Scroll down for reviews of the latest from Single, The Cloudsmen and Hot Socky.

The Villas
Set For Life

(Think Tank Records)

Release Date: April 8, 2003

www.villasongs.com

Any marriage can have its trials, but when husband and wife team together to make music, one can only applaud that extra effort. When listening to the fine retro stylings from The Villas, praise comes fairly easily. These two talented guitarist/vocalists based in Allentown Pennsylvania make fun clean guitar-driven music that recalls bygone days of melody and harmony. Oh, and they happen to be married.

The duo met in storybook fashion when Angel Ali answered Bill Villa’s personal ad description “chain smoker compulsively working on music.” He came from a musical family, once had a locally successful duo called The Fops, and managed a rock band called Daddy Licks when not being creative director of his own advertising agency. She fronted a few local bands en route to a career as an art teacher. On their first blind date, they exchanged cassette tapes of their own songs and the rest, as they say, is history (Bill and Angie married in late June 1999).

Set For Life is the more-rocking sophomore effort from the duo, who now are joined by a host of other musicians: Dave Follweiler on keyboards (he also co-produced the CD), Dan McKinney on keyboards and percussion, Jon McNamara with harmonies, guitar and percussion, Dave Baun on bass and Dave Ferrara on drums.

The CD opens with the infectious jangle pop strains of “Way To Go,” an answer to an ex- whose game is online deception: “You said I was your only one, was that just the moment?”

“Personal Property” allows bassist Dave Baun to show his stuff on another up-tempo catchy number in which Bill Villa sings of his independence from a most demanding lover with this “hey-I’ve got a life of my own” declaration.

“You Know Better” is a mellow song that deals with a demanding venomous person, one that would grace the radios of a wiser galaxy.

Villa writes a few of these songs with ex-bandmate Kevin Curry (The Fops), whose specialty seems to be a fascination with tempos. Two of their collaborations “Tell Me Everything You Know” and “Quest of Fools” are songs that achieve extra interest through successfully mixing different rhythms. The third, “Dreamland,” is more of a straight-ahead rocker.

Bill Villa also writes a very pretty one called “Savoy Truffles” with Pat Wallace, typical of the CD’s quality music, good harmonies and sweet melodies that stand up to repeated listening. His collaboration with Dave Follweiler, “I’ll Have You Know,” provides a lot of musical twists and turns in a very short time, handled adeptly by the Villas and company (this song actually is a valentine from husband to wife).

Though much of Set For Life showcases Bill Villa’s songwriting talents, some of the highlights here come from elsewhere. The poignantly graceful ballad “Now It Can Be Told” is a Dave Follweiler composition, featuring some wonderful bowed upright bass from guest John Gaffney. Bill Villa does a fine job with the emotional vocals, a song about deciding to end a relationship, knowing when it’s “a time to go.”

The other surprise gem here is the sweet “Center of The Universe,” where Angie Villa is given a chance to sing (on a song co-written with her husband). This is a coming-of-age song wherein the singer realizes “now there’s no time to waste thinking of the sad times / I’ve found that I really have to turn my point of view around and away from myself as the center of the universe.” It made me want to hear more songs featuring Angie.

Bill Villa’s impressive cover of the pretty Steve Earle tune “More Than I Can Do” is another highlight here. Angie’s harmonies and Dave Follweiler’s accordion add just the right musical accents.

The Villas mostly reference the pleasant retro guitar sounds and harmonies of say, a Richard X. Heyman (who actually is a fan of The Villas’ music) or The Byrds or countless others, but they also incorporate elements of jazz (listen to “Toppers”), folk rock (“To Be In Love”), alt-country (the Earle cover) and harder rock as well (check out “Exclusions”).

While the lyrics aren’t often profound, they deal with personal issues (broken hearts, stuck up snobs, troubled demanding loves) in a way that works well within the parameters of this music. All the songs are remarkably pleasant, not one here that isn’t worth your ear time, and it’s a nice variety of faster songs and ballads.

Set For Life is just under 46 minutes worth of fine and fun melodic soft power pop from a very talented married duo (and some of their equally talented friends). If you’re into guitar-based retro-style melodic pop, you can’t go wrong with this new set from The Villas.

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Single
Welcome Nada

(Singlesounds)

Release Date: April 20, 2003

www.notlame.com

When something is polished for a long time, it gets smooth. Smooth and polished are the surprisingly apt descriptives for the sounds of Single on their debut disc Welcome Nada. These four friends from San Francisco deliver a very clean, professional sound that belies their rookie status. Of course, they have played with a most impressive roster of bands: Matchbox Twenty, Train, Pete Yorn, Jimmy Eat World, Phantom Planet, American Hi-Fi, Posies, Fountains of Wayne and Alex Chilton - and that has to count for something.

This gifted quartet arrives on the scene with a love of soft emotional pop that can be both tender and tough, and these nine songs prove they’re for real. The main creative force is lead vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Todd Herfindal, whose pleasant tenor delivers lyrics with phrasings that command attention, haunting and confident (and reminding me at times of the vocal poise displayed by The Dent’s Mitchell Linker).

Along with Herfindal (who produced most of the album with some help from Bernd Burgdorf) Single is comprised of Fraser Lunney on bass, Tommy Rickard on drums and Howard Myint on additional guitars and vocals.

The big sound is evident right from the first track “When You’re Breaking,” a wonderful song about a guy resolved to get beyond the past, a broken relationship and all the reminders the world throws in his way: “I’m making my way past the places that remind me of the faces I used to know / daydreams of times gone by rewind in my mind / the city lights hide the stars and my ghosts come out / you can’t live when you’re breaking / you can’t love when you’re faking / nothing’s gonna bring me down.”

In a CD of impressive music, the standout track is “This Is A Love Song.” This is a hook-laden hue-and-cry for a return to innocence in post-modern violent times: “It’s a killing time and we’ll never be the same / when revenge is a smoking gun and we all live under the sun / yeah this is a love song / don’t you think we need one? / never been more awake, never been quite so alive.”

“Come Down Lovely” is a lovely call to action for one to liberate her ghosts, own up to her past and awaken from all that: “Come down lovely, let me drown in your defenses / come down lovely, don’t you want to feel connected / come down lovely, we can weigh the consequences / losing every…hesitation.”

“Fall Down” is another well arranged composition, with the singer troubled by what others say, regretting choices made, and how he’s fallen down into a merely ordinary world.

While the lyrics of “The Moment To Start” seem to follow “Fall Down,” offering advice against listening to others and assuring that love can be counted on, the music seems just a little too similar in structure to the stronger “This Is A Love Song.”

“Start Again” ponders a chance to start over from some messed up point in the present, while “My Love” is a half-ballad/half-anthem about the cursed nightmare blessing of his love (“you can star in my carnival freak show, do you think your friends will understand?”).

“On Your Own” is a sweet melodic anthem about musical salvation (or is it): “just let the radio play songs of a better day / you’ll find that it’s wonderful to be on your own / look down ‘til you believe it’s true”

The one song that sounds a little different here (but is just as high quality, sound-wise) is the lone Howard Myint composition “Universal.” Myint provides a slightly harder edge to his pop/rock than Herfindal, with a voice that reminds me a bit of John Faye (in fact “Universal” might fit comfortably on an IKE album). It’s a nice contrast to the softer songs around it, with some silly rhyming to the lyrics about a “destined” relationship

Welcome Nada is an impressive short but sweet debut from a group that seems to know its way around well-crafted softer pop/rock. There’s no reason why these catchy melodies with their lovely emotive vocals shouldn’t find their way onto television or film soundtracks or even, dare I say it, “top 40 radio” play lists. With melody and harmony poised to make a comeback any day now, Single may find itself on base at the right time.

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The Cloudsmen
The Cloudsmen

(self-produced)

Release Date: July 4, 2003

www.thecloudsmen.com

Sonic psychedelia is a lot easier said than done. And while many try and fail, this band from Ontario, Canada succeeds in many ways on their eponymous debut. The Cloudsmen is a most impressive first entry, boasting great production and engineering from their one-man rhythm section Dave King (he also handles drums, bass, guitar, percussion and backup vocals). Primary songwriter and vocalist Aaron Nielsen handles the keyboards (piano, organ, Wurlitzer & Korg), while Bill Majoros rounds out the lineup (electric guitar, loop effects, bass). Graham Walsh, who added some guitar and keyboards on the album, now is listed as the official bass player for The Cloudsmen’s live roster.

“Window” opens things on a strongly upbeat Brit pop note, with Nielsen’s clear light tenor guiding the way, telling of a perfect majestic unreachable woman, admired but feared and thus off limits to our narrator.

Things get a little spaceier on the eclectic cut “Rusted,” venturing into Elephant 6 territory with sonic loop effects, backward instrumentation and vocals and increased reverb throughout. The lyrics are fun nonsensical filler, rhyming but disjointed thoughts: “my time is not well spent / I’ve not a heaven scent / my landlord pays the rent / I’ll run for president.”

“Flower” seems to combine both psych pop and retro pop/rock elements into a coalesced whole, relating the lifeline of a failed past relationship (“our love didn’t flower”), its memories and aftermath. Similarly, those elements coalesce well on “House of Cards,” a song about appearances falling apart, the mess of a reality behind the big show.

Time travel becomes a reality with “Heat Score,” a track that seems lifted from a 1960s Brit-pop album (think early Kinks or that ilk) and a wonderful lyrical admission to being wrong (“when I’m wrong, I’m really wrong, you’re right”).

There’s no mistaking the reference point in the song “Over and Under,” it’s eerily McCartney through and through. Neilsen does a marvelous Macca here, and the obscure lyrics serve up wordplay that might leave you wondering some: “over this under mind again / can’t dismiss or deny / under foot, under fire again / through the door left expecting more.”

Perhaps my favorite track is one of the last ones on the album, the whimsical “Sucker Punch.” Neilsen’s lyrics are silly, but intriguing nonetheless. Here he questions things and gets some odd advice from a woman friend.

The Cloudsmen take the sounds of the past and make them new with songs like “Sales Pitch,” treating love as a repeated sales pitch (“and you’re getting pretty good / sellin’ everything you should / but your hearts’ turned into wood”). They also show they are well versed in paying homage to their predecessors with a wonderful cover of the Rod Argent tune “Hold Your Head Up.”

All told, The Cloudsmen is a solid debut with impressive arrangements and execution that isn’t very long time-wise (the CD runs a mere 31:48), but is long on quality (and look at it this way, that’s even more time to play it over again). Neilsen and his cohorts deliver strong melodies and a remarkable amount of poise on the band’s first effort…already I’m eager to hear what their sophomore album will sound like.

HotSocky
HotSocky

(BilltownUSA)

Release Date: ?

www.hotsocky.com

To loosely paraphrase Charles Dickens, New York is the best and the worst of everything. File newcomer NYC band HotSocky under the former “best” category. This quartet bursts onto the scene with an impressive array of powerful music; twelve incredible cuts of melodic thunder guaranteed to make true pop/rock fans smile. The music is energetic and fun with a hint of glam rock, some 1970s anthem rock, great crunchy guitars, hook-laden melodies, sunny harmonies and darkly cynical lyrics.

Of course, these four served apprenticeships elsewhere before becoming HotSocky masters of what they term “power pop punk” music. Lead vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Lattimer was the creative force behind Thin Lizard Dawn, lead guitarist/keyboardist Jerry Stereo was in The Kraftmatics, drummer Buz (just one z please) was stickmeister of percussion for the likes of Psychotica and Numb, while bassist Mick Addams was in Red Eye. The most important thing is that they’ve found each other and have converged into one solid musical unit, delivering twelve fully realized visions in song.

I adore the way HotSocky has no illusions about an overly happy world. Lattimer espouses what I like to term “harshly realistic optimism,” a darker wry route toward love and happiness. In “Love’s Sick,” we get promises that things might turn out all right in spite of this wacky world (“everyone’s afraid of someone who’s afraid”), and indeed the ultimate advice is to “love someone right now.”

The infectious “Hang On” is another glimpse of sunshine in surrounding darkness: “When the walls come caving in / take a deep breath and count to ten / If life’s a sea of suffering, then the trick is if you’re sinking / swim / Hang on / don’t leave so soon / Hang on / some dreams come true.” Again, this is a great performance from everyone in the band on what should be the kind of music radio should play (perfect build, great melody, sing-along oohs, and well-executed musicianship).

“Meltdown” is another vocal tour-de-force for Lattimer. Riding beefy guitars (and a great solo from Jerry Stereo here) and a charismatic rhythm section, Lattimer warns against a recurrent meltdown and we believe him that anything’s better.

These songs have structure and craft to them, middle bridges and solos and great sing-along choruses. “Time Bomb” is about someone whose time has come: “You’re a live one, you’re like an accident just waiting to happen.”

Things are hot, hazy and humid in the sticky city streets now, so there’s plenty of empathy for the singer’s point of view in “Cali Easy Living,” an ode to heading to the left coast for solace: “I need a holiday / it doesn’t matter where I’ll pay any price / I need to get away / Somewhere the people are oh so nice, a paradise / I’m sick of New York and I’m leaving / Back to California where the living’s easy.”

“Put Me Down” is about dealing with the truth of one’s insulting ways; “Believe” is a harder-edged rocker about finding real self-confidence rather than mere bitching: “you’d better believe in yourself / ‘cause you got nobody else, take a look around, it’s a long way down / you’d better believe and don’t ask why and it won’t kill you to try.”

“Panic” is another perfect “hope amid hopelessness” anthem: “Algebra / one plus one minus one / Dominoes / been sad for so long / Add it up / One plus one life goes on / So alone now that you’re gone / Don’t crash / it’s not your time yet / don’t panic / if it doesn’t work out.”

“Ego” is very retro Brit-pop and features superb drumming from Buz (has a hint of “Rain” about it --- must be why I love it so). This is a glorious takedown of a negative greedy American blowhard: “Egomaniac man keep your mouth in check / instead of always getting what you want, trying wanting what you get / Egomaniac man don’t get so stressed out / ‘cause none of this is really gonna matter much a year from now.”

This CD has one great track after another. There’s a Bowie feel to the superb “Full of Love,” wherein the singer tells us bluntly the way things are: “I know you think I need to get a handle on my mood swings, they come and go / what should I like, do you want me to pretend that I’m all right when you know I feel like hell / I’m full of love / I’m full of love / I’m full of love but not enough love.”

The closer “Tough Love” has music that seems very John Lennon-influenced. This delicious ballad has great harmonies, moody lead vocals and plenty of Beatle accents. It leaves you wanting more in a way that’s a rarity these days.

Your references may vary: Cheap Trick, Redd Kross, Plimsouls, Deathray, Matthew Sweet and many, many more. The key is that these guys really manage to make it all work so well. There’s energy and an excitement to this uplifting music, even though much of it deals with the downtrodden. You get great slickly produced songs and a tight high-energy band to play them -- what more could one want?

While this is certainly not the kind of music you’d likely hear in today’s corporate controlled radio empire, it will make you wonder why that is. As you listen more to the music of HotSocky it grows better over time. Lattimer explains that the band name can be used as an exclamation, like “Hot Damn!” or “Holy Cow!” or “Hallelujah!” After giving repeated ear time to this accomplished self-titled debut, you’ll exclaim it yourself - “HotSocky!”

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