Another Great Review from Aural Grove

Thanx to Aural Grove for another positive review of the “Black Eye” EP!!

Written by Ljubinko Zivkovic

Power Pop is one of those Rock genres that seems to be in yet another resurrection phase, and that is a good thing. Washington DC/Baltimore area quartet Classified Frequency is back with “Black Eye”, their latest (third) EP to prove the point.

Now, those who are not so enamored with the genre usually complain that Power Pop bands tend to repeat themselves. That point is certainly very debatable because then you can bring that up with almost any genre in modern music. The key actually lies in the fact that most of Rock music relies upon the art of re-invention, taking already used elements and turning them into something that is at the same time instantly recognizable and new.

From the Seventies’ progenitors of the genre like the unlucky Big Star and Cheap Trick and Dwight Twilley (who are still around) to the Nineties’ re-inventors like The Posies and Sloan, Power Pop always relied on three things, greatly huge melodies, greatly huge vocal harmonies and greatly huge guitar riffs. Frankly, what’s wrong with that? Repeated or not.

Judging by the sound of the EP, Classified Frequency has quite a few live gigs under their belt through which they have perfected their sound. There’s no way that the tightness and musical unison exhibited on these four tracks can be studio-modified, even with all the trickery. It is the blood sweat and energy of those live gigs that does the trick.

So this is where Classified Frequency and their new EP come in. If you need an exact showcase of what the current state of Power Pop is like, you don’t have to go any further than “Black Eye”. And if all those melodies, harmonies and guitars are what you’re looking for, this will be a perfect (albeit brief) fix.

https://auralgrove.com/2018/09/05/classified-frequency-black-eye-ep-preview/