Saturday, April 26, 2008

Someloves - Something Or Other - 1989



The Someloves' sole album is esteemed by some power pop aficionados as one of the genre's best records, getting ranked in the Top Ten of a list of the greatest such albums in a 1999 issue of Goldmine. Power pop fanatics might be even more prone than other special-interest fans to zealously champion items non-specialists might find of average quality, but even taking that into consideration, it seems such praise might be overly generous. Something or Other is a well-done, confident power pop record, heavy on strident, assertive chords, vocal harmonies, bright ringing guitars, and upbeat romantic lyrics. It's not, however, a strikingly original entry in the field, bearing obvious traces of some of key Someloves' songwriters Daryl Mather and Dom Mariani's admitted influences, like Big Star and Dwight Twilley. At times it sounds rather like a more indie pop-oriented Tom Petty as well, particularly in the vocal delivery. The production (with overdubs and mixing done at Mitch Easter's studio) is more layered and nuanced than many such releases, and if this kind of music had been a very commercial style around the globe in 1990, there seems little doubt that these guys could have sold a good many records. It didn't, however, leaving this as something primarily of appeal to power pop cultists, many of whom remain unaware of its existence, the Australian group being pretty obscure on an international level. The entire album has been reissued on one of the two discs in the double-CD compilation Don't Talk About Us: The Real Pop Recordings of the Someloves 1985-89, whose second disc assembles a bunch of non-album singles and previously unreleased items not found on Something or Other itself.-AMG

If you like "Something Or Other"" get it here!

1 comment:

sitarswami said...

Wow. Excellent lp -- one hit after another. Thanks for posting.

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