Ken Sharp | Beauty in the Backseat (2018)
Fancy spinning a big old super-sized love letter to 1970s pop, like the kind you might have heard on AM radio back in the day? Ken Sharp’s fun follow-up to his sterling 2016 long player, New Mourning, might well be just your ticket.
Played mostly by Ken and co-producer Fernando Perdomo, with guest appearances by Hall and Oates’ John Oates, Utopia’s Kasim Sulton, Kiss’s Ace Frehley, Marshall Crenshaw, and melodic pop stalwart Rob Bonfiglio, Beauty in the Backseat plays its affectionate and catchy cards throughout.
The poppy, upbeat “Lemons to Lemonade,” decked out in Kyle Vincent-esque splendor, presents a narrator who turns sad into glad. “Listen to Me” is a feel-good number about people taking “a million tiny steps” to come together and make a difference. And “Philly Kind of Night” brings the aforementioned John Oates to the microphone to provide soulful background vocals for a tribute to the art of Philadelphia soul, this time adorned with Ken’s usual pop edge.
Don’t miss “Rock Show,” which gets these proceedings off to a showstopping start, telling the story of a band getting ready to hit the stage and make musical magic. Ace Frehley delivers an energetic, runaway guitar solo during the close. The sobering balladic tribute to a favorite, fallen musician, “The Day that David Bowie Died,” is an affecting song, and the should-be-a-radio-hit, happy-sounding “The Hardest Part” concerns itself with the dissolution of a relationship and the avoidance of any measure of regret that might follow.
Solid.
Where to Get It: Bandcamp, Amazon
The Cherry Bluestorms | Whirligig! (2018)
The Los Angeles-based pop-rockers Deborah Gee and Glen Laughlin take the world stage with their most assured and accessible long player yet.
Mixing Rolling Stones affects from the Brian Jones era with other mid-sixties sounds, the Bluestorms deliver a smashing collection of songs sure to please. The rolling rocker “Heel to Toe,” sporting a most melodic, very catchy chorus is one such pearl; the flattering, rocky, Gee-sung portrait “Roy Wood,” which quotes the Stones rather cleverly and takes an unexpected turn at the end with a comforting, orchestrated coda is another.
Other nuggets include the Stonesy “Rays of the Sun” and “Seven League Boots,” and the lovely “Caroline,” which announces itself as a gentle acoustic number and ends up a full-band excursion with a pretty melody. The closing, anthemic “Be Here Now” shows off multi-instrumentalist Glen Laughlin’s guitar prowess in grand style, as he blisters off into the sunset. Excellent entry into the growing Bluestorms catalog.
Where to Get It: Bandcamp, iTunes
Lannie Flowers | “Where Did All the Fun Go” (2018)
The eighth in the continuing series of ace songs given away for free during the run-up to his upcoming album Home, “Where Did All the Fun Go” is an upbeat, catchy explosion of melody and sentiment relating to the good memories that fade in the face of today’s fast-paced world. Dig the harmony-drenched a cappella ending and the rocking sitar! Already, before Home arrives, Lannie has released nearly an album’s worth of classic, top-flight tracks. Dig it, indeed!
Where to Get It: Spyderpop Records (Free download)
The Lunar Laugh | “By the Light of the Living Room” (2018)
With George Harrison-y slide guitar in tow, Jared Lekites’ latest, slated for inclusion on the Lunar Laugh’s next album, is a catchy slice of happy-sounding melodic pop about a sore subject–a fractured relationship that might, could possibly be saved (“When I woke up you were crying/Bitter tears that made me feel like dying/Is it too late to kiss and make up/We’ve been together too long to break up”). An attractive chorus shines. Don’t miss it.
Where to Get It: Bandcamp
Pat Walsh | “Another Nightingale” (2018)
An always reliable songwriter and performer, encountered early in the run of the weekly Pure Pop Radio Show on WEBR, Pat Walsh continues to release luscious, sophisticated, and genuinely affecting melodic pop songs. His latest, a lovely mid-tempo ballad about hope wiping away the darkness in a person’s life, is sung sweetly and built around ingenious chord changes. Pat never fails to impress.
Where to Get It: Listen on YouTube. After listening, Pat would love it if you would leave a comment on his YouTube page telling him how much you liked this song.
Alan Haber’s Pure Pop Radio is the premiere website covering the melodic pop scene with in-depth reviews of new and reissued recordings, and a wide variety of features. The 24-hour Pure Pop Radio stream, which ran from 2013 to August 25, 2018, succeeded the weekly Pure Pop Radio show, which began in 1995. Welcome to your number one home for coverage of the greatest melodic pop music in the universe from the ’60s to today.
Scheduled for release on June 15 and just in time for summer’s arrival on June 21, Sugar is perhaps the most appropriately titled album of the year–a joyous, harmony-filled singer’s showcase, imbued with sweet songs sung sweetly. This is the sound of pure pop made for a life under sun-drenched skies spreading light and love over lazy mid-year, carefree days.
Now Playing in Rotation on Pure Pop Radio: “One Revolution,” “Loving You Baby,” “Domino,” “Don’t Wanna Close My Eyes,” “Goodbye to All Carousels,” “Next to Impossible,” “He’s Got Me Dreaming,” and “Into Oblivion”
A beautifully rendered selection of melody-rich songs from one of melodic pop music’s greatest practitioners, Lucky Day is the sound of a master songwriter’s loving embrace. It is a warmhearted musical journey you will want to take over and over again.
(World Radio Premiere on Alan Haber’s Pop Tunes Deejay Show, Thursday, May 17, 8 pm ET on Pop that Goes Crunch Radio)
After musician and co-producer Fernando Perdomo suggested the title, Ken ran with it and conjured up a guy’s ultimate fear: that the girl he loves hates the Fab Four. From that scary conjuring comes this upbeat, catchy pop song that lyrically, and with a healthy dose of jocularity, pounds the ceremonial nail into a relationship’s coffin.
Gary Ritchie | pop·ti·mis·tic Texas popster, by way of the Windy City, returns with another master class in how to do it right as rain, sitting behind an authentic Ludwig drum kit and slinging guitars over his musical shoulders. Fifteen songs, and not a duff one in the bunch, including the Merseybeat-styled charmer “Let’s Pretend,” the echoes-of-Duane-Eddy-esque “Look Away Girl,” and the Roy Orbison-rooty mid-tempo ballad “Dial 9” (“for an outside line”). Worth, as the set kicker says, a million dollars.
Now playing in rotation on Pure Pop Radio: “Book of Answers,” “Carol Says,” “Dial 9,” “It’s Not Automatic,” “Let’s Pretend,” “Long Live Love,” and “Look Away Girl.”
Tommy and the Rockets | Beer and Fun and Rock ‘n’ Roll Another ace project powered by the pop and roll genius of super criminal defense attorney Michael Chaney, whose handiwork can also be heard in the grooves of the New Trocaderos. Ten pop-rockers, co-written, except for one, by Chaney and Thomas “Tommy” Stubgaard, who plays all of the guitars, bass, and provides handclaps, shake the house, as it were, with a catchy, Beach Boys-influenced sunshine anthem (“Here Comes Summer”) and a couple of energetic Ramones nods (“Silly Teenage Love” and “You Want Me (But I Don’t Want You)”). Cheery, toe-tapping fun prevails throughout.
Ken Sharp | New Mourning Veteran music man Ken Sharp delivers an album crafted for summer listening and featuring guest turns from Pure Pop Radio favorite Rob Bonfiglio and some guy named Rick Springfield. Although informed by the emotional rollercoaster he’s had to ride during the last few years, and taking into account producer Fernando Perdomo’s description of this record as “the feel-bad album of the year, but in a good way,” these songs emit a joyous sound. Check the very-Merrymakers sound of the ringing guitars-grounded “I Should Have Known” and the very-Raspberries pop-rocker “Let’s Be Friends.” For more muscle, turn to “Mr. Know It All,” powered by crunchy guitars and a strong, catchy melody. But definitely turn to New Mourning, a towering achievement.
Cliff Hillis | “Love Not War (Summerpop Mix)” The title song from Hillis’s most recent EP gets a summer sound makeover, which is to say it’s perhaps lighter in tone, and about a minute shorter, than the original, but with the same sound pronouncement: “It’s time to make love, not war.” Gather up the beach balls, hot dogs, and blankets and celebrate the warmer weather while simultaneously keeping a thought or two for peace in our time. Cliff nails it…again.
Laurie Biagini | “Busy Body” From Canada way comes a happy-sounding new song from this always bright and cheery singer-songwriter. “Busy Body,” which will be part of the forthcoming album Stranger in the Mirror, shuffles along merrily, telling the tale of the office person to avoid. Another great track from a performer who never disappoints.
Alan Haber’s Pure Pop Radio is the original 24-hour Internet radio station playing the greatest melodic pop music from the ’60s to today. From the Beatles to the Monkees, Gary Ritchie, McPherson Grant, Tommy and the Rockets, and the New Trocaderos, we play the hits and a whole lot more. Tune in by clicking on one of the listen links below.
