Twenty-five years ago today, that's last millennium in 1990, short-lived San Francisco power pop band Jellyfish put out their incredible début album Bellybutton. The songs this band created feature so many of my favourite musical things: high energy, catchy melodies, great pop hooks, all with a little bit of depth and lots of originality.
I don't think I'll ever get tired of these classic tunes.
"The Man I Used To Be"
"That Is Why" Definitely a "highlight of the highlights" song
"The King Is Half-Undressed" The big single and still my favourite tune from this album.
In the early days of my old band, we tried to coin a name for the kind of music we played. We knew we had (hopefully) catchy melodies complimented by loud guitars. I came up with "Loud Pop" to describe the sound but the other guys felt it might be taken too literally, as in the sound of a loud pop. Pop!
In hindsight, the term I was probably looking for was Power Pop. And what a great genre it is. So much of my favourite music can be summed up by this term. Here are some great examples of the genre. Mostly old and some new.
I let the "labels" on the post be my limiting factor, which only means one thing: this won't be the last loud pop post.
Jellyfish "The King is Half Undressed"
Jellyfish "That is Why"
Jellyfish "The Ghost at # 1"
Jellyfish "New Mistake"
Cheap Trick "Dream Police"
Cheap Trick "Reach Out"
Badfinger "No Matter What"
Big Star "When My Baby's Beside Me"
Big Star "September Gurls"
The Cars "Let's Go"
Nick Lowe "Cruel to be Kind"
The Knack "My Sharona"
The Romantics "What I Like About You"
The Vapors "Turning Japanese"
The Smithereens "A Girl Like You"
Material Issue "Kim the Waitress"
The Pursuit of Happiness "When the Sky Comes Falling Down"
