top 10 albums OF 2020

This new album by Kurt Baker is everything you want from Kurt Baker and more. The songs pop, spewing raw energy all over the place. If this is the "after party" then the "party" must have been incredible. 

​

You can get a feel for the party in A Song And A Drink, which makes the party sound like it was all martini's and tiki drinks with umbrellas. A tamer party than the energy of this After Party would lead one to believe.

​

Sure, he slows it down a bit with Wandering Eyes,  and A Song And A Drink. He takes you back to .38 Special with Outta Sight, a song that sums up 2020 in a nutshell that only Kurt Baker can describe. 

​

Usually, you know you're getting a good album from any Kurt Baker release. But this album delivers some of the best songs of his career. If this is the type of after party celebration he throws, I hope he invites us to all the future after parties. (Safely of course)

One of the earlier releases of 2020 came at a time when the global pandemic was just starting. However, this album seemed to be talking about the things to come this year, and it did it with full power. 

​

Chris Church's Backwards Compatible album really rocks. It's on the POWER side of POWER POP with a heavy nod to 70's guitar rock. It's already made many BEST OF lists and will continue to gain fans over time. 

​

2017's Limitation Of Source Tape album was really good, and Backwards Compatible is even better. If Chris Church continues along this trend then the future looks ever so bright for Chris Church.

This album is not only full of driving, Power Pop songs but the slower songs on Almost Ready For The Future are some of the best songs that Tom Curless has ever written. 

​

Almost Ready For The Future was one of those albums that made 2020 bearable, because it was released earlier in the year and it was obvious that come January 2021 this album would be on our Top 10 of 2020 list.

​

Here it is! No surprises here.

​

If you haven't picked up a copy (Physical or Digital) please do it now. It was one of the highlights of 2020 for Hop On Power Pop.

Farrington only came under Hop On Power Pop's radar this year, but what an entrance they made with Saturday In Nowhereland! 

​

Full of power along the lines of Cheap Trick, Sloan, Roger Joseph Manning Jr and by James Patrick Phelan's own biography, influences of Nirvana (Lessons That My Father Never Told Me) and Stone Temple Pilots (See Emily Lovelight, A Day At The Beach). Not a Power Pop band, but those bands, in particular, have extremely melodic songs for alternative/grunge bands.  The influences are self evident on Saturday In Nowhereland. There's also a prog rock bone in this music, and some of the slower songs on this album are reminiscent of Queen or even Journey (Celestial World).  It's not hard to see why this album is a Power Pop favorite, he had some amazing guests: Eric Dover, John Easdale, Jon Auer, Ken Stringfellow, Frankie Siragusa, Roger Joseph Manning Jr, and Tim Smith.

​

If there's one gripe I can make about Farrington is that none of his albums are available in physical format, which could prohibit his music from reaching some of the older music aficionados in the field. Not to mention, it would be nice to have a hard copy of this great, new music. 

This album has become one of Hop On Power Pop's favorite albums of the year, but it took some clarification to get there.

One of the things when compiling this list is that it has to fit certain criteria for it to be considered as a candidate for our Top 10 of the year. This album, has songs that were previously released, going back many years, so some could say it's a re-release and not officially a new album. But according to Joe Giddings: 

• It's an official 2020 release.

• Different mix, mastering and artwork with new songs

• The album was only released as a digital download with no label support

So that's good enough for us and it qualifies as a new release for 2020.

​

The second clarification was in the song, Irrelevant. There's a lyric that goes, "My reputation is based on the crap that I say. But I don’t hate anyone and I’m not gay." As a member of the queer community I want to make sure I'm supporting ally's and not people who are anti human rights. So I asked Mr. Giddings and it turns out that it was a supportive line towards the LGBT community who were making positive strides towards marriage equality.  It's good to get clarification and this album gets our full support as one of 2020's best Power Pop Album releases. Thank you Joe Giddings. 

Ah this great album by Marshall Holland, a vocalist that's part Aimee Mann and Elvis Costello. (Maybe he needs to cover The Other End Of The Telescope?)

​

It was obvious that Paper Airplane would fly the distance, at least with us here at Hop On Power Pop. It would certainly make our Best of 2020 Album list and many other's on the web. I believe it's been selected as Album Of The Year by Dan Pavelich Pop-a-looza and it's going to make more before the lists are finished. If Hop On Power Pop picked a Top 10 Album, Paper Airplane would certainly be in the top. 

​

The album mixes everything from The Partridge Family to Sesame Street, from The Fifth Dimension to Power Pop Elvis Costello punk.

​

​

Bill Lloyd is no stranger to Best Of lists, but if you go off the messages of this album, I think he's getting a bit frustrated. From the title, Don't Kill The Messenger to I've Had Enough Of Your Love, I think Mr. Lloyd needs a vacation. 

​

But this album was released in May 2020, one could say smack dab in the middlie of this pandemic, which had been going on for a few months. So, maybe we all were feeling the same way? The album's about getting older (The Girls Of Sylvan Park),  

​

The album's a mix of Nashville tinged rock, Power Pop that sounds country, and straight up rockers that would do any boot wearing musician proud. Still, there's something about Bill Lloyd that adds a strong dose of Power Pop melody to these songs.

I really love the ukulele tune The Kiss Of The Summer Wind. Sure, it's not Power Pop but I'm just a sucker for a good ukulele tune and this is one of the best songs I've ever heard written for the little jumping flea we call the ukulele. 

​

The Overtures put on a Bootleg Sixties Sight and Sound Show where they perform songs done by bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and so on. It's no wonder that this show is so popular because these guys embody the sound of the sixties. But, their album, Once In A World, isn't just a bunch of covers of those bands they emulate. No, The Overtures write and record their own, original songs and they do it in a way that doesn't sound like Stormtrooper clones of the originals. Although their songs have that same groovy vibe, they've cut out their own path and their songs sound original.

​

That's not to say a band that copies The Beatles is bad, just look at the wonderful music from The Rutles. Those are great songs, they stand on their own even though they're glaring nods to the originals. It's a fine line to draw, where an obvious Beatles obsessed band sounds like a cheap copy of those guys from Liverpool. But to pull off the music on Once In A World, takes harnessing the DNA from Rubber Soul/Revolver songs, but then making them your own as well. Something that The Overtures accomplished with Once In A World.

Nick Piunti & The Complicated Men's Downtime album is going to (and has been) making a lot of the best of 2020 lists and it deserves every single vote. I would say that if I was told that I was being exiled to that infamous Desert Island that everyone is always talking about (You know the one it's a deserted island but it has power and a great stereo system?) and I was told that Nick Piunti was one of the only artists I could listen to, it would be alright. (Ok maybe thrown in Eric Barao and I'll pack my bags!)

​

All kidding aside, Nick Piunti always delivers, he always gives me the same vibe as a Mike Viola song and that's a high compliment. You can never go wrong with anything that Mike "That Thing You Do!" Viola puts out. 

​

But Nick Piunti is his own musical force, his music rocks and if you needed anything to do on your 2021 Downtime then you could do much worse than picking up this album.

This is an album that should be on every single Best Of 2020 list from Bubblegum rock, to Power Pop to Punk. It's bascially part Ramones, part Green Day, or like a punked up version of The Banana Splits. It's like a banana split that bites YOU! 

​

The Yum Yum's aren't new to the scene, this is their 6th full length album release, starting back in 1997, these guys have it down.

​

There's no favorite song really, as they're all good and if we had to pick a best album of 2020 this would be in the running. With 15 songs, only 3 of them passing the 3 minute mark, this album begs for constant repeat play after repeat play.