Music City “Welcome To Music City”

We can honestly say that this is our most highly anticipated album release for years. Ever since the songs “Pretty Feelings” and “Do I” were released in 2018(!) we have been desperate to hear a full album of tunes from Conor Lumsden under the moniker of Music City.

The great news is that both those songs are on the album, so you already have two fantastic power pop bangers. Indeed, “Pretty Feeling” is one of the best songs we have heard in years, it’s a perfect glammy pop track. The even better news is that there are tons more tunes of a similar ilk on the album. “It’s Alright” is an infectious tune, built on a great melody and catchy choruses. Then there’s the perfect Beatles esque simplicity to the pop of “When That Day Comes By”. Tracks like “You Remember”, perfectly blend a Teenage Fan Club pop sound with a T-Rex glam crunch.

In a fair world, songs like “A Matter Of Time” and “The Conversation” would be placed on the soundtrack to a huge blockbuster teen film and bring Music City worldwide fame. “Common Sense” does the unbelievable of matching the brilliance of “Pretty Feeling”. It’s a song that just makes everything feel better in life and really should be a smash hit.

However, there’s a different side to Music City which becomes evident as the album progresses. After hitting us with glam pop hits in waiting ,we are served up a change in style with tracks on the second side. First we get “Photograph” which is a surprisingly soul pop song and that’s followed by the acoustic, ballad like “Autumn Song”. Those tracks actually have us recalling Lloyd Cole and the Commotions (an underappreciated quality pop band).

Every now and then, you stumble across an artist that you instantly love and even rarer they occasionally deliver an absolutely fabulous debut release. That’s certainly the case with Conor and Music City. This actually has us thinking back to a band called The Last Great Dreamers. They produced a similar T-Rex inspired power pop sound. At the time of their debut, we thought it should have made them the biggest band in the world. This album has a similar feel and in a parallel universe, where the masses appreciate real quality ‘pop songs’, these tunes would be played on the radio and adored by millions. We can live in hope, but in the meantime we already have an album that will soundtrack this summer (and probably many more to come).