Paul Collins
(Alive Records)
Given his impressive pedigree - a founding member, with Peter Case, of original L.A. power pop pioneers the Nerves during the 1970s, and of the Beat (later Paul Collins' Beat) during the '80s - Paul Collins has certainly earned his status as power pop nobility. In his quest to claim the power pop crown, which has lain dormant since the late 1980s when Nick Lowe abdicated the throne, Collins sojourned to the holy land, the Motor City, home of the Knack, the Romantics, and Nikki Corvette, to record in Detroit's notorious Ghetto Recorders studio.
Working with producer Jim Diamond, who has helped shape the sound of such garage-dwelling fellow travelers as Outrageous Cherry, the New Bomb Turks, and the White Stripes, Collins bangs-and-crashes his way through thirteen high-octane slabs of outright power pop majesty, a baker's dozen, if you will, of sugar-coated sonic delights. King of Power Pop! kicks off the party with the declarative "C'mon Let's Go!," a call-to-arms for Collins' would-be subjects that features ecstatic slabs of cascading Duane Eddy-styled six-string, a bouncy rhythm, and the soothing harmonies of Ms. Corvette behind Collins' gruff-but-lovable tenor.
King of Power Pop only amps up the wattage from here... "Do You Wanna Love Me?" evokes the British invasion, with a driving rhythm and sloppy garage-dawg harpwork courtesy of the Romantics' Wally Palmar. "Doin' It For The Ladies" wears its '60s-era influences proudly on its sleeve, with delicious harmonies beating out a sort of beach blanket bingo on your eardrums. The stellar opening guitar on "Don't Blame Your Troubles On Me," provided by longtime Collins' foil Eric Blakely, does little to conceal the song's Yardbirds-romping stomp-and-stammer roots, while the hoarse vocals and muscular soundtrack of "Off The Hook" only add to the song's anguished heartache, a necessary lyrical theme in the power pop kingdom.
Collins solidifies his bona-fides with a pair of wired, inspired covers, beginning with the Box Tops' classic "The Letter." Rather than attempting to mimic Alex Chilton's blue-eyed Memphis soul original, Collins instead strips the song down to the essentials - emotional teardrop vocals, menacing guitar, and crashing drumbeats. The result evokes the grandeur of the original while adding an invaluable contemporary rock 'n' roll sheen to the affair. A cover of the Flamin' Groovies' "You Tore Me Down" is provided a loving reading with crooned vocals and a thick, beautiful tapestry of instrumentation. It's with "Kings of Power Pop," a semi-autobiographic history, that Collins makes his final claim to the title, with self-effacing lyrics, great vocal harmonies, and gorgeous guitars that will spin your head in circles.
Leave it to the commoners of the blogosphere to endlessly debate Paul Collins' status in the power pop firmament; as for this humble rockcrit, given the uniquely high quality of tuneage on King of Power Pop!, with nary a duff track among the thirteen, I say give him the crown. He's earned it with better than three decades of uncompromising loyalty to the power pop aesthetic. Paul Collins may never become the rock star he dreamed of, but 13 albums in, he deserves our fealty, dammit! After all, as his royal highness himself sings, "the kids just want to have fun!"
DOWNLOAD: Take a chance, 'cause the Rev sez "it's all good!" REV. KEITH A. GORDON
