
Listen, there are plenty of music genres in the world, and the list will only get longer with each new year. But I guarantee you that, if they could, every single band would like to make power-pop records. What? Would writing songs like Big Star, Badfinger, Guided by Voices or The Beatles not be enough? It’d be enough.
That doesn’t mean, however, that procuring this kind of magic, having it come out of your pen and guitar and giving it to the world, would be enough to make the artists happy or even successful. Big Star never found it while originally together. Guided by Voices made a lot of records in their garage before anyone listened. And the less said about Badfinger’s story, the better.

The universe doesn’t always reply when it should. But Blake is ready to ask a few questions of the universe and even shake it by the shoulders. The singer-songwriter has been listening to a lot of Badfinger, and old ghost stories don’t scare him. In fact, judging by the latest collection of songs, “Louder Than Sound,” the musician’s having the time of his life.
The album opener “She’s Inside My Heart” provides the first retro-rock salvo. It’s all about the melodies and all about getting them to your ear canals as quickly as possible.
It’s quick trip, you better pack light and forget about bringing bad vibes along with you. That seems to have been a mantra for this album. “Lighting Up For You” is the purest of love songs.
And Blake wastes not the chorus. Those are the selling points here, and there are no excuses and no time spent on proving that he’s smarter than the audience. “Love X Forever,” possibly the best song on the record, is all a grunge preparation for the next chorus. And the acoustic-driven “Strawberry Way” delivers a vintage power-pop hook.
A love of the mellow, good-time pop-rock of Paul McCartney can also be traced across the record, especially in the songs on which Blake plays around with other styles. The tropical groove of “Disguises” and the playful blues-rock of “Business Hours” sound like the kind of party that Macca would gladly attend.
If you got it, use it and then overuse it. Blake is a very productive songwriter with light in his heart and a good hook in his ear at all times. The 12-song collection of songs found on “Louder than Sound” proves that the songwriter isn’t chasing something down anymore. Whatever it was, it was found, and the musician is just busy using it now.
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