Power pop is often my musical comfort food of choice. For whatever reason, the sound of twin guitars, a driving backbeat, and smartly-arranged gang vocals consistently lifts my mood. There\u2019s just something inherently endearing and affirming about the genre that the Beatles took from prototype to perfection.<\/p>\n
In all honesty (and honesty is what we peddle here), there is nothing that really stands out about Lannie Flowers\u2019 new disc Live In NYC<\/i> other than this: he means it. Flowers understands and respects and inhabits the power pop genre completely, delivering every note and word of every song with a genuine passion and commitment that elevates the familiar to the compelling. <\/p>\n
Opener \u201cI Didn\u2019t Know\u201d exemplifies Flowers and band\u2019s approach, with an anthemic opening that dives directly into the first verse, thundering along until the first guitar solo kicks in at 1:18, lasting all of 11 seconds. It\u2019s all about concision: riff, verse, chorus, solo, rinse, repeat and you\u2019re out. Flowers\u2019 excellent band features Alan Davis on guitar and keyboards, Rodney Bollinger on guitar, Neil Schnell on bass, Brandon Bumpas on drums, and everyone on background vocals.<\/p>\n
Okay, there is one really interesting thing about Flowers: while it\u2019s not a constant thing, at certain times on certain songs, the Texas native sounds eerily like Mick Jagger. On \u201cAround The World\u201d it\u2019s all very Lannie, bouncy chords and soaring verses until you get to the chorus and a little Mick sneaks into his phrasing. Interestingly, the Jagger tone seems to come out the most on the tunes where Flowers deploys acoustic rhythm guitar, as on \u201cFavorite Song\u201d and \u201cRusty Circles\u201d (not to mention the latter features an organ that feels like it was lifted from the session for \u201cYou Can\u2019t Always Get What You Want\u201d).<\/p>\n
Toward the middle of this set, captured live at The Trash Bar in Brooklyn, \u201cAll Dressed Up\u201d has a bit of a snarly edge to it, before they move into a reverent cover of Big Star\u2019s \u201cBack of a Car.\u201d And really, shouldn\u2019t every power-pop band in existence give a nod to Alex Chilton and friends at some point? \u201cAnother Weekend\u201d is a highlight, its surging opening riffs and spacious arrangement bearing more than a passing resemblance to The Who\u2019s immortal rendition of Eddie Cochran\u2019s \u201cSummertime Blues.\u201d It\u2019s a fresh entry in the grand tradition of songs about getting to the weekend and busting loose.<\/p>\n
Even the bass and drum solos tucked into \u201cI Don\u2019t Know\u201d are remarkably concise by rock standards, and flow naturally right back into the song. The two encores are among the best cuts here. \u201cCircles,\u201d the title track from Flowers\u2019 most recent solo outing, encapsulates what he does so well, starting with heavy guitars, then dropping quickly into a melodic verse, with a searching, longing quality to the vocals and lyric. It\u2019s both intelligent and rocking in a very tight 2:44. Closer \u201cTurn Up Your Radio\u201d is one more descendant of Chuck Berry\u2019s \u201cRock n\u2019 Roll Music,\u201d urging the listener to \u201cTurn up your radio \/ And have a good time tonight \/ Just let yourself go and \/ Everything\u2019ll be all right.\u201c<\/p>\n
Live In NYC<\/i> captures Lannie Flowers and band in their natural environment, playing their hearts out for an appreciative club audience. It might not be rocket science, but it\u2019s damned fine rock and roll.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":32156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8692],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-43907","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-lannie-flowers","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43907"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43907"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}