Andrew Bird is classically trained so maybe you'll like some of his stuff:

Andrew Bird - Imitosis


Andrew Bird - Sovay

If you like Blondie, you might check out these bands:

The X-Ray Spex
The Runaways
Souxsie & The Banshees
The Pretenders

Of course, those are all bands with female vocals. If you like the general style, regardless of the sex of the vocalist, there are a number of punk and post-punk bands to look into. I'd especially recommend:

The Ramones
The Undertones
The Boomtown Rats
The Buzzcoc ks

In line with the punk/post-punk theme of above
get some:
television - marquee moon
wire - pink flag and chairs missing
Public Image ltd. - metal box
Gang of four - entertainment!
Joy division - closer and unknown pleasures
the birthday party - release the bats ep or prayers on fire

Thanks for the vids and recommendations. Returning the complement, here’s the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra playing in London last year. They’re the product of El Systema, a scheme that takes poor children from the slums of Venezuela and trains them as classical musicians. 800,000 children have been through the programme. That’s why some of the orchestra look like drug dealers and mafia hitmen - they probably were! They’re helping subvert the whole classical music tight-arse image that alienates so many.



(Amend the url to play - I'm not allowed to post full urls till I've 15 posts)

Post Edited: right-track

these ain't pop albums dude. the others are borderline maybe, but these two NO!

I have to agree with the OP, and I'll go further and say that most albums are "pop." I'd even classify albums like London Calling, VU & Nico, and Who's Next as pop.

The mistake people make is in dismissing all pop because the very word "pop" conjures up images of Madonna and the Spice Girls. There's plenty of great pop out there to be found.


A few more ideas:

Life's Too Good- The Sugarcubes (heck, get Bjork's "Debut" album)
Turns Into Stone- The Stone Roses (buy this after you buy the debut, as Minstrel suggested)
Bottoms Of Barrels- Tilly & The Wall (definitely not for all tastes, but an impossibly charming album)
Psychocandy- The Jesus & Mary Chain (everyone needs this record)
Ocean Rain- Echo & The Bunnymen (see above, except moreso)
The Harder They Come- Jimmy Cliff (reggae, but with a slight pop edge)
Vol. 1 & Vol. 3- The Travelling Wilburys (the definition of "perfect pop music")[/b]

I struggle to find anything "pop" about Public Image Ltd and The Birthday Party. I love pop music, but those two ain't pop.

From what you've listed, I'd second the Sugarcubes, Stone Roses, Mary Chain and Echo and the Bunnymen. All great records. Don't like Tilly in the Wall, and never heard the other two. But the other 4 are all great!

Really? It seems very much pop to me. It's the sort of chiming guitar pop that very early U2 had and House Of Love and Cure had. I consider all those bands to be pop.

Metal Box/Second Edition is basically a pop/dance record with some atonal wailing on top of it. Post-Wobble/Levene PIL is even poppier (Rise? Seattle? Don't Ask Me?).


...and I can't believe I forgot XTC (my favorite pop group)! I can't imagine a pop fan who wouldn't like at least one of these albums:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...pple_Venus.jpg

Apple Venus, Vol. 1


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Settlement.jpg

English Settlement


http://www.avantgarde.com/images/Dru...nd%20Wires.jpg

Drums & Wires


And then there's the Wasp Star album (Apple Venus Vol. 2) which I absolutely love, but most people seem to dislike it, so I didn't list it.

i grant that they are not pop albums...
i just dropped them for balthazaar
cause they are awesome
and public image ltd. have quite a lot of pop values