Jim Boggia's sweet sounds of power pop
The term "power pop" often suggests music so light and bubbly it could float away. On his super-fine third album, "Misadventures in Stereo," out Tuesday, genre master Jim Boggia does keep the music wonderfully airy and sweet, but his brew is grounded and organic, with stripped-to-the-essence arrangements and a dark lyric core, as most of the songs are about loss.
The term "power pop" often suggests music so light and bubbly it could float away. On his super-fine third album, "Misadventures in Stereo," out Tuesday, genre master
Jim Boggia
does keep the music wonderfully airy and sweet, but his brew is grounded and organic, with stripped-to-the-essence arrangements and a dark lyric core, as most of the songs are about loss.
End result: These pop nuggets always feel honest, durable and, yes, important. Clearly, this Philadelphia-based talent has learned from the greats. (He mastered this set at Abbey Road - 'nuff said?) But that honeyed, earnest voice and polished tune sense are ever his own, celebrated in the dour tarantella "To and Fro" and brass-bound music-hall shuffler "No Way Out," with the snappy, bonding-through-music "8-Track" and "Listening To NRBQ" (guitar solo by the name-checked group's Al Anderson), wispy/baroque "On Your Birthday" and soulful farewell to a soldier taken "Three Weeks Shy" of his homecoming. Come celebrate as Boggia and band deliver the goods live at his album release party.
World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St., 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, $16, 215-222-1400, www.worldcafelive.com.
- Jonathan Takiff