Blake - Louder Than Sound (self-released)

The great thing about a genre like Power-pop is that it says what it does on the tin. Pop with power. Is it that simple? Well, not quite. As Louder Than Sound, the latest fab and groovy full-length platter from Blake proves, it is more than that too. Power pop, which this undoubtedly is, can also be pop with poise, pop with purpose, pop with a penchant for the deft and dexterous, the hooky and the harmonious, pop with panache, pop with a (metaphorical) PhD even. Yes, Blake makes music that is all of those things, and Louder Than Sound is a fantastic sonic experience.

“She’s Inside My Heart” sets the tone perfectly, a heady blend of shimmering, early Beatle-esque pop and driving Paisley Underground sonic tribute to its own influences, arrayed with squalling guitars and Laurel Canyon harmonies. It is the perfect balance between a familiar past and a bright new pop future.

“Business Hours” pushes into the sounds of cosmic country grooves, a song that will have them line dancing right the way down the central reservation of the M4 motorway, “Coming In From the Cold” seems to have the distant echo of Shocking Blue’s “Venus” caught in its slipstream…and that can only be a good thing, right?…and “Slippery Slope” is what Brit-pop should have sounded like if those early 90’s bands had been influenced by such icons as The Kinks (as many claimed) and not just rehashing T-Rex riffs and doing so badly, mentioning no names…Noel.

In a world where pop music seems driven by dance routines and guest rappers, studio gizmos and auditory gimmicks, marketing money and social media frenzy, Blake, in general, and Louder Than Sound, in particular, remind us that you only really need one thing to get noticed. Great songs. This is an album of really great songs. Quite brilliant, in fact.

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