Modern pop rock

10 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Modern Rock, POP: with Live-band Production



Details:
The term "singer-songwriter" usually conjures images of acoustic strummers delivering folky or brooding narratives. But Brian Bassett's straight-ahead rock tunes - which call to mind expansive fare like early Radiohead, Oasis, and Matthew Sweet's 100 Fun - are made to be swathed in thick guitars and lush production. His songs take a direct, simple path to the heart, not to the intellect and not hitched to any trend. On last year's "Rock and Roll" LP, Bassett came off like a man in search of an arena, avoiding poetic platitudes and complex rumination and glorying in big, breathless love-rock, earnestly direct anthems and throbbing melodic hooks. Bassett was back in the studio recently, so let's hope that we soon see a new album packed with his grand rock intentions.

Erik Hage - Metroland




". . . a roiling, melodic wall of crunch, snarl and grumble . . ."

". . . an unabashed, unironic, straight-up collection of big, throbbing love rock . . ."

". . . hooky as hell (and thankfully devoid of irony) . . ."

". . . the rich guitars tumble, grind and wheel like early Radiohead or the concert version of Oasis . . ."