Late May Roundup.

A quick look at some quality new releases:

Ruby Free-Shades. Maple Mars' Rick Hromdaka teams up again with Lisa Cavaliere (his wife) as Ruby Free, and the result is another wonderful laid-back album of 70s-inspired husband & wife pop. Highlights here are the guitar pop of "Take a Ride", the psychedelic shuffle of "Walking Along", the Paul-and-Linda inspired "Say Goodnight" and a note-perfect cover of The Carpenters' "Superstar". An album with great melodies - and charm. One of 2017's best.

iTunes | Kool Kat



The Mike Benign Compulsion-Kid. Our favorite Milwaukee power poppers are back again with a concept album of sorts about childhood and growing up, complete with the Let it Be-styled cover with photos of the band as youngsters. It's another collection of top-notch Squeeze-meets-Elvis Costello pop with standout tracks "Gadfly", "Kid" (with its memorable hook), and the rocking "The Best Years of Our Lives". And keep listening through - the 10th track, "Generations", might be the best here, sounding like a lost early-80s hit.

iTunes



Pasadena 68/Dakota Shakedown-Good Night Air. Ex-High on Stress frontman Nick Leet's Pasadena 68 has once again teamed up with friend and former 90's bandmate Mike Hjelden's Dakota Shakedown for another split album. DS gets the first five tracks, and P68 the last five and despite being a split LP the bands' similar Replacements-rock sensibilities make for a seamless experience. DS' "Hurry Up and Wait", with its Westerbergian mix of yearning and fire, is their standout here, while P68's rootsy, laid-back "Peace Garden State" is a gem as well.

iTunes





Party Battleship-Cake + Flames. The New Pornographers have a new album out, and as always it's worth picking up. However, if you want an American version of them there's another male/female-fronted supergroup of sorts which collects some of the best power poppers of Charlotte, NC. Shalini Morris (Kissyfish, Vinyl Devotion, Mitch Easter), Donnie Merritt (Lodestar, Mark Crozer and the Rels), John Morris (Tyre Fyre, Electrolux, Snagglepuss) and Adam Roth (Bellglide, The Catch Fire, Laburnum) join forces here for a rocking collection of driving pop tunes. The ones here to catch are their opening "Theme Song", "Almost Overton", and the Marshall Crenshaw-esque "The Fifth Season", but they're all pretty good. Party on!

iTunes

Midweek Roundup.

Ruby Free-Introducing Ruby Free. Ruby Free is Maple Mars' Rick Hromadka side project team-up with wife Lisa Cavaliere, and it's a sonic return to those carefree 1970s days when spouses like Paul & Linda McCartney, Richard & Linda Thompson, Sonny & Cher, and (non-spouses) Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris would record laid-back classics. Opener "Bongos & Beards" is a wonderfully chirpy opener with a McCartneyesque melody, the jangly "Slow Parade" has just the right psychedelic touch, and the piano psych pop of "Good Company" would have fit right in on Wings at the Speed of Sound. "Tiny Stars" borrows the famous Motown bass line in service of a catchy melody, and closer "One Last Song" with its ethereal melodies and strings closes things in appropriately epic fashion. The album is a wonderful evocation of a subgenre we didn't realized we missed. And yeah, there's also a song here called "Sonny & Cher".

CD Baby | iTunes



Steven Wright-Mark-Plastic World. NYC's Steven Wright-Mark is back with his first release since 2008's Sideshow Freak, and he picks right up where he left off with his Matthew Sweet-meets-Elvis Costello blend of singer-songwriter pop. "I Wanna" bolts out of the gate with a swagger that's both mission statement and an electric power pop number, "Almost Summer" channels Fountains of Wayne, and Wright-Mark shows off his sardonic sense of humor with "My Friends Are Trash". Elsewhere, "Lean" sounds like a lost Tommy Keene classic, and closer "Your Name" might be the best pure pop on the album. It's Steven Wright-Mark's plastic world, and we're all living in it.

iTunes