When the term pop-rock, with all its variants like power pop, was coined, the audience taste certainly shifted back and forth.
Yet, that guitar-based sound that relied on a great melody and some excellent songwriting never went away.
Currently, it might be taking a second seat to some other pop forms, but it didn’t go away. When done the right way it can still create that initial buzz and excitement that a good melody, guitar sound and some nifty harmonies ruled the airwaves.
Can that be repeated online too? Actually, at moments it does, and maybe the Atlanta quartet Vectralux have the potential to do so.
Their latest album has a bit of a long title ― Each Morning and the Morning Thereafter. Fortunately though for songwriter/guitarist Hannibal Heredia and Dan Barker, Kelly Shane, and Andy Tegethoff it is certainly not short on any of the elements that should characterize great pop-rock ― excellent songwriting, some great melody hooks and a strong guitar sound, all combined with some modern production touches that bring this music up to the current times.
Along the way, Vectralux varies their range from the Brit-pop tinged sound like on “Hidden Days” to more harder-edged Midwestern rock sound a la Cheap Trick of “Almost Whenever Now.”
All this creates a familiar and yet not so familiar sound, giving the Vectralux music that individual touch any music needs to make it stick out. Oh, and the band says that Vectralux is “a made-up word that sounds strangely familiar.” Exactly like their music.
