By Billy Florio

Jordan Oakes’ Yellow Pills compilations are obscure music for those who think they know obscure music. A companion to Nuggets, they compile the best of forgotten power-pop from the ’70s and ’80s; mostly from bands no one (probably not even the band members) have heard of. This current incarnation of the collection is the 5th of its kind called Yellow Pills: Prefill.

Power-pop is still heard in a few bands today. Remnants of it can be found in Weezer, Foo Fighters and The Strokes. The genre started in the late ’60s with bands like The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Badfinger, and Todd Rundgren. In the ’70s, Big Star, Cheap Trick, Nick Lowe and The Flaming Groovies took over, and in the early ’80s, The Buzzcocks, the dbs, The Romantics and others keep the genre going via new wave until its mid decade downfall. Amidst those big names, many smaller, lesser-known bands had come out as well. Some of them only had one single and were never heard from again. What Oakes did with this collection is take 33 songs from bands like these and put them all on two discs.

None of the songs here were anywhere near hits and that’s very confusing, considering everything in this collection is amazing. Some of what could be the greatest power-pop/new wave songs ever appear here, and no more than maybe 100 people had ever heard them before. Bands like the Toms, the Luxury and The Kids have a few brilliantly catchy songs on here that no one could possibly get sick of. You could listen to “Sun” or “Countdown” or “There Goes My Heart Again” a million times, and still love it. A band called The Speedies have some great Buzzcocks/Clash sound a likes too, like the amazing “You need Pop” and “1-2-3.” A band called Jack Stack A Track does a perfect Beach Boys impression with “Good Time Music,” and The Finns and The Bats provide some incredibly amazing pop that makes this reviewer angry because they weren’t hits. The best-known band here though is the Shoes. This band was semi-known in its time, but never ascended to that status of their more popular contemporaries. Their song “Like I Told You” is addictively catchy, and maybe the best of many great songs.

The album has no down-points, except maybe the Tweeds “She’s the girl (who said no),” which slows down the middle of disc one. But it’s still an amazing song too. This album is delightful, fun and the best power-pop compilation ever. Take these Yellow Pills, and they will make you happy.