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What
exactly is pop? Not an easy pigeon to put in its hole. Presumably
something in-between the torchight crooning of Mel Torme or Frank
Sinatra and the unabashed headbanging of Motorhead or Black Sabbath.
Maybe it’s akin to what the
US Supreme Court famously said about obscenity a while back; you just
know and feel it when you see or hear it, but it’s damn hard to define
with any meaningful contours. It clearly is a genre deserving
of its own designation in musicology - it's just hard to decide on its parameters.
I’ve mused a fair bit about what might be the perfect pop song. It’s not too hard, not too soft, and it just sounds
so good. On lists of the greatest “rock n roll” songs usually
it’s Bob Dylan with "Like a Rolling Stone", Zep’s “Stairway to Heaven”,
or Rolling Stones with "Satisfaction" or "Gimme Shelter".... but what
might be at the top of the list for crystal clear,
blissful pop?
I
submit frontrunners would be Beach Boys jewels like "God Only Knows"
and "All I Wanna Do" (no, not the better known, Dylan-penned Byrds hit
with the “Really” in the middle, I’m talking the gorgeous nugget from
the
Sunflower album) and Big
Star’s just dreamy "September Gurls" (admirably covered by the Bangles,
the Replacements, and English modsters Squire). The Kinks' somewhat
overlooked masterpieces “Village Green Preservation Society” and
"Waterloo Sunset"
should be in the mix, as are Beatles' standards like "In My Life” and
my personal Fab Four Favorite, "She Said She Said."
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Songs from Cuckold
featured prominently during Avi’s performance this past fall at
mid-Wilshire’s lovely El Rey Theater, which for Long-Beach bred Avi must
have felt like a bit of a homecoming, what with his grandparents
chilling
and cheering on the fringes of the dance floor brimming along with the
millennials snapping cellphone pix and Instagramming away. The new
material is strong, a little more focused and less twee and kooky than
his debut, and standout, radio-friendly tracks
like “So What” and “Memories of You” sounded quite swell emanating from
the stage. But Avi regaled the crowd’s request with a scintillating
version of “What’s In It For” that truly paints a portrait of how far
this promising artist might venture into heady
new heights.
The
song may not approach unadulterated perfection quite as closely as the
classics mentioned above; the lyrics, likening his girl’s lips to “tiny
pieces of bacon”, are a tad bit on the silly side, and his warbling
falsetto might be a bit
precious for some listeners. But musically it’s nothing short of
spectacular. Shimmering guitars reminiscent of classic Byrds,
playfullly melodic bass evoking McCcartney’s best work, layered
harmonies recalling the Beach Boys’ masterpieces - it’s four minutes
of ear candy that’s just nearly unparalleled. Avi’s songcraft talents
shine so resplendently throughout this song that even mentioning such
slight shortcomings seem petty. When my seven year old daughter asks to
hear it by name, rather than the latest pablum
from Iggy Azalea or Robin Thicke, one only has to feel good about the
future of quality sounds.
- Rhythm Slayer
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