Ed James: Poprocket

Ed James
Poprocket
JAM
2002-09-24

Ed James is a one-man pop music machine, and he’s not afraid to admit it.

No, really, he’s not. It says right here in the CD booklet for Poprocket, “Ed made nearly every noise on this CD.” The guy’s pretty much flaunting it with a line like that.

Unlike a lot of guys who record albums in the privacy of their own home, however, Ed James is actually pretty talented. His debut album, the title of which invited the listener to Meet Ed James! , introduced the power pop community to a guy who knows his way around a pop hook.

He’s also not scared to blatantly play to the significant percentage of the power pop community who likes to make a good mix disc, because, for the second album in a row, he’s led things off with a song that’s clearly designed to make folks say, “Dude, I am so starting my next disc off with this!” Last time, it was “Here We Go,” and, this time, it’s “Welcome to the Show.”

The lyrics begin thusly: “Welcome to the show / Welcome to the show / So fill the empty page / And get up on the stage / Compose your symphony /And sing the harmony”. Before the song’s over, it is also suggested that the listener “get ready for the ride”.

And the ride, in case you’re wondering, is a pretty smooth one.

James draws influences from a lot of the usual suspects: the Beatles, the Who, the Raspberries, Cheap Trick, and the Rubinoos, to name but a few. You could even argue that he’s like Kyle Vincent, given that there’s a noticeable vocal similarity, but James is far less given to wallow in schmaltz.

As with any proper power pop album, one of the primary topics of conversation is the female gender. Lyrically, “Emily” could well be a sequel to the Beatles’ “She’s Leaving Home”, with its title character having left the house at 16, and Emily’s mother writing her daughter letters, saying, “I never meant to hurt you; I never meant to make you cry, and I’m so ashamed. Will we ever be the same?” There’s also a ditty about “Sister Blue”, who blames the world for everything, as well as one called “Holly Would”, which finds James going for a pun already used by Enuff Z’Nuff (“Holly Wood Ya”).

It should also be noted that a pair of the album’s tracks has already appeared elsewhere. The semi-psychedelic “Trippin’ on your Love” made its debut on International Pop Overthrow, Vol. 5, and “Rocketship” first landed on the third volume of the same series.

Poprocket is not, however, without its faults. As with his debut, it takes a pretty serious sweet tooth to be able to make it all the way through this album. Sure, the songs are all pretty short and sweet, and, taken individually, every single one of them is as catchy as all get-out, but, taken as a whole, if you’re not particularly smitten with sugary concoctions, you’ll be suffering from burnout long before “December Girl” closes out the proceedings.

Also, the rhymes tend toward the moon / spoon / June variety on quite a few occasions, though, thankfully, this isn’t something consistent throughout the album. “Selling Out”, in particular, scores with a great line about how “now everybody has a cost / And even Robert Frost / Would change the path that he’d taken”.

It might be nice if James considered working with someone else once in awhile, if only to expand his sound a bit. The double-tracked harmonies sound great, but, since the only voice is James’s, it results in several of the tracks blending into each other without leaving a whole lot to remember them by.

Ed James has been the star of many a pop compilation, and there’s little doubt that he’ll maintain that reputation; it’s not that anything on Poprocket is bad; it’s just a lot to take in at one sitting.