At Whisperin' & Hollerin', one of our unwritten briefs is surely to unashamedly talk up the merits of great US power pop: a term which has been bringing serious critics out in spots for many a long year.
And, right on cue, comes the timely re-issue of THE SCRUFFS' second album, "Teenage Gurls", on Rev-Ola. When I tell you they were / are from Memphis....yes, yes, I know you're already suggesting that they must be a pale facsimile of Big Star ("Teenage Gurls" ain't a million miles from "September Gurls" right, Einstein?) and - well, OK, I will grant you it's nigh-on impossible to deny that The Scruffs are swimming in similar, Brit invasion waters with this.
However, like Chilton's mob, The Scruffs' Stephen Burns knows a bloody good pop tune when it sits up and bites him in the ass and certainly there are a good half-dozen crackers lurking among the short, sharp, harmony-laced contents here.
You want evidence? Alright, go straight to the so-gauche-it's-great title track for starters. Then follow it up with the insanely catchy "Go Faster", then the yelped call'n'response choruses of "You, You, You" and the insistently spangly "Nick Of Tyme" (check the daft, Psych-y spelling). Best of all, though, are "Alice, Please Don't Go" - the sort of forcefully cool 2 and a half minutes that Evan Dando would undoubtedly approve of - and the closing "Shakin'" which is an amphetamine pop triumph and no mistake.
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Although it's all well-crafted and executed, some of this gear's too derivative to be truly effective. Both "Edge Of Disaster" and "Breakdown" are so "Radio City" that it hurts (though I do sneakily enjoy them), though it's difficult to feel so benevolently inclined towards "At The Movies," "Now," the disingenuous "Rock'n'Roll Heads" and the glam-my "How We Gonna Do It?", which would be disastrous if it didn't speed up and go into Chuck Berry meltdown mode towards the end.
On a more practical level, the other similarity The Scruffs story shares with Big Star is that their releases also suffered crippling distribution problems, thus curtailing their potential commercially. This is a great pity, as when this album initially appeared towards the end of the 1970s, it could easily have formed the missing link between Big Star and the successful urban take on power pop peddled by The Knack.
Twenty-five years on, however, that won't prevent you enjoying what is predominantly a handy, tune-stuffed guitar pop album, even if its' heart is a bit too visible on its' sleeve on occasion.
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