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Bleu McAuley and his wife Chloë Lear Jackson McAuley released three songs under the name Mr&Mrs for the christmas season! Listen here: Buy them here: CD Baby or iTunes .

The year draws to a close, seen musically it was a stunning year (in other areas, it was surely not).   So - here is the Top 10 of PowerPopSquare for 2017: 1. Chris Price - Stop Talking Price is a man of many talents - producer for Emitt Rhodes and Linda Perhacs , writing with artists like Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (Jellyfish) and Taylor Locke (Rooney) or recording a complete album with an iPhone 4 (his first record Homesick ). Chris Price was joined in the studio by a variety of top musicians, including Kyle Fredrickson, Ben Lecourt, Fernando Perdomo, Joe Seiders and many others. Price explains: “ I spent the five years since my first album Homesick working on albums for two heroes of mine, Emitt Rhodes and Linda Perhacs. But I never stopped writing and recording material of my own, and both of those incredibly inspiring and fulfilling projects ended up deeply informing my work, pushing me to think harder about my lyrics, become more adventurous in my production and...

Pugwash is back with a new record: Silverlake . But this time it is quite different: Thomas Walsh recorded it mainly on its own with producer Jason Falkner (yes, THE Jason Falkner of Jellyfish !). Recorded in Falkner’s LA studio earlier this year, Thomas wrote all the songs, arranged them, and played acoustic guitar. Jason played everything else (except the strings), sang backing vocals and recorded/produced. Thomas says: " I’ve known Jason for twenty years, so I rang him last Christmas and asked him what his next year was looking like. He said, ‘It’s fuckin’ full up, but if you’re saying to me we can make a record, I’ll make time'. That was an amazing thing to hear. The minute I heard that I was hooked. I got excited again. Within a week I’d written all the songs. ” The opener and lead single ( The Perfect Summer ) is nothing less than perfect pop music. I admire Sunshine True , Everyone Knows That You're Mine and Such a Shame for their tremendous melo...

Nic Cester , the lead singer of JET has returned with a solo record. " Sugar Rush " will be available on November 3, 2017.  And it should be nothing less than amazing - listen to the singles here:

Charlotte Gainsbourg is not only an actress, also she's a singer. She recorded songs with artists like Jarvis Cocker (from Pulp ), Jean-Benoît Dunckel (from AIR ), Nicolas Godin , Beck and Neil Hannon (from Divine Comedy ). I especially recommend the album " 5:55 ". On November 17, 2017 her newest record " Rest " will be out. Listen to two songs from it here:

Tears for Fears have a new Greatest Hits compilation (" Rule The World ") out November 10, 2017. While this isn't that spectacular, it's remarkable it will include two new songs. Listen to one of them below.

Seth MacFarlane is widely known as the creator of Family Guy and American Dad , the movies Ted and A Million Ways to Die in the West and recently the reinvention of Star Trek in The Orville (I highly recommend the last one!). While his kind of humor is a matter of taste he has another talent that is less known: MacFarlane is a musician with a keen sense of reinterpretations of The Great American Songbook . His fourth album is out now: In Full Swing .  If you have at least a minimal interest in this genre, listen to it.

The new record of Bill DeMain " Transatlantic Romantic " is out now. And is has become a gem, filled with wonderful harmonies and having an overall classic touch. Listen to four of the songs below! The album is available for $12. For ordering info, email billdemain@gmail.com

Out Of Silence , the new record of Neil Finn , will be out in September 2017. The first song is " More Than One Of You " - you can listen to it here: He is recording the album in four 2-hour-sessions which were and will be broadcasted live. The first two sessions can be seen HERE and HERE!

Marc Martel has started a crowdfunding campaign for two new EPs. More information below. Here is the first song and video from this project - and it's stunning!  

Bill DeMain - Lemon Yellow The new record of Bill DeMain " Transatlantic Romantic " will be out in summer 2017. Air Traffic Controller - After Party The " Echo Papa EP " will be out June 23, 2017 ( amazon.com ). Cliff Hillis - Many Happy Returns EP The new EP of Cliff Hillis is out now! Camera2 - Ride That Feeling Again The album " Orbit " from Camera2 will be out in 2017. Phoenix - Ti Amo Phoenix ' new album " Ti Amo " is out now. Dan Wilson - Re-Covered Re-Covered , the new record of Dan Wilson (produced by Mike Viola ) is available on Pledgemusic   or on Amazon for preorder. It's out August 4, 2017. Chris Price - Sigh Stop Talking by Chris Price Chris Price released his stellar second album - Stop Talking - now. Buy it on Bandcamp or Amazon .

It is always a special (and quite seldom) moment when I finish to listen to a record for the first time and I instantly know this is an exceptional piece of work. Chris Price has achieved this with " Stop Talking". The record is out now - and there are 14 reasons to buy it: The opener and title track "Stop Talking" is so different and promising, it leaves you asking where this record is heading to. To clarify this: it's heading not in one direction, rather into a wide variety of genres, reminiscences to pathbreaking artists and through musical eras. While " Man Down " is 70s McCartney, Nilsson and Rhodes in its best way, " Darkness " could also fit on " Sheer Heart Attack " or " Queen II " - the song is nothing less than a mini opera and an instant classic.  " You And Me (And Everyone Else) " and " Once Was True " shine, and I bet the late Freddie Mercury or Paul McCartney would have wished they...

The second solo album of Chris Price , Stop Talking , is coming on May 19, 2017. Price is a man of many talents - producer for Emitt Rhodes and Linda Perhacs , writing with artists like Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (Jellyfish) and Taylor Locke (Rooney) or recording a complete album with an iPhone 4 (his first record Homesick ). Chris Price was joined in the studio by a variety of top musicians, including Kyle Fredrickson, Ben Lecourt, Fernando Perdomo, Joe Seiders and many others. According to Price, “ I spent the five years since my first album Homesick working on albums for two heroes of mine, Emitt Rhodes and Linda Perhacs. But I never stopped writing and recording material of my own, and both of those incredibly inspiring and fulfilling projects ended up deeply informing my work, pushing me to think harder about my lyrics, become more adventurous in my production and never take the safe route musically. Nearly 50 songs were recorded for this project, and I went through an...

jeremy messersmith - 11 Obscenely Optimistic Songs For Ukulele: A Micro-Folk Record For the 21st Century And Beyond jeremy messersmith (yes, it's now in lowercase) describes his new record ( 11 Obscenely Optimistic Songs For Ukulele: A Micro-Folk Record For the 21st Century And Beyond ) as " jam-packed with ridiculous songs about kittens, world peace, flying cars and the transformative power of love. Why? Because we all need a ray of sunshine every now and again. Because it's important to not lose sight of how good things could be. Because the first step to a better world is to imagine a better world . (...) I don't know if a song can change the world, but singing sure can. Trust me. You'll feel better and that's a start, right?" You can download the songbook with all the songs right now and create a video for them - details at: www.jeremymessersmith.com The album will be out in April 2017 (no further details are confirmed yet). ...

Bill DeMain 's upcoming album Transatlantic Romantic will be out in 2017. According to the first three songs it's already close to a favourite record of the year.

The seventh album of Pugwash is out in 2017. A crowdfunding campaign just started at Kickstarter . ... You haven't pledged yet?  Yes, it's Jason Falkner (of Jellyfish ) in this picture below. And he is playing and working on this record, too. So hurry up and go to Kickstarter NOW!

You never heard of Warren Zanes ? Maybe you should... Zanes has been all of these things: a Ph.D and professor at several American universities, a Vice President at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, a writer whose subjects range from Jimmy Rodgers to Dusty Springfield to the Wilburn Brothers to the history of Warner Bros. Records, a musician who made three records with 1980s rock and roll band the Del Fuegos and four as a solo artist, a thinker-for-hire who has worked on several high-profile music projects, including, most recently, the upcoming George Harrison documentary directed by Martin Scorsese, and the Executive Director of Little Steven Van Zandt's Rock and Roll Forever Foundation, where his work is an extension of his non-profit experience and his teaching at Case Western Reserve, the School of Visual Arts, the University of Rochester, and other institutions. Time Out New York has said of Warren that he is " as smart a pop songwriter as there is. " E...

Aimee Mann - Mental Illness Aimee Mann ’s Mental Illness , her first album in five years, is a return to a more musically soft-spoken but still lyrically barbed approach. The Oscar-nominated, Grammy-winning singer remains a student of human behavior, drawing not just on her own experiences to form the characters in the songs but tales told by friends. “ I assume the brief on me is that people think that I write these really depressing songs, ” Mann says. “ I don’t know—people may have a different viewpoint—but that’s my own interpretation of the cliché about me. So if they thought that my songs were very down-tempo, very depressing, very sad, and very acoustic, I thought I’d just give myself permission to write the saddest, slowest, most acoustic, if-they’re- all-waltzes- so-be- it record I could… I mean, calling it "Mental Illness" makes me laugh, because it is true, but it’s so blunt that it’s funny. ” Mental Illness will be out on March 31, 2017. Pre-order ...

Almost a year ago I made a serious attempt to get everything together for a project: a Third Record of Owsley . There are a couple of stunning songs (demos, unreleased songs, collaborations) out there and as far as I know many more are in the vaults. So I asked at Facebook if there is Interest in such a project (and man - there is!) and started a poll to look for a possible success of a crowdfunding campaign. So all signs looked good. A lot of other musicians, friends of Will Owsley and his family showed interest too. Sadly the project wasn't realized. To cut a long story short: I created a third record myself. And I think it's a good one. It's called Feel No Pain . If you are interested in the record, just write me here: powerpopsquare@gmail.com