Guitar Pop For Now People—Part 22
10 Recent Tracks + Music Reviewers/Publications (+ Playlist)
It’s the beginning of December 2024 and the flow of great new guitar pop is showing no signs of slowing.
This is the time of year when much-anticipated “Best of…” lists start to appear, but its hard to imagine putting something like that together when more great releases are probably still on the way.
I don’t publish year-end lists, but I do have my favorites. The album Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot by Markette, Michigan’s Liquid Mike was released way back in February of this year. I interviewed the band’s namesake, Mike Maple, in January and predicted at the time that their album would likely end up on a few Top 10 lists in December.
Time will tell if that’s true, but the band isn’t looking back. Their latest standalone single, “Crop Circles,” is a great example of an alternative pop sound built on a fuzzy foundation of crunchy guitars and infectious choruses.
This is a great time to be fan of guitar pop thanks to bands like Liquid Mike and countless others all around the rock and roll globe.
In this latest installment of Guitar Pop For Now People we feature artists from France (Lùlù, Juniore), Australia (Dom Mariani), the UK (Garfield’s Birthday, Autocamper), Canada (Pony), Spain by way of Maine (Kurt Baker), and the good old USA (The Pulltops, Gentleman Speaker, and The Spyrals).
As always, I’ve included 10 tracks below along with a blurb and link to one of my go-to music reviewers. If you like what you hear/read, click through to show your support.
⚡️ What Are Your Favorite Tracks Below? 💥
10 Recent Tracks and Music Reviewers/Publications
“Oh boy, you all are gonna love this one! Lùlù is a French power pop band based in Lyon and Marseille. The band, in its own words, plays ‘love songs for the anxious and glam rock nuggets for the dreamers.’ Now that speaks to my soul!—Lord Rutledge, Faster and Louder
“This is a celebration of love, and so it is suitably buoyant, a blend of beat and groove, big guitars, and those oh-so-luscious vocals. Bands such as The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Bee Gees, and plenty of bands that don’t even begin with the letter B are held aloft as being able to do amazing things with their intertwined vocals.”—Dave Franklin, The Big Takeover
“Hell and Somewhere Else comes from a group of musicians with a clear vision of ‘pop music’ on their minds, although Gentleman Speaker’s version of it seems to come from the worlds of emo-y catharsis and pop punk steam-letting-off (even as it’s not cleanly ‘part’ of either of those genres).”—Rosy Overdrive
“Kurt Baker keeps rolling out solid power pop numbers.”—B. Liedman, The Indy Review
“Think Veruca Salt, That Dog, Charly Bliss. There’s not a ton to this song, but the chorus sticks like glue and the glossy production feels like a portal to a sunnier place and time.”—Christian Finnegan, New Music For Olds
“Weymouth, UK’s Garfield’s Birthday crank up the British beat group sound on the opening cut of their latest album Next Stop Mars. Just listen to the finely-calibrated close-harmony vocals guiding ‘The Other Side of the Wind.’ It’s as if Peter and Gordon had come up with a rock and roll backing.”—Dennis Pilon, Poprock Record
“Aussie power pop icon Dom Mariani (The Stems) hasn’t lost a step after all these years with ‘Jangleland,’ a place I’d love to spend time.”—Aaron Kupferberg, Powerpopaholic
“‘Summertime’ by Manchester’s Autocamper drives us oldies straight back to a blessed age where too much of our youth was addled by long, perfect hours of rummaging through bargain buckets that were filled with precious two/three track ‘cassingles’ from acts such as The Senseless Things, That Petrol Emotion, and The Frank and Walters (you can tell I am sitting very close to my cassette cabinet).”—Jangle Pop Hub
“Spacey psychedelia, grungy garage riffs, surf rock tremolo, soft reverby French vocals, lilting cocktail-hour rhythms… yé-yé’s influences and evolution are all laid out in one band.”—Gabbie, New Bands For Old Heads
“Those L.A. based fuzzed-up and spaced-out blues-rockers The Spyrals unleash their fifth album Retrograde on an unsuspecting public. It’s an impressive collection of songs which envelops you in immersive rhythms and swirls of psychedelic soundscapes which will certainly attract fans of the likes of The Black Angels, Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Oh Sees.”—Ian Corbridge, Louder Than War
Guitar Pop For Now People—Official Playlist
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I'm always so bad at listening to singles, which means it's good news that the Dom Mariani track will be on an upcoming album. I should do better with singles, though, cause I definitely need to hear that Kurt Baker track again and again.
Thanks for the great musical ideas. I just got my latest copy of ‘The Big Take Over’. You have a nice article in The Zine.
Keep up the great work!