Music Review

It Was Easy

Album | The Title Tracks
By Jim Allen

A modern-day power pop gem from an unlikely source.

Imagine if, say, Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty came out with a one-man-band project proudly paying homage to The Style Council. Take a moment to realign your brain from that synapse-bursting notion and adjust to the real-life phenomenon of John Davis, former beat-pounder for post-punk aggression merchants Q And Not U, reinventing himself as a power-popper under the moniker of The Title Tracks. Handling nearly all the vocal and instrumental chores on It Was Easy by himself, Davis has created a modern-day power pop gem, overflowing with harmony-laden choruses and perfectly deployed guitar hooks. Davis puts some of his influences front and center with a muscular cover of the Byrds classic “She Don’t Care About Time” and a version of Bruce Springsteen’s Tunnel Of Love tune “Tougher Than The Rest” that sounds more like The Zombies’ “The Way I Feel Inside” than anything E Street-ish. There’s a soupcon of soul at work here too, which emerges in the form of the undeniably Paul Weller-esque “Hello There” and “Every Little Bit Hurts,” which sound like they could have fallen from the back of The Jam’s van on their way to record The Gift.

TAGS: One Man Band, Power Pop, Singing Drummer, Solo Project, Style Shift, Washington D.C.,

FACTS: Released: February 23, 2010 (Ernest Jenning Record Co.)

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