Pop That Goes Crunch!

Easter Sunday Round-Up Of New Tunes

Easter Sunday brings a basket full of sweet new treats spinning in rotation at Pop That Goes Crunch radio. Although the first song has a winter theme, you’ll ultimately see a lot of “sun” in this week’s round-up.

Fauna Flora, “The Arms of Winter”: Fauna Flora is the new project of Steve Ward, formerly of Cherry Twister. Its self-titled debut album is relentlessly beautiful collection of soft and loud(er) pop songs, with occasional strings and anchored by Ward’s consistently rich and expressive vocals. “The Arms Of Winter” is a bit of glorious chamber pop:

Sunrise Highway, “Windows”: I wrote a short piece on their cool bit of sand and surf jangle pop, “Endless Summer,” at the end of last summer. “Windows,” the title track from a soon-to-be-released long-player, is cut from a similar cloth with its laid back, jangly guitars and gorgeous West Coast pop harmonies. Here’s a preview:

Sunshine On Mars, “Lower Your Standards”: This virtual band-by-file sharing — an “ill -advised cross-country music collaboration of 3 Facebook friends,” as they say — does covers, and nothing else. Two of its previous digital downloads — “Feelin’ So Good (S.K.O.O.B.Y. D.O.O)” and “Sugar, Sugar” — give you a good idea of the sensibility at play here. This is not music that takes itself too seriously, or even seriously at all. Their brand spanking new cover of Slow Runner’s “Lower Your Standards” ups the bubblegum quotient substantially over the original. That’s a good thing, trust me:

Sunday Sun, “Sunday Morning”: This one comes right out of the gate as unabashed bubblegum, and continues dishing out sweet gobs of sticky goo for the next two-and-a-half-minutes. That, of course, makes it quite delectable. Make sure you brush your teeth after this one:

Ballard, “Take Good Care”: Darren Riley, recording as Ballard, says this one resulted from a challenge “to write and record an Everly Brothers-inspired song in a couple of hours.” That’s a good description of this decidedly old school stomper, complete with pounding drums, slightly twangy guitar and a simple sing-along chorus. There is nothing at all complicated here, just good old-fashioned rock ‘n roll:

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So there you have five new tracks to savor this Sunday. Listen, support the artists and check out Pop That Goes Crunch radio, where the playlist has grown to 1,000 songs.