Five Easy Masterpieces: An introduction to modern power-pop
The world of genre terms is a fairly nebulous one at the best of times. I came of age being asked by my beloved music press to distinguish between noise-pop, dream-pop and shoegaze and yet, I still can’t think of a genre more nebulous than power-pop. Coined by Pete Townshend to describe the early singles by The Who, the broadest possible definition is basically early Beatles with a bit more heft to it.
You might notice that a metric ton of other music could also fall under this umbrella. Most indie rock bands fall under this. Certainly, anything good that Kiss released could be classified under it, but that feels wrong. Almost all of pop punk can be housed under this category, but that’d start riots in some circles. One of the best definitions comes from, of all places, Courtney Love.
When contributing to the live-stream in memory of the dearly departed Fountains of Wayne songwriter and power-pop genius Adam Schlesinger, the Hole frontwoman described the genre as “three Pauls and a Ringo”. For a period of time, this was 100% true. Classic acts like The Raspberries, Big Star, Cheap Trick and Badfinger embodied that mix of sky-high pop hooks, big-hearted riffs and intricate musicianship better than anyone.
However, it’s not the 1970s anymore, and, like all of us, the genre has evolved into something altogether different and just as exciting. With the classification going through something of a purple patch, let’s have a look at some of the records that flew the flag for modern power-pop!
Five essential modern power-pop albums
Gin Blossoms – ‘New Miserable Experience’
Yes, I know I said modern power pop and this album was released a month before I was born. Unlike me, though, this doesn’t show a single second of its age and still sparkles with melodic freshness. Despite being released 30 years before the lion’s share of picks on this list, this still makes the cut because this was the moment when power pop changed from what it was before into what it is today. With their second album, Tempe, Arizona’s favourite sons evolved the whole sub-genre.
They combined the sheer melodic spark that made those previous bands so memorable with a genuine 1990s grit that harkened to their roots in the Phoenix college rock scene. Before, the genre was bouffant-haired pretty boys harmonizing over Zeppelin knock-off riffs. After New Miserable Experience, it became something deeper and darker without sacrificing a hint of the songwriting majesty that makes the likes of ‘Mrs. Rita’, ‘Hold Me Down’ and the heart-stopping breakthrough single ‘Hey Jealousy’, which are still so magnificent three decades later.
Fountains of Wayne – ‘Welcome Interstate Managers’
The working title of this album may as well be, to paraphrase the title of a Wildhearts B-sides collection, Hook After Hook After Mother***king Hook. Seriously, don’t let the presence of novelty hit ‘Stacy’s Mom’ fool you. One can learn more about songwriting by sitting down with this album than a thousand post-grad degrees in pop music ever could, principally because it’s the crowning achievement of the aforementioned Adam Schlesinger. Not only do the hooks stand up to the “Three Pauls and a Ringo” comment, but the storytelling does too.
Schlesinger creates characters with a novelist’s eye for detail in the likes of ‘Bright Future In Sales’ and ‘Hey Julie’. However, when this album goes for the emotional jugular, it hits. ‘Hackensack’ is an absolutely heartbreaking vignette of a young adult longing for the memory of an old school flame who hit the big time away from their small town. ‘All Kinds Of Time’ turns a game of American football into a genuinely moving meditation on those rare moments when life makes sense. Don’t let the one hit fool you, this album is a masterpiece.
Joyce Manor – ‘Million Dollars To Kill Me’
Coming out of the California punk rock scene, Joyce Manor always had a melodic edge over their peers brought on by the interplay between frontman Barry Johnson’s songwriting and guitarist Chase Knobbe’s sheer chops on six strings. However, it wasn’t until 2016’s Cody that they matured from a punk band into a fully fledged power-pop band, and then perfected their sound with 2018’s Million Dollars To Kill Me.
They’re not afraid to walk the walk either. Barely even a minute into the opening song, and they’re decorating the dazzling ‘Fighting Kangaroo’ with the kind of “ba-ba-da” backing vocals that The Shirelles themselves would be proud of. That minute, by the way, makes up for precisely one 22nd of an album where absolutely no time is wasted. No moment goes by without an unforgettable melody or riff, and in an age where albums seem to be nothing more than fodder for streaming hours on Spotify, that’s a lost art.
Alvvays – ‘Blue Rev’
For power-pop, shoegaze changed everything. The moment that delay pedals became available enough and accessible enough for those outside of the rock scene to afford, the combination of vast oceans of guitar noise and swooning pop melodies went together hand in hand. The peak of that combination wouldn’t come until 2022, though, when the confusingly named Canadian indie rockers Alvvays released their staggering third album Blue Rev.
It’s rare that music on this scale can be released without feeling like the artists are disappearing up their own backsides. Yet no matter how skyscraping the crescendos of ‘Belinda Says’ and ‘Easy On Your Own’ get, there’s a commitment to songwriting majesty that keeps both feat on the ground at all times. A shoegaze song is only ever as good as the song at the core of all the noise and the likes of ‘Tom Verlaine’, ‘Pressed’ and ‘Very Online Guy’ are phenomenal, just like the rest of this modern classic of an album.
The Beths – ‘Expert In A Dying Field’
It’s always bothered me how power-pop remains something of a niche genre. Surely the foundation of pop music, as we know it today, is taking the energy of rock ‘n’ roll and wrapping it around unabashedly joyous pop hooks? Yet most people, rightly or wrongly, feel that since The Beatles did it, there’s not really any point in anyone else doing it. One is immediately setting themselves up for comparisons at the highest level by getting the audience to focus just on the songwriting. However, if any record by The Beths proves anything, it’s that the Kiwis are taking the hardest possible test and passing it with flying colours.
Honestly, any record of theirs proves this point but I’m kicking off with their third album, 2022’s Expert In A Dying Field. Honestly? It’s kind of a difficult album to write about because all that’s there is the most important thing in music, spectacular songwriting. ‘When You Know You Know’, the title track, ‘Head In The Clouds’, all basically perfect. The difference here is that rather than stewing in obscurity, The Beths are in the process of becoming one of the biggest success stories out of New Zealand since Lorde. In a world rapidly running out of reasons to be cheerful, this is absolutely one of them. Get on board now because the best is yet to come.
