Power Pop Plus: A Look Back at 2020.and More
John M. Borack explores some of the best of 2020 and a brand new release from Matthew Sweet
Author:
Sweet s fifteenth solo effort is one of his finest in recent memory. Like Paul McCartney s
III,
Catspaw is a grower rather than an instant knockout: songs such as Give a Little, Challenge the Gods, Come Home, and At a Loss will sneak up on you and provide a guitar-fueled gut punch given half a chance. Speaking of which,
Catspaw is most definitely a full-on guitar record: Sweet handles all the six-string action here and does a helluva job, with the beefy sound harkening back to Richard Lloyd and Robert Quine s work on Sweet s 1990s releases. (Sweet handles all instrumentation himself here, save for longtime cohort Ric Menck s typically rock-steady drums.) Only one of the dozen tunes clocks in at longer than four minutes, and the relative brevity of the songs allows Sweet to say what he has to say, tear through a kickin guita
This year’s Best Overlooked Albums list shows just how much great music is being made in the margins of the music scene. Trying to narrow this list to 30 albums overall – not to mention deciding on the 10 best – was a major challenge. But here are my picks for the best overlooked albums of 2020. Your music year won’t be complete without hearing at least some of these titles.
1.) Mothboxer, “Accelerator”: Essentially Dave Ody’s solo project, Mothboxer has been turning out albums since 2007, and “Accelerator” is filled with creative, pop-rock songs that strike a nice balance between heft (with a little grit) and striking melodies – and quite often, some musical element that makes one stand up and take notice. Ody has been consistently good, and “Accelerator” is my power pop album of the year.