{"id":46301,"date":"2022-03-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/world-of-sound\/"},"modified":"2022-03-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T00:00:00","slug":"world-of-sound","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/world-of-sound\/","title":{"rendered":"World Of Sound"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cPower Pop is a cross between the crunching hard rock of the Who and the sweet melodicism of the Beatles and Beach Boys, with the ringing guitars of the Byrds thrown in for good measure,\u201d according to the authorities at All Music Guide<\/a>. To which Wikipedia<\/a> adds: \u201cThe genre typically incorporates melodic hooks, vocal harmonies, an energetic performance, and cheerful sounding music underpinned by a sense of yearning, longing, or despair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arguments persist about what bands and songs are or aren\u2019t power pop, but there are certain givens: power pop originated with the upbeat early singles of the Beatles, the Who and the Byrds; early \u201970s bands like Big Star, Badfinger and the Raspberries furthered the cause notably; and later-\u201970s proponents like Cheap Trick, the Romantics and Dwight Twilley helped push power pop to the forefront as part of the New Wave movement. More recently, bands like Teenage Fanclub, Fastball, and the late, great Fountains Of Wayne have taken up the banner of power pop, matching driving guitars and vibrant harmonies to thoughtful lyrics.<\/p>\n

All of which forms a necessary backdrop to discussing Slumberjet, a band that more or less personifies modern power pop: crunchy guitars, strong hooks, rich harmonies, steady backbeats, and that lingering sense of yearning underneath it all. Slumberjet is a vehicle for the songs of singer-songwriter-guitarist Barry O\u2019Brien, of whose 2004 solo EP Spark<\/i> I said<\/a> \u201cmy guess is if you gave this a spin for Sir Paul, he’d nod and grin and bob his head to the beat.\u201d Slumberjet finds O\u2019Brien joined by Duncan Maitland (keys\/guitar\/vocals\/production), Johnny Boyle (drums) and Keith Farrell (bass).<\/p>\n

Like Spark<\/i> before it, Slumberjet adds New Wave drive to its power pop base in places, giving a number of these songs a distinctly Elvis Costello energy and bite. It\u2019s a combination that adds depth and weight to the sugar-sweet melodic side of the genre, as contemporaries like Fastball and Fountains Of Wayne have shown.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Fountains, opener \u201cWorld Of Sound\u201d hints at some of that group\u2019s dreamier numbers, acoustic guitar and low-key, spacey synths floating along in a late-Beatles haze, crafting a sort of 1:30 overture to this album. \u201cRound X 2\u201d ups the ante with a steady-on, gently psychedelic number that feels like a lost Fastball tune. Batting third, O\u2019Brien and company show they know exactly what they\u2019re up to with \u201c(Theme From) Our Street,\u201d which, however intentionally, feels like a wink and a nod to the theme for That \u201970s Show<\/i>, which was a Cheap Trick cover of a Big Star song. It\u2019s so very on the nose and smartly constructed that all you can do is grin and air-guitar along.<\/p>\n

Slumberjet mixes it up to good effect down the rest of the 11-song tracklist. \u201cFloat\u201d offers a gentle, chiming, airy meditation before they go full Costello with \u201cAcross The Divide\u201d and \u201cSalad Days,\u201d the former decorated with attitude and vintage synths, the latter overflowing with hooks and punctuated with a big, sunny, wordless bridge section that feels like a celebration. \u201cThe Big Snow\u201d dials things down again, a sing-songy acoustic number that adds horns and bells at the bridge to good effect.<\/p>\n

The New Wave flavoring returns to the forefront in the latter third. \u201cSomewhere Nowhere\u201d pushes the tempo with sharp guitars and synths, a propulsive number that spools out hook after hook. \u201cCalling \/ Salad Days (Reprise)\u201d eases things up momentarily for a lyrical acoustic number capped with a lilting electric hook. And then \u201cWhy Do You\u201d arrives feeling like straight-up Elvis Costello homage, a classic EC-styled pointed vocal melody over punchy guitars and a wheezing synth organ tone out of \u201cRadio Radio.\u201d More distinctly Slumberjet closer \u201cChasing Satellites\u201d favors New Wave mostly in its pushing, pushing backbeat.<\/p>\n

Clocking in at a tight and punchy 32 minutes, World Of Sound<\/i> delivers beautifully on Slumberjet\u2019s power pop promise, featuring hooks, melody and drive galore. It\u2019s clear that Barry O\u2019Brien is both a diligent student and a master craftsman of the genre, constructing stick-in-your-head tunes full of clever, observant, determined characters with something to say. Here\u2019s hoping there\u2019s more to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":34461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[10719],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-46301","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-slumberjet","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46301","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=46301"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51910,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46301\/revisions\/51910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46301"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46301"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}