Review of Bully by Sugarbomb

It is with a sense of shock, sadness and amazement that this wonderful album didn't hit it big back in the early part of this millenium. The fact that this album didn't go straight to number 1 on all the Rock/Pop/Indie charts and propel this group to superstardom is a travesty because this is, in my humble opinion the best Power Pop album I've ever heard.

Better than `Cheap Trick', `Big Star', `XTC' and believe me that's praise indeed cause I love all those bands. Sure there are influences aplenty; amongst them most notably would be Beatles, John Lennon and a big dollop of Cheap Trick - but Cheap Trick at their very best. Don't let their rock-pop influences dissuade you, the band manages to strike their own identity and draw you in with their own unique sound. Fabulously witty lyrics in the same vein as 'Barenaked Ladies' which will have you singing along and humming in your car on those long drives home from work or when you get stuck doing the dishes or even when your just sitting at your computer writing reviews. Tight, tight playing - not a chord out of place, there's not a track on this album that's wasted. Highly inventive scores on some of the songs reminded me of Queen, not that Sugarbomb sound like Queen, wait though - No I could be wrong (notch that as another influence). But the songs are just so much fun to listen to and really what better tracks have you ever heard than 'Clover' which is in danger of being the catchiest rock/pop song you've never heard, Motor Mouth which is just too good to describe and the deliriously Lennonesque `Posterchild for Tragedy'.

As the saying goes it's not what you know it's who you know and I'm sure the same goes in the music industry. This is my favorite CD this Century and likely to remain so unless perhaps Sugarbomb make another album. Here's hoping.