Year 2011 Round Up Part 3: A.Mattsson, Sloan, Jonny, Fountains of Wayne, D.Myhr, T.Keene, M.Sweet, M. Viola

On with the highlights of the year. And this time finally some pop songs (even though I will get back to folk and country sooner or later). Let’s start with the big boys and power pop wizards who have written awesome pop music for years.

Andreas Mattsson – AA from the album Kick Death’s Ass

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPj7fJZWtPg]

Jonny – Candyfloss from the album Jonny

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDeZPvn_EDA]

Sloan – Unkind from the album Double Cross

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6JqLk66oSY]

Fountains Of Wayne – A Road Song from the album Sky Full Of Holes

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltwoI5gstfY]

David Myhr – Looking For a Life from the upcoming album Soundshine

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud9k1LPyz14]

Tommy Keene – Deep Six Saturday from the album Behind The Parade

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJmoe8bBwP4]

Matthew Sweet – She Walks The Night from the album Modern Art

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/21180408″]
 
Mike Viola – Get You Back from the album Electro De Perfecto

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/22751336″]
 

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Review: Jonny – Jonny


Jonny: Jonny (Turnstile Records, 2011)

Euros Childs and Norman Blake working together sounds like a match made in harmonic pop heaven. Their collaborative project Jonny has an album out on Turnstile Records and it’s a really lovely pop album. These guys are such a fantastic pop tunesmiths that they could write good pop songs without even trying too hard. Maybe some of these songs even feel like they haven’t tried too hard and aren’t anything that special when compared to some of the magic that Teenage Fanclub and Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci have created in the past. But why should I blame them for having fun and making carefree, warm and playful pop music. There’s absolutely no harm in that and everything sounds lovely (well apart from 10 minutes long Cave Dance) and enjoyable. And don’t get me wrong, only about half of it falls into this “lovely, but nothing truly special category”. The other half contains a lot of magical pop moments and songs like Circling The Sun, Candyfloss, English Lady and I Want To Be Around You set the bar extremely high in the pole vault competition for the best pop songs of 2011.

Candyfloss:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yhaEch_Iuc]

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