Some quick hitters.

A quick look at several releases I've been enjoying recently:

DC Cardwell-Pop Art. Aussie DC Cardwell returns with the follow-up to 2011's Some Hope, and brings us another round of mild-mannered, Beatlesque pop. Favorites: "In the Cloud" (where you can get this release), "Magic for Everybody" (a piano-pop gem) and "Record Store Day" (an ode to the old-school way of buying music).

CD Baby | iTunes



Greg Hoy-The 21 Day Myth. Greg Hoy has been a pop chameleon throughout the last decade, releasing numerous albums with styles as varied as straight-up power pop, Sun Records-style rockabilly, and near-heavy metal. This time around he's gone with groove, with the results resembling the minimalist-yet-melodic beats of Spoon. "The Talk Goes Stiff" and "Fiend 4 Your Soul" are the standouts here.

CD Baby | iTunes



Antony Plain-Continuing on My Plan. I don't know much about England's Antony Plain, but his newest release caught my ear. It also caught my eye, as Plain looks a bit like John Lennon on his album cover but it's songs that warrant mention here, a mix of 60s and 70s power pop styles from the groovy rocking opener "Invisible Man" to the midtempo "Truth is Closer" to the string-laden "Boy". (Note: the album is streaming in full at the CD Baby link below)

CD Baby

Steve Baskin-Dead Rock Star. This Atlanta-based singer-songwriter is back with his third album, and this one is the best of the lot. It has a "big" sound, with big hooks and big melodies that remind me of fellow Atlantan Butch Walker. The opening 1-2 punch of "Single Thing About You (Chinchilla)" will leap out of your speakers, and Baskin has some facility with a ballad too ("Nobody Died Today"). Plus there's a pretty good cover of "Killer Queen" thrown in the mix. One of 2015's early best.

CD Baby | iTunes

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New releases A-Hoy!

NYC's Greg Hoy has been a bit of a pop chameleon over the years, from his traditional power pop days in his band Hoy to the more modern rock and harder rock sensibilities found in his solo career. And now with a pair of new releases, Hoy continues genre-hopping.

First up is Spouses of the Lowly, a concept album of sorts about temptation and infidelity that itself boasts many different pop styles. For example, opener "Spouse of the Lowly" (and the album-ending bookend title track) is expert pop noir, "Souvenir" dabbles in electro-pop, and "Jesus' Son" mixes in some blues in support of a "Bo Diddley" backbeat. Elsewhere, "TV Dinner" almost comes off as an Americanized Fratellis and "Temptation Town" is gentle folk-rock. But the standout here is "Highway 101", a casual 70s SoCal sounding tune that splits the difference between Blues Image and "Rosalita"-era Springsteen. This is one disc where no two songs sound the same, and that's a good thing.

CD Baby | MySpace | iTunes | Listen/buy at Bandcamp

Hoy's other new release Rock and Roll is a straight-up genre exercise, the genre being 50s/early 60s rock and rockbilly a la Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins and early Elvis, and it's a hoot. The title track is pure Holly, "I'm Epic Curious" swings, "(She Gonna) Firebomb the Track" is a first-class rave-up and you can almost hear a little early Dylan in "She's My Cocaine". A record that's fun to listen to, and that sounds like it was fun to make - what rock and roll is all about.

CD Baby | iTunes | eMusic | listen/buy at Bandcamp