Carl Newman and James Mercer... who else comes close?

Considering modern (let's say, post 2000) artists only, who else is as good as these two (Carl Newman is the main New Pornographers guys, Mercer is The Shins guy) when it comes to straightforward pop-rock songwriting? I'm not declaring or arguing, I'm really asking... these guys only have ten or so albums each and I need MORE powerpop-inspired modern rock and I can't find it. And The Shins are only power-poppy sometimes... too many folksy ballads!

So who else is there? Rivers Cuomo is pretty good. Fountains of Wayne are good sometimes but veer into novelty territory a little much for my tastes. Is there anyone I'm missing? I've tried Spoon and Teenage Fanclub... uh, I guess I'll try again someday (not good enough... they've got the style but not enough sweet sweet hooks!) No need to list any classic power pop bands. I love all those guys but I know already thanks!

Also, I'm not going to make a poll, but for those who are fans of both: who's the best songwriter, Mercer or Newman?

 

Have you listened to Girls Can Tell or Kill the Moonlight by Spoon? I'm not super into their last however many records but those two are excellent, with plenty of hooks (I also really like the Soft Effects EP which absolutely has great hooks but in more of a low-fi GBV rock vein, rather than indie pop).

What about Apples in Stereo? Not sure there would be a New Pornos or Shins without them! They started around 93/94 I guess but their later stuff is great, I think:




I have to assume you have an opinion on Elliot Smith?

 

Kelley Stoltz? Latter day pop perfection in my book:

 

I'm pretty into this Masters of the Hemisphere album, this is particularly Carl Newman-y, to my ears:

 

I don't know the answer to your question, but to me Mercer is the new McCartney.

Try Broken Bells, a Mercer-Danger Mouse project, if you haven't already.

 

I'm most familiar with James Mercer. I have all his albums with The Shins and one by Broken Bells. He can write extremely catchy songs. Songs that perhaps would have been #1s in a different era. He was destined to Indie fame.

 

Mercer's fallen off massively in the last few years from being in the higher echelon to boring hack work. I used to love everything he put out, but I can only shrug at The Shins now. Newman seems to have maintained his quality over a few albums, and the last NPs album was really great - he's not afraid of tapping into that classic power-pop thing whereas Mercer's moving further away from what I've heard recently.

The caveat is that I've sort of left that type of music behind now as I generally find that longevity is not the genre's strong suit, and nothing new interests me. Fred Thomas (of Saturday Looks Good To Me) is the most consistent and high-quality act I can think of who can hold my interest, but that's dependent on how tolerant the listener is of lo-fi stuff, I guess. Official stream of his new LP Changer is below, so you may agree/disagree.

 

Arctic Monkeys

 

I can't say I have noticed a drop in quality in The Shins output up to Port of Morrow. This album is as good as anything they have done IMO. The last track on this is so evocative and emotional...
I haven't listened to the last two singles from the upcoming album.

I'm a big fan of Broken Bells as well, I think it's fantastic production-wise, sound-wise, hook-wise...

 

I definitely have not heard of most of these things that you guys are recommending. Keep it up and thank you! That Kelly Stoltz song is awfully good. Does he have a lot of upbeat/midtempo stuff like that or is it mostly ballads (I ask because the wikipedia page compares him to Nick Drake)?

 

Big Apples in Stereo and Elephant 6 fan! Apples used to live in my city. I consider them pre-2000s though. Elliot Smith is one of those names that I've always heard, but never really heard any music. Would love some recommendations (ack I just saw that he's dead... he's considered one of those pop genius loonies like Syd Barrett right? If so, bring it on, especially something uptempo)

 

It's personal taste, I guess. Those two or three albums where The Shins were a band (and not just a name for James Mercer plus assorted musicians) felt a lot more natural to me, whereas Port Of Morrow seemed forced, save for Simple Song, which I thought was terrific. Maybe Mercer needs a collaborator to bring out his best, which is why the last Broken Bells album was an imporvement?

 

The album that particular song comes from (Below the Branches) does have a number of uptempo songs, check it out. I don't know the others, but I should check them out myself.

 

I thought the first two Shins were just Mercer, mainly.

 

Elliott was very melancholy and (obviously) a depressed guy. He made beautiful music, and was tuneful, but most of it (all of it?) had a darkness.

Sorry if it's kind of a curveball from what you're looking for, but he deserves to be mentioned in a conversation of best indie pop songwriters just cause, IMO, he was so talented.

 

I think Newman may be the best writer currently out there. And although I haven't loved everything he's done, he has kept writing great songs, from "The Party Rages On" in the mid-'90s right up to the latest, "High Ticket Attractions."

I'm not sure that there's anyone else on par with him in the same wheelhouse. The other acts I currently rate, the Divine Comedy, John Cunningham and the High Llamas, are really in a different style. Adrian Whitehead wrote one album of great songs in more of a power-pop style, but then vanished.

 

A vote for Carl Newman from me. Absolutely brilliant, IMO.

 

As I understood the issue, from the start The Shins weren't really much more than just Mercer backed by a supporting crew, and it was essentially that dynamic which led to the eventual departure of the other "band members".

 

Given your tastes I'd strongly recommend checking out the band Suckers' 2012 album Candy Salad. Truly hideous cover art, but some of the loveliest pure melodic power pop I've heard post-Shins. (I love both the Shins and the New Pornographers, especially the latter, but I'd compare this band more to the Shins.) Their track "Bricks to the Bones" is one of my favorite modern love songs. For some reason the group never got any traction at all.

Also, if you've not heard Whitney's Light Upon the Lake and Smith Westerns' Dye It Blonde, I think you may really enjoy them as well, but I imagine you may already be familiar with them.

 

They (combinations of Mercer with Dave Hernandez, Marty Crandall, Jesse Sandoval and Neal Langford) were together for over a decade first as Flake Music, then The Shins. They definitely had a band approach, even if Mercer wrote everything - Crandall in particular was a really energetic and charismatic performer in gigs.

 

The Shins started as James' solo project, and yeah, even the first two albums have a lot of entirely solo recordings on them: "New Slang" is all him, for example.

 

I love almost everyone you've mentioned but in my opinion my avatar Robert Pollard (Guided By Voices/Boston Spaceships/Solo etc) has written more great pop/rock songs than all of them combined.

 

The giants here - SLOAN (some of the artists you mentioned were also from the '90s, so I'm throwing Sloan in, too!)

 

Great supergroup here! I wish they'd keep it going.