October Album Reviews: Bloody Red Baron
GUEST POST: Mike Baron
Mike Baron (aka Bloody Red Baron) was the longtime album reviewer for Pop Geek Heaven. With the closure of that legendary power pop newsletter, we are very happy to host his latest round of album reviews here at Remember The Lightning.
Fernando Perdomo—Self (Spirit of Unicorn)
Fernando Perdomo is a one man Wrecking Crew, working with Marshall Crenshaw, Jakob Dylan, and Fiona Apple, among others. Perdomo has released numerous albums including Out To Sea. His latest, Self, is intensely personal and introspective, resonant of languid dream pop. Prog and power pop stick their heads above the hazy, dream-like quality, but overall Self induces a sense of tranquility, except when it doesn’t, as in “Everything Leads To Now,” which starts like Supraluxe, and the Crowded House power pop dream synth of “Who I Really Am.” The title track is almost twenty minutes, a phantasmagorical fugue state that switches up to minor chords sixteen minutes in. Perdomo is the driving force behind Abbey Road Reimagined which we reviewed last month. There’s nothing he can’t do.
Jon Flynn—Cherry Cherry (Kool Kat)
Jon Flynn wrote and recorded everything himself with a little help from his friends. “The one before it, Citrus, was recorded during lockdown but this one was mostly written after that from 2021-2023.” He’s got great instincts, a feel for the bridge and the hook, but the songs are short. Real short. Some don’t make it to two minutes. Most are in the two minute range with a few making it into the threes. “Brush Your Hair” has a hint of the Stones’ “Time Is On My Side” before launching itself into the stratosphere. There’s real tension and great dynamics in “Appeased,” and Flynn’s high singing bass makes “Great Man” great. Jon should consider linking every song together without breaks into a medley, which would knock everybody on their ass.
Willie Dowling—The Simpleton
Willie Dowling was in Jackdaw4 and the Dowling Poole, both seminal power pop bands notable for melodic invention, harmonies and wildly gyrating melodies. Unlike sunshine pop or traditional power pop, they would swing from mood to mood within the scope of four minutes, and Dowling’s new album is an extension of that sound, no more obvious than in the first song, “Let Us Begin,” which goes from a whisper to a scream.
Dowling composes on piano which often leads to more subtle and innovative melodies than those composed on guitar. Not always, but often. It’s not a love song. “Let us begin, let us begin, we know this was coming for most of our lives. Nobody wins, the anarchist sighs, the nihilist grins, the timid retreat to their caves, so let us begin.” Starting on solo piano, the song marches forward gathering heft and power. The whiplash changes in mood on “Long Drop Down” are reminiscent of Josh Fix’s byzantine and exhilarating “Don’t Call Me In The Morning.” Dowling has a gift for raising a golden major chord out of nowhere, like the Lady of the Lake raising Excalibur, as in the “The Cure.” You hear similarities, not necessarily influences, of XTC, The Squeeze, and Gilbert & Sullivan in “I Killed My Imaginary Friend.” Dowling’s music is both surprising and cathartic.
The James Clark Institute—Under the Lampshade
James Clark is a Toronto-based singer/songwriter whose electrified power pop harks back to an earlier time while sounding as fresh as tomorrow. A whiff of Laurel Canyon permeates many of these songs, as in “Phantom Girl” which suggests The Byrds, Beachwood Sparks, and Neil Young. It’s not a hat trick. He does it on song after song. The somber “Tornado” has Beatlesque trumpet that will rattle around in your skull after you listen, while the elegant, mid-tempo “Whatever O’Clock” is worthy of The Grays. “Remarkably Like You” evokes the American heartland, as in Mellencamp or Fools Face. “Black Licorice, Red Lips” has a Mike Tyson right hook. Though Clark sings most of these solo, the harmonies come in on “I Brought You Home,” among others. Hitting on all cylinders.
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