King of Power Pop

Paul Collins (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 24, 2010)
• Original Release Date: 2010
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Alive Records
• ASIN: B003O7MI0G
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,327 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #77 in Music > Rock > Power Pop

Editorial Reviews

"For me this is the record that connects the dots, from The Nerves to The Breakaways to The Beat to todayâ ¦ this is the record that puts it all together!" -- Paul Collins.
"King Of Power Pop" is the new studio album by Paul Collins (The NERVES, The BREAKAWAYS), one of the originators of the high-energy pop sound known as power pop. The album is a complete return to power pop, the sound he helped create and popularize, a sound that has seen a resurgence in recent year. Guests include Wally Palmar of the ROMANTICS, and pop icon Nikki Corvette of NIKKI & The CORVETTES.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Paul Collins keeps the power pop flame blazing, August 25, 2010

By 

hyperbolium (Earth, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: King of Power Pop (Audio CD)

It takes a great deal of self confidence to proclaim oneself "king of power pop," but given Paul Collins' seminal role in the Nerves, Breakaways and Beat, and his subsequent appearances solo and with the Paul Collins Band, his claim is as good as anyone's. While fellow Nerve/Breakaway Peter Case founded the rock `n' soul Plimsouls, Collins refined his AM radio pop craft with the Beat; and as Case created a post-Plimsouls career as a folk-blues troubadour, Collins' dapplings of soul, blues and country always left his pop core highly visible. He returned to an even purer pop sound with 2004's Flying High and added 70s influences for 2008's Ribbon of Gold, developing more introspective material on each. And while the artistic maturity was quite welcome, his twenty-something exuberance had faded.

Or so it seemed. It turns out that Collins hasn't let the shadows of middle-age black out the enthusiasms of youth. More importantly, he can still write a killer melodic hook and make it stick in two-minutes-thirty. Recording in Detroit with Jim Diamond producing, Collins sounds as if he's fresh off the end of a tour with the Beat - his voice a tad ragged but still thrilled by the glories of power pop. He charges hard into the bluesy "Do You Wanna Love Me?" and cuts the difference between the Beatles and Everly Brothers on the opening "C'mon Let's Go!" His lyrics haven't yearned so dearly and his voice hasn't sounded this unbridled since he sang "Rock `n' Roll Girl" and "Walking Out on Love" thirty years ago. Collins and Eric Blakely's guitars rumble and sting, Jim Diamond's bass and Dave Shettler's drums propel, and the vocal harmonies and backings capture the joy of a summer's night cruise with the windows down and the radio up.

Shettler adds tympani to "Many Roads to Follow," and with the duet harmony sung at the top of Collins' and Blakely's ranges, they conjure the deep teen emotions of the Brill Building. Given his track record, it's not really surprising that Collins still has great albums in him, but that he so effortlessly reaches back to the sounds he helped coin in the mid-70s (and whose invention he details in "Kings of Power Pop"), and it's inspiring that he finds such satisfying ways to use the wear in his voice. Particularly noteworthy is how easily he matches Alex Chilton's gravelly tone on a cover of the Box Tops' 1967 hit "The Letter," and how beautifully he covers the Flamin' Groovies' "You Tore Me Down." The heartbreak of his original "Hurting's on My Side" is rendered in the sort of ragged-voiced emotion John Lennon shouted out in 1964. Anyone who loves the Nerves EP and the Beat's albums (particularly the debut) should grab a copy of this one ASAP. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Long time fan of Paul Collins, November 29, 2010

By 

CTB "60s freak" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: King of Power Pop (Audio CD)

I've been a fan of Paul Collins and the Beat since 1980. They were the #1 favorite band of our fraternity at the University of Washington. Among the 60 guys in the house, there must have been 20 or 30 copies of THE BEAT and THE KIDS ARE THE SAME. We even scraped up over $5000 to have the band play in the basement of our fraternity, which was quite a bit in 1981!

I've bought just about every Paul Collins or Beat album I could find in the intervening 30 years (I can't say I have any obscure imports from Spain or whatever), but the music was never quite the same as the initial blast of "power pop".

I was very excited to learn about Paul's return the Power Pop, although I was skeptical at first. I can honestly say that this is, while not quite up to the standard of THE BEAT, certainly right up there with THE KIDS ARE THE SAME.

Way to go Paul, keep em' coming!