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Poptopia!, Power Pop Classics Of The '70s, '80s, and '90's
Rhino, released: 1997
The Poptopia collection put out this year from Rhino is quite a feet. 3 CD's worth of what the curators call "Power Pop". At first that term seems hard to define, but by the time your done it starts to make sense. I have often thought that a perfectly constructed pop song could result in complete peace and harmony for who ever hears it, this collection is proof of that. Some of these songs defy all logic and reason as to why anyone would like them. All in all the series is pretty terrific. Mostly you listen to the songs and compile a better list in your head. There does seem to be a bit of a gravitation towards the underground, yet we know that we've heard most of this stuff on the radio. On first listen I could only have named 5 bands of the 18 on disc one. The Raspberries and the Knack have the highest charting songs here (billboards singles and album chart info is included). A lot of it never even broke the charts at all. The thread that hits me as being the sonic qualifier here is the jangly guitar. Almost all the bands have a least a tinge of post Byrds guitar sound. Why did some songs make it and other better songs not? Some of it just wasn't legally available to be included. Don't like it? Make your own damn collection.
 
Power Pop Classics Of The '70s
Whamm!, hit full on by the Raspberries. This disc opens up with "Go all the Way" by the Raspberries and sets quite a pace. All in all I feel that this is the best disc, but then maybe it's because it's the period that set a lot of my own musical stylings. Todd Rundgren is on two of the three discs and his song on this one rates perfect execution. High points include the already mentioned Raspberries tune, Big Star's "September Gurls", Flamin' Groovies "Shake Some Action", Cheap Tricks "Come On, Come On", 20/20s "Yellow Pills". Low points include the Knack, Blue Ash, Fotomaker, the Rubinoos (Hey, You, get off on my Rolling Stones rip-off), and Badfingers "Just a Chance" (there is an apology in the liner notes for not being able to include "No Matter What" but they were limited to the Warner Bros. catolog; the included track is completely forgettable). Take a song like "Girl of my Dreams" by Bram Tchaikovsky, it kicks absolute butt. This is Rock, it has this power that most all of these songs attempt to channel. And it all goes good in the car. Too bad there isn't the AM radio of times past that really thrived ono this kind of disposable pop. To some degree it could almost be considered Bubblegum. But this music seems to be geared to the age group above the Bubblegum genre. Lots of boy meets girl subject matter, too bad they couldn't have found some girl meets boy songs to include. The whole 3 CD collection suffers from this.
 
 
Power Pop Classics Of The '80s
This Disc of 80's Power Pop starts out with The Romantics "What I like About You". A classic of disposable American Pop. I can remember when this came out it was marketed as New Wave. The Skinny Tie, matching outfit type of music. Not American Radio un-friendly (i.e, Punk Rock). A lot of the cuts on this record seem to fit into this category, which some would argue was just a way for record companies to make money off of the Punk Rock movement. I remember seeing the band Great Buildings (featured here playing "Hold on to Something") open up for the Dickies in Los Angeles in the early 80's. A band that was here and gone after one album, left no impression on me. But this album has plenty of hits to satisfy you with. The Plimsouls "A Million Miles Away" is an example of perfect execution. The Bangles, along with Holly and the Italians, bring in the female voice with the absolutely unforgettable "Going down to Liverpool". Inclusion of a track by Utopia proves that the people putting this together have some kind of Todd Rundgren fetish with a second, unnecessary tune. But the pluses way outweigh the minuses here. And why weren't REM included? They are an example of a band that was too popular to make the cut, but their neighbors and cohorts Let's Active are represented the with the song "Every Word Means No". The Smithereens are one band that I don't get for sure. They stand out to me as miscast on this collection, not catchy enough. The disc closses with The La's "There She Goes", an excellent tune. Like the Hollies time warped, so then, so now. Candy, Tommy Keene, Bill Lloyd, The Spongetones, lots of artists and bands that I've never heard of but plenty of jems buried in the rubble of rock radio that never happened. But it should have. Bring back the A.M! Oh, and did I mention that this stuff sounds better if you're driving in a car?
 
 
Power Pop Classics Of The '90s
1990s? Hell, they're not even over yet. But lets see what we've got here. A few bands are represented that I think deserve definte status. The Lemonheads and Redd Kross both have penned enough pop classics to deserve there own plaques on somewhere walls, so it's good to see credit where it's due. "I've Been Waiting," by Matthew Sweet, at #100 is the highest ranking song/album ala the Billboard chart on this disc. And that says a lot about the music here. This kind of Pop Music, Power Pop, has been forced even further underground. Most of this stuff will only surface on the College radio curcuit. And once again we all but devoid of any female contributions. The Rooks and Velocity Girl each have female members, but no loud female contributions are included. Overall I'd say that this album is disappointing. But that is in comparison to the other discs. The hooks just aren't near as catchy and the Pop not a fraction as powerful. A higher percentage of bands here that I've never heard of before. "Jessica Something" by the Tearaways stands out as an uncovered jem. The Rembrandts, who's former band Great Buildings is included on the '80s collection, present another forgettable song which clocks in at 4:27, the longest on the '90s collection. Which perhaps puts them into the same catagory as Todd Rundgren: once would have been plenty. Maybe ther's just too much of this stuff today. Hard to get a handle on the whole with so many tangents to track. The Greenberry Woods "Trampoline" is another to blow you away, but add the whole disc up and it falls a bit short. Maybe we're better off tracking down the individual albums by the better contributors.
[BdeV 7/27/97]