against the forces of nature that have changed how we live our lives, with rays of sunshine peeking through. In the upbeat, poppy “Little Bell,” a song seemingly sung to a child, the narrator is hopeful and protective: “Little Bell we’ll carry you / Through the darkness and the blue / We will always sing your name / We will always lift your flame.” And in “Me and the Stars,” orchestrated in such a way as to remind me of Sting’s “Mad About You” from his album, The Soul Cages, the narrator sings of finding a safe place in which to hide and be safe: (“Is there any way that we can be alone / Me and the stars?”). Where the light is magnetic and true?

A summer hailstorm suggests an almost normal chain of events, creatively skewed, beating down on the land in the catchy pop song, “First Hail”: “With the hailstones comes the crossbones and the long lines at the payphones.” It’s a memory, one would think, borne of one’s consciousness reflecting on days past during a here-and-now time of some uncertainty. Conversely, in “Scarred for Life,” a beat-driven piano and percussion structure propels a lyric that shows the narrator trying to make lemonade out of lemons: “So you live with it / Carry it with you / You don’t leave it behind / And sometimes it lifts you / Your skin will harden / Sometimes it itches.” Which suggests, I think, that you should never forget, which makes you stronger.

The first verse of “Little Bell,” the most wholly hopeful song here, lays out the chances for light shining through. “Little Bell you ring all day / And at night you’re tucked away / And you dream of ringing still / And you know you always will.”

All of these words and melodies prove that insightful pop music, like the songs on this album, will always show you the way.

Where to Get It: Bandcamp, Amazon, Apple Music

Lee Feldman | “Into the Air” (2021)

A longtime Pure Pop Radio favorite going back to the early days of my weekly show on WEBR radio (he was an early in-studio guest who played live on his portable keyboard), Lee Feldman has come up with quite the paradoxical song for this pandemic year.

Running along at a brisk pace, “Into the Air” tells a murky, unsettling story of a school bus journey that may or may not end in tragedy (“A thousand summers / Have come and gone / Henry’s waiting / For the bus to come / Lights are shining / In his eyes / Brakes are whining / On the road”). Or maybe Henry is just a guy getting on the bus at a stop where he’s been waiting?

“Don’t go into the air,” the narrator sings, meaning…what? If there were to be an accident, would the resulting tumult pass headlong into the night…or even the daylight?

This is how I think “Into the Air” draws its breath. However you look at the story being told, you’ll likely agree that this very Picnic at Hanging Rock-esque song projects a commanding presence as its very catchiness seeps into your brain.

Lee’s quick piano lines, curt and heartfelt, amount to an extended riff that moves the action along; it is, in fact, a riff that feels its own fate, or at least the fate of the narrator. Also bringing this story to life are Bill Dobrow on drums and percussion, and Byron Isaacs on bass and backing vocals.

It’s another keeper from Lee Feldman.

Where to Get It: Bandcamp, Amazon, Apple Music

Alan Haber’s Pure Pop Radio is the premier website covering the melodic pop scene with in-depth reviews of new and reissued recordings, interviews and a wide variety of features.

Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation, Winter 2021, Episode Three: The Boys with the Perpetual Nervousness (Andrew Taylor and Gonzalo Marcos)

February 23, 2021June 1, 2021 ~ Alan Haber's Pure Pop Radio ~ Leave a comment

By Alan Haber – Pure Pop Radio

The Boys with the Perpetual Nervousness, the wonderfully-named band bringing together the considerable talents of Dropkick’s Andrew Taylor and El Palacio de Linares’s Gonzalo Marcos, has just released their second collection of virtually peerless harmony-infused melodic pop songs, Songs from Another Life, a title which seems to be as apt as apt can be during this continuing pandemic year.

Songs from Another Life delivers on the promise of 2019’s Dead Calm with 10 uptempo, earworm-worthy nuggets, all crafted with care by two masters of melody. Injecting some Cars-esque magic into these proceedings, the Boys with the Perpetual Nervousness are really not all that nervous; they are, in fact, engaged in a perpetual run of fun, which you will undoubtedly want to be a part of.

The Boys with the Perpetual Nervousness are named after the opening song on the Feelies’ debut 1980 album, Crazy Rhythms, but not, as it turns out, after Grahame Caveney’s same-named novel from 2017. Songs from Another Life, the band’s sophomore release, is the kind of album that shoots to the top of best-of-the-year lists with ease; sample a few of the songs below and see if you agree.

Andrew Taylor

Gonzalo Marcos

I connected with Andrew Taylor and Gonzalo Marcos for a spirited and informative discussion of the world of the Boys with the Perpetual Nervousness as the third in the current series of Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation episodes. Brought to you in See! Hear! Pop!, Pure Pop Radio’s finely-tuned, video-riffic sight and sound format, it’s a half-hour of joy, no doubt.

And now, on with the show.

Songs From Another Life by The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness

Where to Get It: Bandcamp, Kool Kat Musik, Amazon. Listen on Spotify

Alan Haber’s Pure Pop Radio is the premier website covering the melodic pop scene with in-depth reviews of new and reissued recordings, and a wide variety of features.

New on Pure Pop Radio 2-17-21: Ken Sharp Kisses Paul and Gene, The Legal Matters Return, and Kenny Herbert Prescribes Love

February 17, 2021 ~ Alan Haber's Pure Pop Radio ~ Leave a comment

By Alan Haber – Pure Pop Radio

Ken Sharp | “Hold Me, Touch Me” and “Mr. Make Believe” (2021)
Despite never having been a member of the KISS Army, I remember greeting the simultaneous release on September 17, 1978 of four KISS solo albums with some measure of curiosity, even though I was a defiant non-fan of the band.

Maybe it was the makeup. I honestly don’t remember.

Imagine my surprise, then, when the ever-active Ken Sharp, just two days ago, delivered newly-recorded versions of two of the songs released as part of the September ’78 four-album explosion. KISS helped Ken dig out of some emotional jams back in the day, so as a sort-of celebration, he decided to reinvent, along with singer-songwriter Rob Bonfiglio and super-producer and instrumentalist Fernando Perdomo, Paul Stanley’s “Hold Me, Touch Me” and Gene Simmons’ “Mr. Make Believe.”

Stanley drew “Hold Me, Touch Me” as a slow, sweet-sounding ballad; Ken’s reinvention recasts the song as a pounding breakneck-paced power pop number racing to whiz past the finish line. It’s clever as hell, in a speedy Raspberries way and more than hits the sweet spot for music lovers who love their pop powered with extreme glee.

Hold Me, Touch Me by Ken Sharp

Simmons’ “Mr. Make Believe,” in Sharp’s hands, becomes what a collaboration between Wings-era Paul McCartney, Eric Carmen at the start of his solo years, the Cowsills, and the Cyrkle (pick either album) might sound like. I like its cheery face lots.

Mr. Make Believe by Ken Sharp

Sharp has presented these tracks wrapped in artist Holly Bess Kinkaid’s wonderful, colorful, sprinkled-with-Andy-Warhol-ness pop-art illustrations that evoke memories of 1960s-era romance comic books. It’s a brilliant stroke that adds an extra layer of intuitiveness to Sharp’s musicality.

Where to Get It: Bandcamp (“Hold Me, Touch Me”), Bandcamp (“Mr. Make Believe”)

The Legal Matters | “Light Up the Sky” (from the forthcoming album, Chapter 3) (2021)
First came the self-titled, runaway hit long-player in 2014, then the long-awaited follow-up, Conrad, in 2016, and now, four-plus years later, Chapter 3, the third collection from Michigan supergroup the Legal Matters is on target to light up the sky on April 30.

The first single from Chapter 3, “Light Up the Sky,” written by Richards, is at first glance a glorious, happy-sounding song, all decked out in positive song structure and those trademark close harmony stacks that Andy Reed, Keith Klingensmith and Chris Richards are rightly known for, but upon closer inspection, it’s a happy-sounding song tinged with sadness; a partner is finally keeping his distance from a former flame who wants to continue burning brightly and lighting up the sky with their love.

But the narrator is having none of it: “Shoot me a grin / Just don’t want to know / The state that you’re in,” he sings. It’s the age-old story of what could still be, if only…

Played and sung with care by the core trio, with drumming by percussion magician Donny Brown, this mid-tempo slice of guitar pop lights up the melodic pop universe with what fans have come to expect from the Legal Matters: top-shelf melodic pop performed by masters of the art.

Where to Get It: Pre-order Chapter 3 and get “Light Up the Sky” immediately (Bandcamp); pre-order the album or purchase the mp3 of “Light Up the Sky” at Amazon Music

Kenny Herbert | “The Hardest Time” (2021)
The latest musical missive from longtime Pure Pop Radio favorite Kenny Herbert doubles as a look at life during the ongoing, difficult pandemic year and a toolkit for making the most of life as it continues on. Love, the toolkit’s primary, prescribed salve, is impervious (“There’s nothing that can take away our love”). Kenny’s emotive vocal, sounding just a bit airy in the mix, draws the listener in to this mid-tempo ballad, yet another high point in Kenny’s work, always filled with wonder.

Where to Get It: Apple Music. Listen on Spotify

Alan Haber’s Pure Pop Radio is the premier website covering the melodic pop scene with in-depth reviews of new and reissued recordings, interviews and a wide variety of features.

Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation, Winter 2021, Episode Two: Terry Draper on Getting Lost

February 16, 2021May 25, 2021 ~ Alan Haber's Pure Pop Radio ~ Leave a comment

By Alan Haber – Pure Pop Radio

Terry Draper and I, after innumerable back-and-forths broadcast over the years on Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation, find ourselves back together again chatting about Terry’s new album Lost, his best yet and, any way you look at it, one of the best melodic pop albums in recent memory.

You can see that we enjoy talking with each other, whether the topic of consideration is Klaatu, for which Terry kept the beat, imbued with spirit, or any of the 17 solo releases Terry has recorded in his 20-year solo career. This time around, Lost is on the table, so to speak, and we talk about the inspiration behind several of its songs.

Plus a whole lot of other stuff including songwriting process, whether Klaatu was a prog band (it wasn’t; try symphonic pop), the Peter Gabriel version of Genesis versus the one helmed by Phil Collins, and the importance of wearing different shirts for multiple video shoots (an important point).

You can see and hear it all below; it’s a lively conversation, just over a half-hour long. We smile and laugh a lot, and you will too. This edition of Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation is presented in See! Hear! Pop!, Pure Pop Radio’s finely-tuned, video-riffic sight and sound format. And below the interview, you can experience some of the joys of Lost by watching videos for a few of our favorite songs.

Enjoy.

Where to Get Lost: terrydraper.com, Amazon, Apple Music, Bandcamp

Alan Haber’s Pure Pop Radio is the premier website covering the melodic pop scene with in-depth reviews of new and reissued recordings, and a wide variety of features.

New on Pure Pop Radio 2-4-21: Terry Draper’s Lost, Dave Caruso’s Radio-Friendly Radiophonic Supersonic and Astral Drive’s ’70s Rundgren Breeze, “Water Lilies,” Dazzle

February 4, 2021 ~ Alan Haber's Pure Pop Radio ~ Leave a comment

By Alan Haber – Pure Pop Radio

Terry Draper | Lost (2020)
In dreams, captivated by the promise of a slate wiped clean, of the promise of better days, of being lost in a new world different enough from the old one to matter, of not having to look over your shoulder, you are safe, as the title song, placed first in the running order of Terry Draper’s beautifully realized, hopeful and atmospheric song cycle, Lost, proffers.

“One door will open as another closes,” Terry sings, as the heart of the next song, “A New Journey,” plays and reveals itself. “Let a new journey begin,” comes the offer, and with that you reach out into the unknown universe ahead and follow along because you feel safe and secure. The feelings espoused by these melodically rich songs, Terry’s latest–and possibly his best–are weaved into a thoughtful song cycle that is real and comforting. In any universe, Lost is akin to being found, of being comforted and seeing–tasting–a safe and prosperous path forward.

Being comforted sometimes also means knowing when what is revealed is not what it seems, as the narrator of the sprightly confection “A Walk in the Park,” sweetened by Dana and Tricia Countryman’s lovely background vocal harmonies, finds: “The children all were playing tag / But now the kids are playing rough / I’m running home with all my stuff.” The smooth surfaces upon which we walk are sometimes accented by hard-to-see potholes of a sort; still, what you will find, in the end, on your journey is worth the risk. Look ahead with hope and wonder!

Also worth the risk are a foraging trip through space by the Voyager satellite (“I am Voyager,” a very Klaatu-sounding song with room to breathe and Spongetone Jamie Hoover’s lovely background vocals), and coming to the realization that “Home” is where the heart, and brain, are, as long as you accept the reality of our shared situation and know what’s what (“I’m tellin’ you all to stay at home / If you’re feelin’ lonely pick up a book / Pick up the phone / Yes, I’m tellin’ you all to stay at home / But if you feel you must go out / Please send your clone”). “Home,” a fanciful number with a lyrical tongue planted firmly in cheek, is made all the more enjoyable by Probyn Gregory’s ukelele, Dana Countryman’s “clarinet wrangling,” and Lisa Mychols’ background vocals.

During your journey through Lost and Terry Draper’s universe of possibilities, believe in what you see and stay the course, as the song “Armchair Travelers” lays out in directional fashion: “When you’re leaving your neighbourhood / Leaving your town / Crossing the borderline / No, don’t turn around.” Keep moving forward. Sage advice.

In Terry Draper’s more than capable hands, as you listen to Lost and contemplate the melodic wonders ahead, you will find yourself face-to-face with an array of characters such as Queen Victoria, Ponce de Leon, an assortment of bullies covering up their lack of confidence, sultans, and lost worlds needing to be found. In Terry Draper’s more than capable hands, within songs scored with a classic songwriter’s muscle and supported with ace guest appearances from Lisa Mychols, Dana and Tricia Countryman, and Jamie Hoover, Lost is found.

(More relentlessly clever videos, created by Jamie Grant for Lost’s songs, can be viewed here.)

Where to Get It: terrydraper.com, Amazon, Apple Music, Bandcamp

Dave Caruso | Radiophonic Supersonic (2020)
Michigander Caruso follows up his 2017 stunner Buddha Pesto Manifesto with a high-wire act that one would expect from a seasoned musician of four decades and counting: a 10-song, radio-friendly batch of hit-single-worthy tracks that instantly registers with waiting ears.

Songs like the jangly “Little Miss Sunshine” and equally upbeat slices of catchy melodic pop such as “The Drop,” with its attractive hanging chord at the end, and the energetic “A Piece of the Action” are top-tier compositions played with drive and gusto, a Caruso trademark.

But listeners should be most attracted to three soulful pop songs that hover high atop the plain of extraordinary musical creations: “Tuesday’s Gone,” a clever, affecting, enchanting mix of instrumentation wrapped in a dreamlike ribbon of orchestration that would sound grand segued with Sting’s “Seven Days,” another song concerned with the days of the week; “Indelible,” a Philly soul vibe featuring a 14-second-long vocal-less bridge of sorts driven by piano, xylophone and orchestration; and “Heaven Minus Love,” that recalls the soulful pop of 1980s beloved band, ABC.

Radiophonic Supersonic by Dave Caruso

Dave Caruso is the type of artist who burns the midnight oil over every note and lyric syllable until each and every one is just right, and it shows. On this release that has garnered boatloads of acclaim from the melodic pop community, Dave has continued his strong winning streak and laid the groundwork for a swell of anticipation for his next release.

Radiophonic Supersonic is a triumphant winner.

Where to Get It: davecarusomusic.com, Bandcamp, Apple Music, Kool Kat Musik

Astral Drive | “Water Lilies” (2021, Lojinx)
Pure Pop Radio favorite, super-producer and artist extraordinaire Phil Thornalley returns with another sweetheart swing-and-sway-on-a-lazy-summer’s-day (yes, even in the cold, snowy winter) mid-tempo ballad bathed in the aura of the Hermit of Mink Hollow, aka Todd Rundgren. “Water Lilies,” a dreamy landscape of a tune about true heart-to-heart love, posits a deeply felt attraction painted in a wide swath of color and feeling (“Do you know what my love is / It’s never ending / Like the giant canvasses of water lilies”) as it projects a melody that is warm and true.

With “Water Lilies,” recorded in his garage in 2020 and now released as the lead track from Astral Drive’s upcoming, much-anticipated sophomore album, Thornalley has graced the start of this pandemic year with the sweet sounds of hummable love.

Where to Get It: Apple Music, Amazon

Alan Haber’s Pure Pop Radio is the premier website covering the melodic pop scene with in-depth reviews of new and reissued recordings, interviews and a wide variety of features.

Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation, Winter 2021, Episode One: Dear Stella’s Stefanie Drexler

February 2, 2021June 1, 2021 ~ Alan Haber's Pure Pop Radio ~ Leave a comment

By Alan Haber – Pure Pop Radio

It is comforting to know that, even as a sudden burst of winter fury blankets the landscape outside the cramped yet comfortable Pure Pop Radio studio with snow, snow, snow, the forecast for the world inhabited by melodic pop musicians is maintaining its clear-skies-and-smooth-sailing posture–sailing more in the metaphorical sense rather than the literal, although great records by great recording artists often do sail to the top of the charts.

I could easily see Dear Stella’s wondrous Time Zones EP, released late last year to much acclaim, rising to the top of the charts this year, or sailing there, if you prefer, because it really is that good. Time Zones’ six song playlist starts with “Time Machine,” a cheery burst of insanely creative, passionate force-of-good-naturedness recalling Jellyfish and other such there-are-no-limits-to-what-we-can-achieve-if-we-put-our-minds-to-it merry music makers, and ends with a quieter-by-many-yardsticks ballad, the very pretty “Brighton Beach” (not the one in Brooklyn, New York, and I made sure to ask).

Stefanie Drexler is Dear Stella — Stefanie Drexler

I was so captivated by Dear Stella’s initial release, on which Stefanie Drexler (she is Dear Stella) sings her heart out with the help of members of melodic pop’s usual suspects club (Bleu, Eric Barao, Kai Danzberg, and David Myhr), that I thought a talk with her would be a good addition to the current crop of Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation shows.

The young Austrian singer-songwriter and I gathered together on Zoom for a lively, rather charming chat, during which I found out many interesting things about this up-and-coming artist, such as: she sang harmony vocals on an Air Supply recording, toured for a week in a band that opened for the B-52s, was a big fan of Britney Spears, and earned a Masters degree in popular music research.

That’s a pretty good list of achievements all by itself, but of course there is more, which you can discover by watching and listening to my chat with the multitalented and multifaceted Stefanie Drexler below, brought to you in See! Hear! Pop!, Pure Pop Radio’s finely-tuned, video-riffic sight and sound format. And below our 45-minute-long back-and-forth, you can hear three of the great songs featured on the Time Zones EP.

Enjoy.

Where to Get It: Amazon, Bandcamp, Apple Music

Alan Haber’s Pure Pop Radio is the premier website covering the melodic pop scene with in-depth reviews of new and reissued recordings, and a wide variety of features.

We Welcome Singer-Songwriter Stefanie Drexler, aka Dear Stella, to Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation Next Tuesday, February 2

January 28, 2021 ~ Alan Haber's Pure Pop Radio ~ Leave a comment

By Alan Haber – Pure Pop Radio

This week’s post, from just two days ago, featuring a somewhat psychedelic iteration of the phrase “Can I Pet Your Cat,” stretched into a somewhat out-of-whack statement of purpose, was not without purpose, as you may have imagined.

The post was designed to see if the phrase, simply stated, rang any bells for fans of the kind of melodic pop we feature in these hallowed pages. Perhaps some bells were found to be ringing; if so, jolly good. You knew, being so well informed, that the phrase “Can I Pet Your Cat” can be seen on the green t-shirt worn by Austrian singer-songwriter Stefanie Drexler, who records under the name Dear Stella, on the cover of her tremendously entertaining, six-song EP entitled Time Zones.

I am thrilled to announce that Stefanie joins me for the first Winter 2021 episode of Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation this coming Tuesday, February 2 at 11:45 am EST, right here and exclusively on the Pure Pop Radio website. All of our In Conversation interviews are presented in See! Hear! Pop!, Pure Pop Radio’s finely-tuned video-riffic sight and sound format, which draws you into the back and forth on offer like no other process imaginable.

Perhaps you have been enjoying Dear Stella’s Time Zones EP and suggesting to your friends that they join you in experiencing its wonders. If so, well, that’s a beautiful thing. If you haven’t yet heard any or all of the six songs on this terrific EP, two of them await you below. Go on, listen…I’ll wait.

There. Pretty swell, right? Every year, untold numbers of albums, EPs and singles are released by both new and new-to-you melodic pop artists. Dear Stella’s EP rises to the toppermost of that poppermost, in my opinion, drawing on a variety of approaches to the song as employed by such well-known purveyors of pop as Bleu, Eric Barao, David Myhr, Kai Danzberg, and Jellyfish, all of whom figure directly or indirectly in Stefanie’s songs. From the opening, joyous, smiling and catchy kitchen sink approach of “Time Machine” to the gorgeous closing ballad, “Brighton Beach,” which draws a knowing parallel between distance and affection, Time Zones is nothing less than one of the best releases of 2020.

And you’ll get to hear all about this so-very-very-good collection of songs this coming next Tuesday, February 2, right here on the Pure Pop Radio website, when Stefanie Drexler joins me on the latest episode of Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation, presented in See! Hear! Pop!, Pure Pop Radio’s finely-tuned video-riffic sight and sound format. Don’t miss this joyful, rather charming 45-minute-long chat.

Sit back and enjoy two songs from the Time Zones EP to whet your appetite for next Tuesday’s in-depth discussion. Enjoy listening to “Time Machine” and “Brighton Beach.”

See you back here in just five days–Tuesday, February 2, at 11:45 am EST.

Where to Get It: Bandcamp, Amazon, Apple Music

Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation, hosted by Alan Haber, is the internet’s premier talk show presenting melodic pop music artists talking about their work. Interviews are presented in See! Hear! Pop!, Pure Pop Radio’s finely-tuned video-riffic sight and sound format. New episodes appear here exclusively on the Pure Pop Radio website. Podcast versions of previously-presented episodes are archived here.

Alan Haber’s Pure Pop Radio is the premier website covering the melodic pop scene with in-depth reviews of new and reissued recordings, interviews, and a wide variety of features.