50. XTC
'Generals and majors always seem so unhappy 'less they've got a war...'
A lot of early XTC fits very neatly into this category. No more so than here.
49. Freshies
'EMI, CBS, A&M, RCA...'
Great, semi-novelty late seventies and early eighties British band. Worth posting here, not just for its great tune but also for the list of record labels in the lyric that arrives towards the end.
48. The Bangles
'And I must be a masochist. To ever take up with you James...'
Bangles started off as one of the clutch of LA based Paisley Underground in the early eighties. Then, they became massive, did a Prince song which my first university girlfriend wrote out word by word in crayon and stuck it on a poster on her campus bedroom wall. Just one of the things which attracted me to her!
47. The Boomtown Rats
'And when the place comes ablaze with a thousand dropped names. I don't know who to call...'
Despite everything you could throw at The Boomtown Rats. Geldof's vocal affectations, the fact that they rifled so many of Springsteen's moves that if often felt like grand larceny, their being so utterly 'New Wave', they nevertheless had a clutch of very good pop songs to their name. Which was perhaps why they hit so big in the UK for a few years.
46. Matthew Sweet
'Do you need to be. Back in the arms of a good friend? Because honey believe me. I'd sure like to call you my girlfriend...'
Doesn't really set off like a Power Pop song, but it certainly becomes one. Despite its occasionally heavier Rock overtones.
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