By Alan Haber – Pure Pop Radio
It goes without saying, you might and probably do say, that the coming together of Andy Reed, Chris Richards and Keith Klingensmith as the Legal Matters was a couldn’t-be-denied fait accomplis. After all, the three musicians have been connected to each other, in one way or another, for a long time–in bands and various other musical pairings and on the level that counts most, friendship.
The groundswell of support and out-and-out love for the trio’s self-titled debut album, released in 2014, may have been surprising to some, but maybe not really to those of us who follow such things, who track the reception of albums carefully created by the best and brightest talents holding court in the world of melodic pop music.
The Legal Matters’ 2016 sophomore release, Conrad, garnered even more praise, which has led to a third long-player, Chapter Three, just released by Keith Klingensmith’s Futureman Records, an independent label that is dependent on an outpouring of love from lovers of melodic pop music, of which there are many.
Join Andy Reed, Chris Richards and Keith Klingensmith as they gather with me to talk about Chapter Three and what makes the Legal Matters tick on an all-new edition of Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation. Presented in See! Hear! Pop!, our finely-tuned, video-riffic sight and sound format, this is another of the can’t-miss kind of in-depth conversations we’re known for. The interview begins below.
After you’ve seen and heard the lively back-and-forth, click on any of the Bandcamp players presented below and listen to a few of the tracks from Chapter Three, all of which I predict you will love and which will propel you to purchase the album on vinyl, CD or as a download. Or vinyl, CD and as a download, because you can never have enough Legal Matters music in your life.
Enjoy.
Chapter Three by The Legal Matters
Chapter Three by The Legal Matters
Chapter Three by The Legal Matters
Where to Get It: The Legal Matters Store, Bandcamp, Amazon, Kool Kat Musik
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.
Both sides of the Toms’ just released single on Futureman signal that a new album is coming any time at all. The pure poppy “One Man Girl Parade” and the decidedly-10cc-ish “You Shot Me Out of Your Cannon” are now playing in rotation. Hats off to all of the Toms, known collectively as Tommy Marolda, for a catchy, surely headed-for-the-top-of-the-pops double-play.
The Junipers’ Robyn Gibson pops by Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation tomorrow to chat about his (in our words) “buoyant exercise in the art of homage,” Bob of the Pops Vol. 1. We’re so excited for you to hear this rather charming conversation that we’re airing it twice tomorrow, May 31: noon and 8 pm (both times ET).
Bob of the Pops Vol. 1 gathers together 14 glorious, sweetly-sung covers of some of Robyn’s favorite songs from (mostly) the 1960s and 1970s. These mostly reverent renditions of such beloved chestnuts as The Beatles’ “Nowhere Man,” The Who’s “I Can’t Reach You,” and The Hollies’ “Listen to Me” star in this collection that is a 
Breaking all the rules of the difficult sophomore album syndrome–how to successfully follow up that first, smash recorded salvo has been a recurring music biz pickle since, well, name your favorite year–John Lowry, Greg Addington, and Chip Saam have earned a couple of days’ worth of rest-easy-and-exhale time while the world greets their new album (12 songs and a mystically-appointed piece of connecting tissue strong) as the triumph it truly is.
Kits’ first single, the delightful “Sinking Feeling,” brought to life and a higher plane by the predictably lovely guest vocals of Swan Dive’s Molly Felder, who recently graced the grooves of Dana Countryman’s fabulous Girlville album, is a stone-cold smash and a shining example of how to write a living, breathing, catchy pop song. “Cricket Time,” an upbeat bopper imbued with the spirit of early Elvis Costello, snaps along for three minutes worth of should-be-a-radio-hit magic. And the really rather ingenious, insanely catchy pop wonder “Evelyn Wood” cleverly illuminates the story of a girl who needs to sloooooow down (listeners of a certain age will appreciate that the real Evelyn Wood was the creator of a reading comprehension technique that could get you from here to there in super-lickity-split time…so, not so slow was she).
Now playing on Pure Pop Radio: “Evelyn Wood,” “Twelve Songs,” “Sensation Overnight,” “Kits and Cats and Saxon Wives,” “Cricket Time,” “Sinking Feeling,” “Selling Out,” and “Follow the Sunshine”