It’s been around for a while, dropped out of focus a bit, and then came back strong with a vengeance. As some definitions go, power pop has that classic rock instrumentation with harder edges, but with a focus on a great melody and harmony hooks that abound.
Many pinpoint the genre's birth with that still-great Beatles single, “Paperback Writer,” and cite such great rockers as the Who, and Kinks as its progenitors. Later on, names that made it big, like Cheap Trick, the Cars, Todd Rundgren, and the Knack (of "My Sharona" fame) were bands and artists that made it quite big with power pop.
Yet, there are those artists who made power pop what it is today. The groups had other albums hailed with some of their best work remaining in the shadows or even underrated, sometimes by the critics. They certainly deserve more respect and love and can also serve as a great introduction to the genre.
Eight underrated or forgotten power pop albums that everybody should know about
Big Star - #1
For all the true fans of the genre, this is the album that represents the basis on which the term power pop was initially based on. Created by Alex Chilton of the Box Tops (who had a huge hit with “The Letter”) and Chris Bell, another melodic rock prodigy, Big Star unfortunately never made it big nor became stars. The band did acquire a staunch cult following at the time that remains to this day, with both Chilton and Bell leaving us too early.
The album (1972) bombed in sales initially, yet even the numerous reissues didn’t do much for the band sales-wise, even though it is filled with melody-perfect songs that ring fresh even to this day.
The next four
Flamin’ Groovies - Shake Some Action
Another band that is considered a prime mover of power pop had a similar fate as Big Star. Starting out in San Francisco in the late sixties, Cyril Jordan and his crew always had more interest in the sound of the Beatles and the Byrds than Jefferson Airplane or The Grateful Dead. This meant consistency with the melody hooks, harmony vocals, and jangling (and ringing) guitars.
With three albums prior to it “Shake Some Action” (1976) turns out to be prime Flamin’ Groovies, but also prime power pop, and it was not only the title track that is considered as a power pop classic at its best. The whole album doesn’t have a single weak spot. That still didn’t help it go much further than the hardcore power pop fans.
XTC - Skylarking
By the time this album came out in 1986, XTC as a band had squarely moved away from its punkish/new wave roots into psych-tinged power pop with Andy Partridge squarely at the helm of the band, with solid support from bassist Colin Moulding.
After the release of the album, Partridge and the band expressed their dissatisfaction with how Todd Rundgren handled the album’s production and tried to rectify what they saw fit in later reissues. Yet, reissued or in its original form, this album remains one of power pop classics, with its variety showing at the same time that the genre is not "a one-trick pony."
The Posies - Frosting on the Beater
Initially, Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow, the prime movers of the Posies wore their British beat influences on their sleeve. They cited everybody from the Beatles to the Hollies and the Zombies in their initial two albums.
By this, their third album in 1993, they had a fully formed sound of their own. They revived the original power pop to its full form with some incredible melodies, vocal harmonies, and guitar work. Songs like “Solar Sister” and “Flavor of the Month” are considered genre classics by both critics and fans. Still, that didn’t do the band much good as far as sales are concerned.
The Greenberry Woods - Rapple Dapple
While The Greenberry Woods made some sort of a ripple with their second album, Big Money Effort (1995), it was this, their first record in 1994 that defined their sound. Meaning, a swift, modernized combination of the Beatles and the Byrds, presenting this band as a fully-formed band with something to say.
Yet, the whole thing fell apart after two albums, due to, it seems, internal strife within the band as where the things will go from there on. Still, both albums, and particularly this one, remain as a sign of rejuvenated power pop in the nineties,
The final three games
Jason Falkner - Presents The Author Unknown
Maybe the tongue-in-cheek album title here referred to the fact that Falkner already had some tasty bands under his belt regarding musical experience. He was already a member of Three O’Clock and Jellyfish, even though his role was seemingly not so prominent there.
But going solo with this album in 1995, Falkner presented himself as an exceptional songwriting and arranging craftsman, coming up with some of the best power pop and pop rock of that decade. Neither this nor any of Falkner’s own albums that followed made a big splash beyond power pop circles. Quite a shame that.
Teenage Fanclub - Grand Prix
While critics and fans are still (rightfully) raving about the band's grand power pop effort Bandwagonesque, it was this album that is not only one of their best but a true songwriting effort by the whole band, matched with some of the best, often whimsical lyrics they have come up with to date. After all, who would come up with a title (and fitting lyrics) like “Neil Jung" (Carl Young, anyone?)? Still, somehow, this album was never as appreciated as some of this band's other efforts.
Pugwash - Silverlake
It seems that the heart of hardcore power pop fans these days lies with this Irish crew led by Thomas Walsh one of the more serious connoisseurs of all things melodic rock and power pop.
This album from 2017 presents all the best characteristics of the sounds this band can make, presenting all that is good with modern power pop. And while Pugwash have a hardcore power pop fan base around the world, the wider audience is yet to catch up with them.