Short Reviews [Jeremy - 2019 - "Pop Overflow"]

Released in 2019, it is obvious which genre Jeremy is following on this one from the title alone, and we are firmly back in power pop. Jeremy provides vocals, guitars, bass, piano, Mellotron, synthesizers and drums and he is joined by drummer Dave Dietrich and bassists Peter Morris and bassist Todd Borsch. The album is dedicated to Todd who died before this was released so I guess he played on certain tracks with it then being completed by Peter when he was unable to do anymore. Jeremy has always had that uncanny ability to be able to produce whatever music he wants in whatever style and is more than capable of doing it all on his own and can often be found working on multiple albums at the same time as the muse takes him. However, he realises that not everyone has the same magpie instinct as him, so each album generally contains songs from just one genre, and each time I wonder just how he does it as each time it feels like this particular style is the one he belongs in. Power pop containing psychedelic influences, here we have 15 songs with only three stretching above the three-minute mark, and each one is different from the others, lovely little slabs of juiciness which makes the listener smile. “Down and Out” is a wonderful blast with driving guitar and vocals, with just enough piano to provide a melodic backing, and some nicely phased and distorted guitars which combine to add to the overall impact. “Happy Every Day” is more jangly, with some nice acoustic in the back, and somehow reminds me of Judas Priest’s “Living After Midnight” while of course sounding nothing like it. This could have ended up on one of his worship albums with the lyrics it contains, but it fits in here perfectly. I have been writing about Jeremy for some 30 years now and it never ceases to amaze me that some 100+ albums down the road he is still producing wonderful music. If you enjoy this style of music or have just been wondering where to start with the huge catalogue of Jeremy Morris then I start here.