Album review : Looking For The Magic (American Power Pop in The Seventies 3CD boxset)

Cherry Red [Release date 17.11.23]

American Power Pop In The Seventies found what it was looking for numerous times.

Something of a cliché, but you could almost stick a pin in the chronologically curated tracklist of this 3 CD anthology and come up with “the magic” time after time. Eric Carmen, Nils Lofgren, Jonathan Richman, Sparks, Television, The Babys, Cheap Trick, Marbles, The Ramones, The Cars, The Raspberries and on and on. You really can’t go wrong.

It would be impossible to cover all of the remaining fifty plus artists. So we picked half a dozen at random. Each has a solid gold pedigree, sometimes in singles/albums sold, sometimes in reputation.

The Power Pop term may be a loose fit, but these six share an element of genre’s basic circuitry :

Andrew Gold
Ian Lloyd
Alex Chilton
Badfinger
Utopia
The Knack

Andrew Gold enjoyed considerable success with Wax, the duo he formed with Graham (10cc) Gouldman, and as a solo performer. His worldwide hit ‘Lonely Boy’ is here. He was a sought after producer in the years preceding these hits, writing, producing and performing on the early albums recorded by Maria Muldaur, Linda Ronstadt, Rita Coolidge and Carly Simon. ‘Lonely Boy’ was no lucky strike.

Ian Lloyd was the backing singer to the stars, his fame in providing vocals to the likes of Foreigner, Mick Jones, Bryan Adams and Peter Frampton grew exponentially in the Eighties. All this on the back of the work he did with his band, Stories. The Ric Ocasek song ‘Slip Away’ was written for the Cars’ Candy-O album but missed the cut. Lloyd grabbed it quick and put it on his 1979 solo album, Goosebumps. It is featured here.

If any singer worked hard to avoid fame and fortune it was Alex Chilton.
Even when fronting Big Star, never mind recording his solo stuff, commercial material was never the priority. Power Pop was only just getting off the ground in the early 70s, and so Chilton’s wonderful, much covered ‘She Might Look My Way’ was never a contender. It’s here though, on CD1, sandwiched between Jonathan Richman and Eric Carmen, so to speak.

Oops, we were planning to talk about Todd Rundgren’s groundbreaking band, Utopia; the much lamented Badfinger, and “nine months in 1979” sensations, the Knack. But we’ve run out of space. We have to be satisfied in referencing little known Power Pop hitmakers, like Blue Ash, Dwight Twilley, The Flamin Groovies, Robert Johnson, The Rubinoos and dozens more. They are all here. ****

Review by Brian McGowan

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.

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Power Plays w/c 11 November 2024

ARCANE MOON Hello Sun (indie)
S8NT ELEKTRIC XTC (Long Branch Records)
ARCANA KINGS Here We Go (Curtain Call Records)
KLOGR face The Unknown (Zeta Factory)
BEYOND UNBROKEN Dance With The Dead (FiXT)
REVENGIN Decadent Feeling (Wormholedeath)

Featured Albums w/c 11 November 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Singer Songwriter)