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Buyer's Guide: 90's Powerpop - Mojo

This article was lifted from the Mojo web site and serves as a useful introduction to 90's PP!!

'90s Powerpop

Dave Henderson investigates music modelled on the three Bs.

Beatlemania changed everything in early '60s America. Sinatra was out. Presley was floundering. A torrent of chirpy Brit invaders ruled the roost. The Byrds' electric roots sound and Brian Wilson's Beach Boys' productions were America's saving grace. And, amid the hubbub, legions of imitators took the triad's not dissimilar gameplans and tried to create their own version of a bankable pop sound. The early '70s saw Badfinger's Beatles-esque quaintness hailed in the US, and home-grown acts like Big Star and The Raspberries began to emulate their inspiration. They begat The Rubinoos, Greg Kihn, Dwight Twilley, The Shoes, The Plimsouls and a variety of other groovily-named wannabes. But commercial success was not on the agenda; instead, cult status loomed. Even touted artists couldn't make the genre lucrative. Much ado surrounded the 1970 debut album of former Merry Go Round vocalist Emitt Rhodes, but the eventual failure of its beautifully appointed songs and intricate layered production dismayed all involved. He reacted by growing a futile beard and becoming a recluse.

Even an old pro like The Nazz's Todd Rundgren couldn't get all the bits in the right order. His Something/Anything? from 1972 was a masterpiece, but the set remained something of an acquired taste. Rundgren avoided the beard option, but turned up the volume to 11 and confined melody to the doldrums. Powerpop, it seemed, was too hard. When UK band The Pleasers bagged the name as the '80s began, the concept looked doomed. But that's where our story begins. The perfect no-hope, plagiaristic, over-complex, occasionally slushy genre of powerpop had to make a comeback. As the '90s dawned, the USA took up the plectrum again...

		The Pursuit Of Happiness Sex & Food In the late '80s, The Pursuit Of Happiness were being preened by Chrysalis for rock stardom, but lankhaired front man Moe Berg had a penchant for pop and chart success was on his mind. Todd Rundgren was brought in for their debut album Love Junk and the first single I'm An Adult Now (now available on the Best Of Sex & Food) became an immediate powerpop legend. Chart success materialised with the sweeter follow-up, She's So Young, but the album stiffed and TPOH reacted by beefing up their sound. Anonymity was soon theirs.

		Jellyfish Bellybutton While TPOH faltered on the starting blocks, Jellyfish - with their theatrical image and MTV-friendly videos - crossed over for the briefest of moments. Quite simply, they loved Macca, they even covered Jet live, and added an almost prog rock enormity to their songs and those classic Beatles melody lines. Bellybutton was just a phenomenal experience, its arrangements and pacing being almost draining: a real rollercoaster of sound and emotion. Sadly, the followup, Spilt Milk, was less structured and the band disintegrated.

		Matthew Sweet Girlfriend In the world of the under-rated singer/songwriter, Matthew Sweet is king. In Japan he's huge and 1992's Girlfriend explains why. In the style of Emitt Rhodes, Sweet mixes all the main ingredients, adding a touch of country sadness for his ballads and enough double-tracked vocals to pluck any heartstrings. The result is silky sweet, the kind of bedroom angst that's quite simply infectious.

		The Posies Frosting On The Beater One more for the list of lost heroes, The Posies strayed too close to rock flamboyance and burned out, but on songs like Flavor Of The Month, from 1993's Frosting On The Beater, their harmony style and keen sense of minor-chord melody are compulsive. Leading light Ken Stringfellow made some fine solo outings, but this often-remaindered album is probably the best way to remember these virtually unsung sons of Seattle.

		Brad Jones Gilt Flake Like Rundgren and Easter, the name of Brad Jones runs throughout the powerpop genre. Most recently he's become legendary for his production work - including Cotton Mather - but back in 1995 Gilt-Flake was his unique, perfectly-phrased calling card. Complete with harpsichord and acoustic strums amid well-positioned shards of guitar and brokenhearted balladeering, Jones reels out all the emotions, making his simple melodies far larger than the sum of their parts.

		Wondermints Wondermints Wondermints' albums are notoriously hard to find, or wantonly expensive - their brilliant 1998 Japanese release Bali goes for a staggering £31.99. In 1996, this superb debut presented the group as a space-age meeting of The Beach Boys and The Beatles, with their West Coast cool showing through for balance. The eclectic brew is further spiced with classic Bacharach and Brill Building couplets accompanied when necessary by a Byrds jangle, Jellyfish's dramatic depth and a few love songs.

		The Loud Family Interbabe Concern After the break-up of his first band, Game Theory, Scott Miller's attention turned to The Loud Family. Their first two albums continued the pure pop style, but 1996's Interbabe Concern stripped down the various elements and reconfigured his writing into a weird, futuristic take on pop. Harmonies still hold court, as do those hummable melodies, but it's the array of noises off, inconsequential samples and fast editing - from symphonic cacophony to minimalistic quiet - that make this album so superb. There's even a power-drill solo.

		Cotton Mather Kontiki Cotton Mather's second album from 1997 took the genre of powerpop to a new, staggering level. Certainly the Lennon-McCartney dual vocal is in evidence, but it's the clever post-grunge guitar shapes that add to the White Album/Abbey Road-era sound. Perhaps the allure of such a blatantly Beatles-styled sound might be off-putting, but the uptempo drive and the pure joy that Cotton Mather exude makes this totally more-ish. Noel Gallagher goes mad for 'em.

		Myracle Brah Life On Planet Eartsnop And finally, if you like those, you'll love this! In 1998, Love Nut (yet another powerpop-approved act) mainman Andy Bopp knocked out 20 pop gems from the lost song book of Badfinger, Big Star, The La's - whoever. Life On Planet Eartsnop rattles with exuberant tambourine but possesses a batch of truly uplifting melodies all underpinned by Bopp's bittersweet and truly melodramatic singing style. Awesome.

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