The Semantics - Powerbill (1993)

I'm a fan of the "power pop" genre, but I haven't posted much of that type of music because it seems there's a ton of music blogs specializing in power pop already. That said, I'm a particularly big fan of the singer-songwriter (Will) Owsley, and I want to post some of his material here. So it makes sense to start with his earliest stuff, when he was a member of the band the Semantics.

You may never have heard of the Semantics, because they weren't around long, and only released one album, which barely got any exposure at all. This is it. Normally, I don't post studio albums that I haven't changed in any way. But I'm posting this because it's way too obscure, and deserves a lot more exposure. It was finished and ready to be released in 1993, but their record company refused to put it out, since it was swimming against the tide of grunge music dominating rock music at the time. It did officially get released three years later, but only in Japan, and to very little notice there. It went out of print even there two years later.

So who were the Semantics? You can read more about them at their Wikipedia entry, here:

The Semantics - Wikipedia

Here's my summary. There were three members of the band at the time this album was released: Owsley, Millard Powers, and Zak Starkey. Starkey, a drummer, is the son of none other than Ringo Starr of the Beatles. His music career was just starting at this time, but he would go on to drum for the Who, Oasis, and many other bands. Owsley and Powers were both talented singers and songwriters. Some of the songs here are written and sung by one of them and others by the other one, but I don't know which is which.

If you like catchy power pop in the style of Jellyfish or the Posies (and I definitely do - both bands will be featured on this blog eventually), then you really need to check out this album. I think it's a lost classic.

Note that one song here, "Coming Up Roses," would later appear in a different version on Owsley's first solo album in 1999.

This album is 36 minutes long.

01 Sticks and Stones (Semantics)
02 Future for You (Semantics)
03 Coming Up Roses (Semantics)
04 Jenny Won't Play Fair (Semantics)
05 Average American (Semantics)
06 Don't Say Goodbye (Semantics)
07 The Sky Is Falling (Semantics)
08 Black and Blue (Semantics)
09 Johnny Come Lately (Semantics)
10 Life Goes On (Semantics)
11 Glasses and Braces (Semantics)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15271766/TSmantcs_1993_Powrbill_atse.zip.html

The cover is just the official cover. However, I had a hard time reading the band name in the middle, because the letters were purple and surrounded by more purple. I darkened the purple around the letters to make them more legible.