Yes, I'm one of those tiresome baby boomers who is constantly lamenting the sad state of pop music, but particularly pop radio, which is pretty much dead to me. If I find a band I like, I'm guaranteed never to hear their music on commercial mainstream radio (though I must admit I haven't sampled satellite radio yet). My car radio isn't on much these days thanks to my iPod, but when it is, it's on either oldies radio or classical music (which, as a commerical commodity is apparently in sad straits these days). I may have given up on radio, but I still search out pop music and want to report on two great discs I've discovered recently.
The Bird and the Bee is a singer/instrumentalist duo who make a kind of space-age cocktail samba music with hints of 60's melodies and 00's synths. Sometimes it feels like electropop folk. At any rate, it's bubbly and sweetly jazzy, with an occasional edge ("F*cking Boyfriend," the hip-hoppy "Because"), and while the sound gets a bit thin at times--a little more depth of instrumentation would be welcome on album #2--it is catchy and summery, and singer Inara George, daughter of Lowell George of 70's blusey, jammy Little Feat, has a great indie-pop voice.
Sloan is a Canadian pop band which has been making music for over 10 years; based on the evidence of their latest CD,
Never Hear the End of It, I need to go to iTunes to do some catching up. This is shimmery Beatlesque powerpop at its best, and it doesn't sound dated in the least. This disc is perhaps a bit overambitious, with 30 songs, some of which are only a minute or so in length, which all segue together. Mostly, I find that device pretentious, though there are moments when the flow does achieve an "Abbey Road, side 2" feel. But when so damn many of the individual songs are so damn good, as they are here, I can overlook the faltering "concept." In a perfect world, where solidly constructed, glossy but not plastic, pop music was still the opium of the masses, songs from this album, such as "Ana Lucia" or the amazing "Who Taught You To Live Like That?" would be choking the airwaves. All they need is to get one of their songs in a commerical, and American chart success might be knocking--of course, that would also doom them as one-hit wonders in the US.
The Bird and the Bee is a singer/instrumentalist duo who make a kind of space-age cocktail samba music with hints of 60's melodies and 00's synths. Sometimes it feels like electropop folk. At any rate, it's bubbly and sweetly jazzy, with an occasional edge ("F*cking Boyfriend," the hip-hoppy "Because"), and while the sound gets a bit thin at times--a little more depth of instrumentation would be welcome on album #2--it is catchy and summery, and singer Inara George, daughter of Lowell George of 70's blusey, jammy Little Feat, has a great indie-pop voice.
Sloan is a Canadian pop band which has been making music for over 10 years; based on the evidence of their latest CD, Never Hear the End of It, I need to go to iTunes to do some catching up. This is shimmery Beatlesque powerpop at its best, and it doesn't sound dated in the least. This disc is perhaps a bit overambitious, with 30 songs, some of which are only a minute or so in length, which all segue together. Mostly, I find that device pretentious, though there are moments when the flow does achieve an "Abbey Road, side 2" feel. But when so damn many of the individual songs are so damn good, as they are here, I can overlook the faltering "concept." In a perfect world, where solidly constructed, glossy but not plastic, pop music was still the opium of the masses, songs from this album, such as "Ana Lucia" or the amazing "Who Taught You To Live Like That?" would be choking the airwaves. All they need is to get one of their songs in a commerical, and American chart success might be knocking--of course, that would also doom them as one-hit wonders in the US.
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