Time for some pop wizardry from Portland, Oregon. I bought the new Mo Troper album Exposure & Response last night, put it on the headphones when I started working at the factory this following morning and kind of instantly fell in love with it. Co-workers probably thought that now I’ve finally lost it completely, because I’ve was doing manual labour with a stupid happy grin on my face all day long and probably even sang along a little bit without realizing it. A damn brilliant power pop album. GBV formula in a sense that at first it almost feels like he is wasting wonderful melodies, because the songs are often really short, but a while later I notice that he knew better and the songs are perfect just as they are. Exposure & Response is a super catchy album full of killer hooks and wonderful melodies and it’s now out and available on Good Cheer Records.

Mo Troper at Facebook

I’ve been going through the finest releases of the year, because I’ve been doing some rough early sketches of the year-end lists that I’ll try to write in sometime in December. I noticed that I don’t think I have even mentioned the new Daniel Romano album on this little blog. Well no harm done I suppose. The seven readers who have followed me throughout are already well aware that I love the music he makes. Anyway, let’s at least post one song from the new one, before selecting it as one of the finest of the year. Here’s the music chameleon delivering such a killer pop song that most power pop bands can only dream about reaching the same level. This is When I Learned Your Name from the latest Daniel Romano album Modern Pressure that came out in May on New West Records.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=5w7WJPywrY4

Daniel Romano Website

It’s over 4 am and therefore probably it’s time to go to bed, but there’s always time for some pop wizardry so I’ll do one more quick video post while I’m at this. This actually suits this situation well, because the song is the new single Sleep With Me from Michael Rault. This Toronto-based songwriter was recently signed to Wick Records (the rock imprint of the wonderful Daptone Records) and the first outtake from his forthcoming album is this wonderful orchestrated dreamy and lush pop song. There’s again been a gigantic hole in my pop education and this is actually my first introduction to Michael Rault, but better late than never and all the other cliches. Anyway, I love this song and can’t wait to hear his full Wick Records debut when it hits the stores (I couldn’t find a release date).

Michael Rault Website