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| From | Aaron Milenski <amilenski@hotmail.com> |
| Subject | Re: My All-Time Top 20 Pop Albums |
| Date | Mon, 14 Jan 2008 09:11:51 -0500 |
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I'm going to make this a power pop list, which means I'm not
including punk (otherwise the Ramones, the Muffs, Holly & The
Italians and maybe Generation X would make it--those bands
are every bit as true to the spirirt of 60s guitar pop as any
power pop band.)
A couple of albums need brief explanations:
1) Scruffs – Wanna Meet The Scruffs
2) Game Theory – Lolita Nation
(This was the one album I had the hardest time including, since the production isn't power pop at all--but Game Theory were on John Borack's list, so I figured it was OK to put them on mine.)
3) Push Kings – Push Kings
4) Big Star – Radio City
5) Undertones - Hypnotised
(They were originally a punk band, but this album is very clearly a pop album. Doesn't even have any distortion on it. It has the most guitar hooks of any album ever, in any genre...and nothing is more power pop than that.)
6) Expressos – Promises and Ties
7) Badfinger – Wish You Were Here
8) Dwight Twilley Band – Twilley Don’t Mind
9) The Last – L.A. Explosion
10) We All Together – We All Together 2
(Awesome 70s band from Peru who wanted to be Paul McCartney. Not the Beatles, but solo McCartney. As it turns out they made an album better than ANY of his solo albums. Their debut is great too, but this is the one every power pop fan needs. Ranks with Badfinger as best 70s variation on the Beatles. "Follow If You Can" may have the greatest guitar hook ever.)
11) Dirty Looks – Dirty Looks
(The UK neo-mod powerpop band on Stiff, not the US hard rock band.)
12) Nick Lowe – Pure Pop For Now People
(NOT Jesus Of Cool...the US version is actually quite a bit better.)
13) Flys - Waikiki Beach Refugees
14) Emmit Rhodes – Emmit Rhodes
15) Raspberries – Starting Over
16) John Scoggins – Pressed For Time
(ultra-rare album only released as a tax scam on the infamous Tiger Lily label in 1976. Not sure when it was recorded--maybe '74 or so. Sparkling post-Beatles power pop that would be a huge cult favorite among Audities types if the album wasn't so rare. Ofddly enough, it only seems to be known by psych collectors, but it is not psychedelic at all.)
17) Matthew Sweet – 100% Fun
18) Cotton Mather – Kon-Tiki
19) The Keys – The Keys’ Album
20) The Real Kids – The Real Kids
tough to leave out bands like Blue Ash, the Flame, Artful Dodger, Shoes, the Posies, etc... but I went for albums that I love as albums and albums that have had significant emotional impact on me over the years. That's also why so few recent albums on my list.
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