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Ken Sharp – Miniatures (Jet Fighter)

Miniatures couldn’t be a more apt title for the latest album by singer/songwriter power pop artist Ken Sharp. None of these 32 (count ‘em, 32!) songs clocks in at even two minutes long, and the shortest is the album-closing title track which clocks in at 37 seconds.

However, just because these songs are short does not mean they are just fragments or snippets. They all feel like complete little – as once referred to Brian Wilson’s songs – “pocket symphonies.” There is a history of short, catchy songs, particularly in the 60s, which this album mostly celebrates musically. It also works well for these hectic, attention-deficit times.

Worst case scenario, if you don’t like one of the songs (and there are very few songs on the album likely to spur that kind of reaction), you don’t have to wait long for another aching melody or catchy hook to come along. Nothing will certainly overstay its welcome – although many of them may have you craving for more of the song.

This new album is a strictly DIY affair in a way that has become all too necessary in a post pandemic world. Sharp recorded this new batch of songs at home, doing all the vocals (lead and backing) and playing almost all the instruments, other than a few brief cameos by Sharp’s regular collaborator guitarist Fernando Perdomo and violinist Kaitlin Wolfberg.

That’s a pretty impressive achievement as far as a mostly one-man band goes, considering this album has a lo-fi wall of sound including such instruments as electric and acoustic guitar, piano, harpsichord (love the harpsichord!), EBow, organ, mellotron, Moog, celeste, vibes, glockenspiel and bell trees. Sharp grew up worshipping Stevie Wonder, and this aesthetic of handling nearly all the instrumentation is reminiscent of Wonder’s work ethic on many of his most classic albums.

While he is best known as a power pop artist, Sharp refers this new collection as an exploration of “baroque” pop – think such 60s groups as The Left Banke, Simon & Garfunkel, The Zombies and The Neon Philharmonic.

For such a low-tech affair, Miniatures definitely has a very big sound.

Jay S. Jacobs

Power Pop Heroes is not just the name of rock journalist and musician Ken Sharp’s recent multi-volume book series – an oral history of the critically-beloved musical style interviewing some of its biggest stars – it also is an accurate description of Sharp and his band.

That band has become a well-tuned machine, as Sharp and co-producer (and in-demand session player extraordinaire) Fernando Perdomo shape 16 of the catchiest slabs of sound in Sharp’s long musical career. Also, like his previous release, some of Sharp’s heroes laid down some parts for the new album, this time including Ace Frehley (KISS), John Oates (Daryl Hall & John Oates) and Kasim Sultan (Utopia).

Beauty in the Backseat continues a spurt of productivity for Sharp. It’s the second full-length album (plus a few stand-alone singles) released in about two years. By comparison, it took six years each between his first three albums (which were released in 1995, 2001 and 2007), and nine years before the last album New Mourning.

The new spate of recording, and live performance has honed some of the finest songs and performances in his already impressive body of work.

Every one of these songs would have felt at home on a portable AM radio in the early 70s. It opens with a triple-threat of catchy ear-worms; the perfectly propulsive and squalling Frehley guitars of the sweet and fun “Rock Show,” the retro mid-tempo love song “Mona Lisa Smile” and the power-pop thrills of “Lemons to Lemonade.”

“A Philly Kind of Night” is a swaying slice of blue-eyed soul, complete with a sweet vocal assist by Sharp’s fellow Philadelphia-suburbs-area singer John Oates. (Sharp grew up in Fort Washington and Oates grew up in neighboring North Wales, although Oates had already moved on to be a globe-trotting rock star when Sharp was a mere child.)

Other styles include the acoustic psychedelia of “Jet Fighter,” the arena rock chops of “No One Seems to Stay Together Anymore” and the dreamy ballad “Sinking.” And “The Hardest Part” may just be the most supremely gorgeous pop groove that Sharp has uncorked yet.

There are also tributes to a couple of Sharp’s heroes who have moved on in the past year, the sweetly spacey “The Day that David Bowie Died” and the bubblegum appreciation of Sharp’s friend “I Wanna Be David Cassidy.”

Beauty in the Backseat shows a songwriter hitting on all cylinders. It’s arguably Sharp’s best work yet.

Jay S. Jacobs

Ken Sharp – New Mourning (Jet Fighter)

The power pop underground keeps on keeping on although the musical style has never captured the audience that its most rabid fans feel it deserves.  A delirious mixture of rock crunch and bubble gum beats that has flirted with mainstream success since the 70s, the style has spawned such respected short-term stars as Jellyfish, Matthew Sweet, The Knack, Marshall Crenshaw, The Romantics, Dwight Twilley, The Rubinoos and others.  In fairness, some power pop artists did spawn pretty long careers: The Cars, Rick Springfield, Cheap Trick, The Bangles, etc.  However, the style has never gotten its due.

It did not go away, though, it just went underground.  To this day, there is a thriving power pop scene in Los Angeles and spread around the world.  We feel quite lucky to be intimately involved with one of the better talents of the style.  Ken Sharp is a long-time PopEntertainment.com contributor as an interviewer and reviewer.  He has also written dozens of books about popular music history including KISS: Behind The Mask, Overnight Sensation: The Story of the Raspberries, Reputation Is A Fragile Thing: The Story of Cheap Trick, Elvis: Vegas '69 and Starting Over: The Making of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Double Fantasy.

However, Sharp is not just one of those dry academics who knows everything about music, except how to make it.  He walks the walk and talks the talk as a stellar power pop singer/songwriter.  New Mourning is Sharp's fourth CD, his first in nine years.  It is also by far his most diverse and strongest disk yet.  It also features guest appearances by such power pop luminaries as Rick Springfield, guitarist Wally Stocker of The Babys, bassist Prescott Niles of The Knack, Rob Bonfiglio of Wanderlust and Wilson Phillips and Ritchie Rubini of The Caulfields.

We admit straight up that we are a tiny bit biased toward Ken's music.  Not to worry, though, we would not recommend New Mourning if it did not have the goods, and for sure it does.

The new album allows Sharp to reach out into some new musical waters – check out the new wave electronic beats of "Satellite" – and yet he still can do a spectacularly gorgeous break-up ballad like "Put the Blame on Me" or a near-perfect hooky sixties pastiche like "Solid Ground."

He also touches on arena rock – is it my imagination, but is the intro to "Dynamite and Kerosene" a little nod towards The Grand Illusion-era Styx? – before he up-shifts into a more traditional hooky grandeur. 

On the other hand, "Bad News" is a sweet marriage of Byrdsy jangle pop and British Invasion propulsion.  "Loser" is a wonder of studio overdubbing, starting with a theatrical intro straight out of The Phantom of the Paradise before downshifting into a gorgeous bit of electric light introspection.

Any one of these songs feels like it could have been a hit on the Billboard charts in the 60s or 70s.  It's just that kind of party.  Ken Sharp may have been born in the wrong era, but thankfully he keeps bringing that era's music back to us.

Jay S. Jacobs

Ken Sharp-Sonic Crayons (Jet Fighter)

Okay, we’ll be the first to admit that maybe we’re a bit biased, because pop singer/music journalist Ken Sharp is a frequent PopEntertainment contributor and we’ve been following his music career since long before he joined us, but the man does have a way around a pop music hook. 

Sharp’s third CD, with the evocative title Sonic Crayons, continues his self-appointed job as curator of an aural museum of 70s power-pop, with brightly memorable hooks and sweet harmonies around every corner. 

Sonic Crayons is full of tunes that would sound amazing blasting out of a transistor radio.  It’s the musical equivalent of Captain Crunch – with extra Crunch Berries.  If you grew up listening to 70s bubblegum hits (or even if you jumped on during the 90s mini-revival) Sonic Crayons gives you an immediate sugar rush of memory.  It’s a passport back to your childhood. 

“The Man Who Couldn’t Be Wrong” is a little slice of power-pop bliss, sounding like a great, lost Jellyfish single.  Also approaching sonic nirvana is the sweet noodlings of “So Simple Radio,” the dramatically prog-psych ballad “I Got Lost” and the sweet nothings of “Rush Rush.”

One of the most surprising and coolest moments is a driving cover of a semi-obscure Archies’ track called “Melody Hill” (complete with backing vocals by 90s pop star Carnie Wilson of Wilson Phillips.)  It pays tribute to Sharp’s first musical influence and at the same time it totally one-ups it.  (7/07)

Jay S. Jacobs

Power pop, as an art form has never quite reached the mass audience it deserves. Once upon a time the description Beatlesque was a badge of honor, but now it seems as much a hindrance as high praise. So it’s not likely that as many people will hear the new album by Ken Sharp as will hear… say, the new Korn or OutKast album. And that’s a damn shame.

Musically and production-wise, Happy Accidents is quite a step up from his already very good debut album 1301 Highland Avenue. Happy Accidents has a more psychedelic feel than his debut album, but more importantly it has a more sure-handed grasp of its musical ideas. "See Through These Eyes" is a stunner, a mixture of driving vocals and a terrific guitar line and truly clever retro lyrics. "Brand New Day" rides a springy Stevie Wonder-obsessed guitar line through three minutes of pop bliss.

"Unconditionally" could be a huge hit for N’Sync -- though they probably couldn’t handle the subtle changes of tempo and mood. "You Said You’d Love Me" is a simply stunning ballad of loss. The CD winds down with a truly ecstatic cover of the Beach Boys’ "Girl Don’t Tell Me" that rivals the original. Into the void that has spawned Matthew Sweet, Jellyfish, the Posies and many other beloved and yet under-appreciated power pop artists is a new guitar hero. Search this CD out... decide for yourself. (1/01)