'Top of the World' by Mark Bacino

GUEST POST: Jordan Oakes (Yellow Pills Magazine)

Aug 17, 2024

The new album by Mark Bacino is a quirky, playful collection of songs, streaked, it seems, with cryptically confessional lines delivered with humor.

Top of the World takes this talented pop musician into the rarified realm of Harry Nilsson, with nods to Randy Newman, The Sopwith Camel, The Lovin’ Spoonful, and perhaps a sun ray of ‘67 Kinks and a spritz of Joe Jackson.

Kicking in with light bursts of Stax horns, the opener “Kaylee Hughes” evokes the bouncy song portraiture of Alan Price (of the Animals and O Lucky Man! soundtrack). The girl named in the song title never seems to have a bad day, which isn’t the case for the people in her orbit, some of whom are infatuated. The lovely but relatively reserved background vocals on the track are like the Association meets a Nelson Riddle film score.

The self-deprecating “Flop of the World”—notice how it rhymes with album title—has a “When I’m Sixty-Four” vibe, basking in a gauzy Tin Pan Alley nostalgia.

“Not That Guy” flirts with the insistent, Beatles-derived pop strut of Cheap Trick’s “I Want You to Want Me.” Lyrically, though, it draws a contrast between the sensitive personality of the singer and the sort of run-of-the-mill beer-drinking Joe that, in the eyes of the song, some women expect men to be and are maybe even looking for.

“Why Does This Woman Love Me?” is an ode to faltering self-esteem and the miracle of things working out. The contra-naturist “I Like Wearing Clothes” is less outright bashful than sartorially assertive. While the lyrics might, on the surface, seem to have an arbitrary The Beach Boys Love You irony-deficiency, Bacino cleverly recounts a number of occasions on which he boldly—even proudly— resisted peer pressure to peel down.

The irony is in how revealing (of the artist) the song turns out to be.

But it might also serve as an unmetaphorical admonishment for people to be careful about how much of themselves they show, as there’s a noticeable dearth of fit-as-a-fiddle Greek gods and unfiltered bikini models in the bedrooms and beaches of the world. A funny and honest ditty with nothing to hide, the song is all dressed up with somewhere to go.

“Young Heart” breaks into a relatively straightforward jangle-fest; the mercurial “How the Story Ends” fuses a McCartneyesque “Oh! Darling”-influenced melody with a more introspective verse.

Bacino has a great voice, clever lyrics and a refreshing melodic sense.

If there’s any flaw with Top of the World, it’s probably the album’s brevity. Bacino keeps things short and sweet; not a single track exceeds three-minutes—which seems like a hard-and-fast rule here, as opposed to letting each song find its organic resting place.

At times it feels like an EP that got a promotion. But that’s okay; it’s perfect exactly as it is. Like any entertainer worth his weight in vinyl, Bacino leaves us wanting more; not craving less.

This is musical creativity at its most effervescent. Bacino is on top of the world—and certainly not looking down on creation.

Jordan Oakes founded, published, and edited the Yellow Pills power pop magazine beginning in 1991, and compiled five Yellow Pills CD compilations beginning in 1993. His journalism has also appeared in Sound Choice, Speak, The Riverfront Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Rolling Stone’s ‘Alt-Rock-a-Rama’ book, and elsewhere. He’s a published poet and occasional standup comedian. He loves dogs and dog-eared magazines.