A tip o'the hat to FD13NYC for sending me this absolutely delightful piece of pop music.
Who is Paul Steel? I'm not really sure. One blogger says he's from England. Another says, people like Andy Partridge and Van Dyke Parks love him. And now, so do I.
The usual power pop key words apply--hooks, melody, harmony-- as do the influences--Beach Boys, Queen, Jeff Lynne.
Check out "I Will Make You Disappear" without swooning. I dare ya.
16 comments:
Not bad at all, and I definitely hear the Beach Boys' influence.
You know, I know it's not right...but guys bring me down when they make me make think of how great Brian used to sound.
I'm even hearing a bit of "Guess I'm Dumb" in the melody. (Well, more than a little, actually.)
I'm swooning as I type. More than anyone else, he reminds me of June & The Exit Wounds. Powerpoppers will know who he is. Randy
It kind of has a little Keep An Eye On Summer feel to it. The influence is certainly there.
The Beach Boys: "Your Summer Dream." I think he's heard it. Maybe more than once.
Correct Peter. That's the song I was thinking of but couldn't remember. Good call.
Paul Steel is superb, I had the debut album on ASH and it was extrememly popular.
The album LL Cosmonaut is my favourite Power Pop album from last year.
There was a lovely collection of demos on Pop Fair but the MU fiasco has probably taken care of that.
It's "Your Summer Dream" + "Keep An Eye On Summer"!
Yes, he has a formula under his belt, but personally I don't need another Brian Wilson replica...
Now I'm gonna listen to the real thing...
How's the rest of it?
I like the rest of it. Good stuff. But what's this LL Cosmonaut ASH is raving about?
Oh my goodness that is awesome. More?
Lovely, if just a tad twee for my taste. How's the rest of it?
The rest of it is no less twee. But I still really like it. It seems like every song has that one thing to make me keep coming back. Hooky as hell.
Live, which he doesn't do often enough, he can hack it too.
Bit of background, based in Brighton now, originally from Worthing and not yet hit 25.
Big XTC and Todd fan, but it's obvious his hero is Brian Wilson.
Wants to hit pay dirt, but doesn't expect it with the type of stuff he writes, very self depreciating.
Well worth the effort.
Agree with the June & the Exit Wounds comparison.
And seeing as a good number of my absolute favorite albums fall smack dab in the middle of the "twee" river, I can't consider that as a bad thing at all.
lovely.
i don't mind talented people working through their influences in public. painters learn to paint by copying the masters, and i don't think it's that different in music. you write brian songs, you get inside the harmonies and feeling.
another crystalline example, as fully realized in spirit as sound, is lewis taylor's "let's hope that nobody finds us," from "the lost album." exquisite.
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