Power Pop is the latest album from Sacramento's foremost DIY underground legend Anton Barbeau who has been on my radar since the days of Myspace back when he regularly played gigs at the 12 Bar club and the windmill and all sorts of other London haunts while opening for the likes of The Jazz Butcher. He is currently signed to Big Stir Records whose head honcho Christine Bulbenko is an Ukrainian American and the label are trying to help the relief effort by donating 50% of sales from the labels titles in there Ukraine benefit store https://www.bigstirrecords.com/united-help-ukraine-benefit-store so go and buy some of the labels other releases as well as Anton's latest album.
The album opens with Entrez-Vous Dans Le Maisons a slow piano led stroll along a boulevard. The Power Pop kicks in like you're at a party and the DJ is doing a shout out asking for requests, hoping things don't descend into a typical fight over what is and isn't Power pop, this is a gentle psychedelic hit as Anton asks to be buried in his underwear.
American Road is a song of despair as Anton pleads to not fall to the fate of dying on an American Road in some awful accident, while we all hope that isn't his or anyone else's fate for that matter, this is frazzled around the edges while feeling quite laid back like they aren't doing the speed limit.
The Never Crying Wolf Boy could easily be read as a warning to the kind of doom mongering that has become all too common in this day and age, although as the refracted guitars fire off fractal shards of noise Anton gets his message across that it's best if you never cry wolf.
Hillbilly Village is a great slice of cowpunk that sounds like a speeded up Beat Farmers singing a nursery rhyme song with some elements of The Knitters Poor Little Critter In The Road.
The Sound is almost gauzy psychedelic warped wanderings through the doors opened by a monumental acid trip as if you've eaten a huge Magic Mushroom pie and freaked.
Pompadour Toupee is short interlude ident that leads into The Drugs and how they affect Anton or not, this is very laid back like you're on the laid-back drugs, this is not about uppers.
Free is a loaded term these days, as I'm sure Anton hopes people pay for his music, as he sings about how Free he is, hopefully to continue putting out absurd amounts of cool music, as he's been doing for a few years now, as the funky bassline should get you grooving along with him before it all breaks down and the handclaps begin for the fade out.
Slash Zed Zip sounds like a Cyndi Lauper outtake that flies by in under a minute. Julian Cope is a tribute to an artist even more out there than Anton is, who has been on his musical and life quest for knowledge and understanding on the fringes of society for far longer than Anton, but who as a kindred spirit needs both celebrating and befriending.
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There are then three short spurts that make up La Revanche Du Genre, When I Am Happy and Fretless Bronze (For Matthew) that are over far too soon.
Running On The Edge Of The Knife is a slice of 80's pop rock that Kenny Loggins would be proud of, as we wonder if it's a Hot Knife or not, also which 80's movie re-make this should feature over the titles too, as it goes properly bonkers lyrically towards the end.
Whisper In The Wind is sort of synth pop psychedelia with a wispy edge and hushed backing vocals as well as some chiming synths.
Rain, Rain sounds like a thunderclap Pet Shop Boys electro Power Pop song for a Rainy day, which as it stopped raining just before I started writing this review isn't far from my day, as I look at all the grey clouds out of my window.
Valerie's Waiting is the second song I've reviewed this week about Valerie, she's having a bit of a moment, this is more like Tears for Fears than The Kooks, and this really makes me want to hear it over and over far more than the Ceramic Animals song Valerie, this is quietly effective a lovely tribute to Valerie.
Prologue, Literally is actually more of an Epilogue, but either way a nice way to end another very cool Anton Barbeau album with some synths and strings to bring about a sense of calm.
Find out more at https://bigstirrecords.bandcamp.com/album/power-pop https://www.facebook.com/antonbarbeau
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