Paul Collins knows a thing or two about power pop.
Paul Collins knows a thing or two about power pop. Drummer with cult power pop legends The Nerves (who gave the world Blondie’s subsequent cover Hanging On The Telephone) and splinter group The Breakaways, and founding member and guitarist of The Beat, Collins has been ahead of the curve, at the forefront and in the trenches of the best and brightest power pop of the last 35 years.
So, it’s with appropriate humility that Collins has decided to call his latest record King Of Power Pop! And based on the results, it’s difficult to challenge the assessment. Every song, both original and cover, is a sure-fire winner; from the teenage party hedonism of C’Mon Let’s Go! to the harp-spiced adolescent romantic inquisition of Do You Wanna Love Me? Collins is the man for the power pop party, forever and a day.
The faux-feminine empathy of Doin’ It For The Ladies gives way to the sweet and little-bit-country-meets Sunnyboys beauty of Hurting’s On My Side (note the correct use of the apostrophe!), before Don’t Blame Your Troubles On Me offers a resolute, ‘Nervy emotional retort to any suggestion of poor behaviour. The emphatic Losing Your Cool could’ve found its way onto The Trilobites’Turn It Around if the stars were in alignment, Off the Hook has the spice of The Ramones without the New York attitude and I Go Black is "fuck you" in its brilliant power pop guise.
There are a few covers on offer, including (though arguably technically not a cover) The Nerves’ Many Roads to Follow (a demo of which appeared on the recent Nerves release, also on Alive Records), The Boxtops’ certifiable classic The Letter and You Tore Me Down. And then there’s the album’s signature tracks: Kings of Power Pop!, in which Collins pays tribute to the rock ‘n’ roll attitude that brought rock ‘n’ roll back from the precipice of irrelevance and indulgence, and This Is America, a tongue-in-cheek homage to all that’s good, bad and paradoxically attractive in the world’s dominant imperial nation.
You know those records you can put on and guarantee to fill the dance floor in a flash? King of Power Pop! is one such record: all killer, not even a vague whiff of filler. Long live the King.
Best track: Off The Hook
If you like this, you’ll like : Turn It Around THE TRILOBITES, Life, Love, Bitterness and Death VOODOO LUST.
In a word: King!
Label: Alive Records
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