Top 5 - Bill Holmes
1) Myracle Brah, Life On Planet Eartsnop (Not Lame). While killing time waiting for the Love Nut record to get released, Andy Bopp poured his pop heart out into a tape recorder. THANK GOD FOR THAT DELAY! Suffice it to say that if you have ANY love for classic sixties pop music in your heart, Myracle Brah's Life On Planet Eartsnop will blow you away. Beatles, Badfinger, Kinks, Bubblegum - this is an astounding effort that deserves a place alongside the records that influenced it.
2) Darin, Solitarium (Copper). Yet another winner for Copper Records, this time featuring a jack-of-all-trades performing a Something / Anything for the 90s. You can see where the influences shine through, but this is by no means a copycat exercise.
3) Frank Bango, Fugitive Girls (Not Lame). Like Grahame's record, this opens and closes with a theme song, and in-between there is pure magic. Bango's voice is reminiscent of Elvis Costello, but the instrumentation, vocals, smart wordplay (big props to lyricist Richy Vesecky) and arrangements immerse you in Bangoland in a heartbeat. A wonderfully vibrant and varied song cycle that takes some chances and scores big.
4) David Grahame, Toy Plane (Dog Turner). There will be those who make the mistake of dismissing Grahame as just another poser aping The Fab One. To them my answer is this - Paul McCartney hasn't written songs as good as "Steady Thing", "Everyday", "Each First Kiss" and "We're Past All That" (another lyrical gem) since his first solo album. A stunning work of art.
5) Mark Bacino, Pop Job (Parasol). Summer and girls and love and broken hearts - It's impossible to listen to this without smiling, let alone singing along. Like a long lost slab of classic vinyl, Pop Job is eleven sweet hit singles gathered for your enjoyment. Perfect at twenty-seven minutes.
