Until Spring of 2025, Tom Moloney of More About Music, Please! had little-to-no-idea as to what power pop was, let alone having heard any of its fabulous melodies, glorious harmonies, and the rivetingly catchy songs this rock sub-genre has to offer!
Here are Tom’s last couple of forays into discovering some of power pop’s best artists & songs:
Tom’s first impressions: “Smile” is a song that looks optimistically to the future. It makes you want to have fun, join in with the singing and move your body. The vocal melody bounces with the beat of the drum, giving it the energy you feel, and adding to the overall excitement of the music.
The pitch lift in the chorus emphasizes this, a classic technique in music that is so effective when used properly. Designing the chorus around the repetition of “smile” is very power pop, a genre famous for its happy-go-lucky themes and lyrics that are easy to sing along to, something “smile” epitomizes.
“Smile” is a song that lifts me to the clouds and puts me in a mood to get outside and find hidden gems in a world I am yet to fully explore.
Billy Kinsley (Bass)
Roger Scott Craig (Piano)
Tony Coates (Vocals / Guitar)
Derek Cashin (Drums)
John Ryan (Drums / Backing Vocals) 1976-1981
Brad: From around ‘76, the band on one of those TV shows where the bands lip-synch their way through, most likely the UK, in this case. Curiously, their 1976 debut album (produced by Hal Carter and Peter Swettenham), Tracks, was released by Warner Bros. Records, worldwide, except the U.S.! Apparently, domestic Warner suits thought they were “too British” (but, not for Spain, Brazil, or Argentina, though)!
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Tom: The Rubinoos is a name I’ve been seeing a lot since Brad first introduced me to power pop. Clearly, if you’d asked me about them this time last year, I’d look blankly back asking, “Who are The Rubinoos?” Since then, they’ve become a staple of the music I listen to.
What makes this song sound and feel like a Rubinoos tune rather than just another power pop song is the vocal harmonies. It’d be difficult to find a band that is tighter and more in-sync with their backing vocals.
On “Nothing A Little Love Won’t Cure,” the harmonies are more important than the guitar, bass and drums. They are the highlight of the song and it would have a completely different feel without them.
When listening to “Nothing A Little Love Won’t Cure,” you almost want to sing along with the backing harmonies rather than the lead vocals themselves. It’s a song that gets me excited to hear again, discover more by the band, and check out the entire album it comes from!
Brad: Tom, that would be their👇self-titled 1977 debut album on Beserkley Records:
Before we leave “Nothing a Little Love Won’t Cure,” Tom, here are The Rubinoos, live, from this past March, at the Alameda County Rock’n’Roll Flea Market (Facebook friend, Al Chan, on bass):
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Tom: “Out Of My Heart” feels like a classic love song. It has simple acoustic guitar chords strumming away, whilst the vocals are executed in a way that any boy band of the ‘90s or ‘00s would be proud of.
The song is modern and has that very early 2000s sound. This is something that surprised me when first listening, as I’d always assumed the era of power pop ended by the late ‘70s, but the use of harmonies and constant repetition show the band’s strong influence from music in the 1960s.
It took me just one listen through to know all the lyrics of the chorus, and the melodies had me singing along; that is what power pop is all about!
Brad: From 2019, “Out of My Heart” live at a bar called “8 Track Tapes”: 3 singers, 3-part harmonies, two acoustic guitars, and no drummer:
Tom: The minute “Where’s The Love” started, I was absolutely sold on it! The energy is unmatched, the vocals have a humble confidence, and it is a song I love so much, it ended up in one of my playlists weeks back when Brad first shared the song with me!
Being honest, there is a strong familiarity I have to this song, and I’d suspect it is either a song my older sister would play during my early years, or it was a song my guitar teacher would cover in his band.
“Where’s The Love” can be summed up in two words: energy and excitement. Right from the first guitar strum, it is larger than life. It’s built through layer upon layer of instruments and vocals, that are panned left and right, creating a wall of sound.
Brad: Then, wait ‘til you hear them all grown up, live, and in a far more rock-forward arrangement, Tom (with the key noticeably pitched down, appropriately enough!):
By the way, Tom, “Where’s the Love” was written by Isaac Hanson, Taylor Hanson, Zac Hanson, Sander Salover, and Mark Hudson. Mark was, himself, part of an all-brother trio, The Hudson Brothers (with Bill and Brett), in (mostly) the ‘70s! So, it’s not unusual he found himself, often, in the galaxy of Isaac, Taylor, and Zac, even to the point of co-penning songs, including this one!
Here’s an article I was proud to collab with Mark Edward Randall on, from last year, focusing on The Hudson Brothers’ mixed-medium ‘70s foray into TV and recording:
And, from the song’s Wiki page (returning to this century!): “On June 11, 2021, American pop-punk band, Bowling for Soup, released a cover of the track, being joined by Hanson themselves! The cover was guitarist Chris Burney’s idea. When asked about the track, singer Jaret Reddick said:
Taylor Hanson and I have been friends for a long while. So when Chris threw the idea of ‘Where’s The Love’ into our ‘cover songs to record’ mix, I thought, ‘Never hurts to ask!’ Those guys stay busy! The idea was for Taylor to sing the bridge. You can imagine our surprise when he sent it back with himself, Isaac and Zac all singing on the song! And way above and beyond what we had asked!
Our voices sound so cool together, and hearing them sing over the huge guitars is freakin’ amazing! I have high hopes for this one!
“The music video, animated by Dave Pearson, pays homage to the early Scooby-Doo cartoons”:
Tom: Like so many power pop songs, “Is That Love?” is straight into high energy and high tempo. It contains melodies that flow smoothly and rise at the end as they wander up the scale.
Where this song differs, the vocals remind me a lot of ‘90s Britpop. They carry attitude, and the singer doesn’t seem to have a care in the world: Maybe an early influence for Oasis and Blur.
“Is That Love?” (written by Chris Difford & Glenn Tilbrook, and produced by Roger Bechirian and Elvis Costello) does, however, contain a lot of cheesy harmonies, clarifying for the listener that this is power pop and not one of the Gallagher brothers. Maybe to be expected, given my background, but for me, the highlight of the song is a very well-written guitar solo. It is a solo that is a little funky and crisp. What I like about it so much is how it feels unique and doesn’t use common patterns, yet is in fact, incredibly simple in its very nature.
Brad: Squeeze and a 2014 “Is That Love” live studio performance:
😱Here ya go, Tom! As a parting gift (and fun little game!) for ya, find our song in this 8-song Squeeze medley from 1981, cheekily-titled, “Squabs on Forty Fab” (a dig at the trend from that year, the “Stars on 45” spate of badly-edited medleys of stars’ hits)!
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