‘New Guitars in Town,’ a Power Pop Anthology, Features Noteworthy Obscurities: Review
by Jeff Burger
As this writer noted last year, “Power pop has always been a loosely defined genre—a big umbrella for upbeat, guitar-driven music that mostly harkened back to 1960s pop rock but that makes room for acts and songs that didn’t all exactly issue from the same universe.” A new anthology from England’s Cherry Red label underscores that statement.
Unlike Looking for the Magic: American Power Pop in the Seventies, a 2023 box from the same company, the February 16, 2024 release New Guitars in Town: Power Pop 1978-82 focuses on records from U.K.-based bands. As such, it’s more of a follow-up to the label’s Harmony in My Head: UK Power Pop & New Wave 1977-81 and Kids on the Street: UK Power Pop and New Wave 1977-81, which appeared in 2018 and 2022, respectively. New Guitars in Town features many of the same artists as those two anthologies; and like them, it leans heavily toward the obscure.
The three-CD, 75-track, clamshell-boxed collection does include a few numbers that stateside fans will likely recognize, such as Elvis Costello’s “Pump It Up” and Squeeze’s “Another Nail in My Heart” as well as some U.K.-only hits, among them the Boomtown Rats’ “She’s So Modern” and the Motors’ “Forget about You.” But the lion’s share of this package, which embraces many non-hits and tracks that have not previously been issued on CD, will come as news even to power-pop aficionados in the United Kingdom. “Don’t Take My Advice,” by a group known as No Sweat, wasn’t even released until 2007—and then only in Japan, for instance. Meanwhile, just 250 copies were pressed of “Do It Again,” a single from a band called the Deaf Aids.
Related: Our review of the same label’s Looking for the Magic
An illustrated 36-page booklet offers information about every song but some of the featured acts garnered so little attention in their time that facts about them are in short supply. Regarding Plain Jane, which is represented by a song called “Loving You,” the liner notes say that “very little is known about this five-piece [band],” for example. As for “Superman’s Shoes” by the Slide, “absolutely nothing is known about this single.”
So, if it’s a hit parade you’re after, look elsewhere. But while mediocrity renders the obscurity of some of these tracks understandable, others deserve more notice than they’ve received to date. Power-pop treasure hunters will enjoy many of them, including “I Don’t Mean It,” by the Carpettes, which is as manic as anything by the Buzzcocks or the Ramones; the rhythmic “There’s Never Been a Night,” by the Quads; and “Veronica,” by the idiosyncratic new-wave singer Wreckless Eric, who is better known for his 1977 single, “Whole Wide World.”
The new collection—along with the complete track listing—is available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.
A top editor at leading consumer and trade magazines for more than 40 years, Jeff has interviewed dozens of musical luminaries, including Bruce Springsteen, Steve Van Zandt, Roger McGuinn, John Sebastian, Wolfman Jack, Tommy James, Tom Waits, the Righteous Brothers, and the members of Steely Dan.
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