Another subgenre from the folks at Hyped to Death, this series covers the world of power pop with just enough skewering of the rules to get in a wide variety of different sounds to keep things interesting. Covered in this installment are North American bands from the Q-Z portion of the alphabet. Included are rare tracks by the Quick (the original version of “Pretty Please Me,” now a staple in the Dickies’ set), the Zippers, 20/20, Paul Collins, Real Kids, Silvain Silvain, Tuff Darts, Taxi Boys, Velvet Elvis and more. As can be expected with a comp covering power pop as a genre, the sicky sticky bubblegum quotient inherent in the genre is in abundance. If you can get past the initial saccharin shock, though, you’ll find that there are many more good songs to be found here than clunkers.
–jimmy (www.hyped2death.com)