From Philadephia, Travel Lanes is an independent band who credit themselves as power pop with alternative leanings. Those who approach their work expecting their brand of pop to share much in common with the usual touchstones will feel short changed immediately. There are power pop elements within their core sound, but they have far more of a country tinged influence. Instead of paying homage to ELO’s ‘Out of The Blue’, bits of the Wings catalogue or the more modern sounds of Fountains of Wayne, Travel Lane throw a curveball – some of the material here owes far more to very early John Hiatt records like ‘Hanging Around The Observatory’ than any of the usual suspects.
AVERSION – Aversion
Four years after their formation, Canadian black metal troupe Aversion unleashed their debut release in the summer of 2015. Released two years after a demo, this record still has a very demo-like feel by black metal standards. With a sound that’s never going to win over a huge audience to begin with, the rough and ready feel this album has, Aversion seem set on keeping their audience somewhat selective, but looking beyond that, there’s some reasonable playing.
LYNCH MOB – Rebel
Early in 2015, ex-Dokken guitarist George Lynch teamed up with Stryper vocalist Michael Sweet. Their resultant album ‘Only To Rise’ contained a bunch of feel good hard rock tunes with big choruses. This release by Lynch Mob, released only seven months later, lacks the general joie de vive of the Sweet & Lynch project. It seems somewhat underwhelming by comparison and is certainly less varied, but maybe that’s precisely George’s point: everything has a darker side. Over the years, Lynch Mob have released some decent albums. While many hard rock fans tend to gravitate towards their late 80s debut due to its classic sound, the later discs bring plenty in the way of huge riffs. 2003’s ‘REvolution’ showed the band at their absolute heaviest and had plenty to recommend it, particularly if you enjoy riffs in dropped keys. In more recent years, their first release for Frontiers Records – 2014’s ‘Sun Red Sun’ – mixed classic rock sounds with the darker edge of ‘REvolution’ and achieved enjoyable results, resulting in their biggest US chart success to date.
DELUXE EDITION DREAMLAND: Great White – Boxed: 1983-1989
With their brand of blues inflected hard rock, In the late 80s and early 90s, Great White gained strongly favourable press on a regular basis. On the back of albums like ‘Twice Shy’ and ‘Hooked’ (1989 and 1991 respectively) providing a more sophisticated slant on the big hair sounds that were popular at the time, supported by a tough live show, their fan base was more than solid. Over the years, however, the Great White legacy has been a little sullied. An extremely unfortunate falling out between band members and a long drawn out legal battle over the band name meant that internal politics somewhat interfered with their music. Furthermore, the market has been flooded with various budget compilation packages and a fair amount of recycling material with re-recorded and inferior versions of GW classics.
THE NEW TROCADEROS – Thrills & Chills
The first half of 2015 represented a very busy time for the collected members of The New Trocaderos. In power pop circles, it seemed as you couldn’t move very far at all without seeing one of the band pop up somewhere. Vocalist Brad Marino and guitarist/vocalist Geoff Palmer released a full-length album by their “other” band The Connection; bassist/vocalist Kurt Baker played a whole bunch of live shows and released his first live LP, while previous New Trocs singles and EPs were gathered together as ‘Frenzy In The Hips’ – a full length release of unmissable quality. Among all that, chief New Trocs songwriter Mike Chaney was beavering behind the scenes, shaping up a new batch of songs. The resultant collection, ‘Thrills & Chills’ – the first “proper” full-length from the Trocs – is a belter; it’s songs are a small step up from previous works and provide a welcome addition to any power pop/retro pop record collection.