A huge favourite during the past month has been Ryan Oxford’s forthcoming album Fa Fa Fa Fired that is due out on the 27th of January on Mama Bird Recording Co. Ryan Oxford is a songwriter from Portland, Oregon who has previously composed film scores and soundtracks, but this is his debut album. It was a long time in the making, but it was worth all the love and time he put into it.

I mostly feature the folk and country stuff these days and the pop site subtitle isn’t completely accurate anymore, but I don’t feel like changing it after 15 years of doing this. This one though is definitely for the pop kids as well. It’s got a lot of 60s pop and The Beach Boys influences and some Harry Nilsson and even AM pop too. It’s playful and enchanting and filled with beautiful melodies and lovely and lush sound. I’m not entirely sure how something so melancholic can be this much fun, but somehow this keeps me smiling most of the time. I think it works best as a whole complete piece of pop magic, but sure these individual tracks rule my world as well. Here’s the awesome title track Fa Fa Fa Fired.

Ryan Oxford Website

I’ve praised this amazing album by Courtney Marie Andrews several times on this blog and now I have an excellent reason to do it one more time, because the album Honest Life finally comes out in UK/Europe tomorrow 20th of January on Loose Music. I really love her songwriting. Leuven Letters was the EP of the year in 2015 and this album Honest Life took the spot #2 on my albums of the year 2016 list. A monstrously highly recommend album. I also need to reserve a vinyl copy to the local store, because I only have the digital so far and I badly need the vinyl. The songs already filled a hole in my heart, but there’s definitely a hole in my record shelf ready to be filled by this beautiful record. This is Put The Fire Out from Honest Life.

Courtney Marie Andrews Website

That Genuine Fakes post and song took me on a nostalgic journey to my childhood and also reminded me that I still haven’t posted this monster of a song by the always stunning Strand of Oaks. Back in the 80s and 90s I was definitely one of those Radio Kids that listened to the radio with one finger on the record button in order to catch the songs that would shape my world. Radio Kids is a magnificent outtake from the forthcoming Strand of Oaks album Hard Love that is due out February 17 on Dead Oceans.

Strand of Oaks Website

I didn’t expect to mention Guns N’ Roses on this blog, but this is for a good reason. And no, I don’t have anything against them. I have my own Guns N’ Roses past. I first had Lies and Appetite For Destruction on cassette and then I bought the Use Your Illusion CDs when they came out. Plus I’ve been called Spaghetti Incident (and had it on CD as well) on football grounds. They were still nowhere near as important to me as they were for Joey Fake, the lead singer of the great Swedish power pop group The Genuine Fakes. Their new single and first outtake from the forthcoming second album is a tribute to the band and it’s called Guns N’ Roses Saved My Life. Sounds mighty good as was expected and I’m looking forward to hearing the full album (co-produced by Mr. Jon Auer) sometime in 2017.

The Genuine Fakes Website