Blue Ash - No More, No Less (Reissue) (1973/2008)

Hailing from Ohio just like the Raspberries, Blue Ash are the great forgotten power pop band of the early '70s. Actually, "forgotten" may be too strong a word, for any power pop fan worth their salt knows of Blue Ash even if they've never to score either of their two LPs, whether in their original pressing or traded on cassette or CD-R. They were known as one of the key early power pop bands, standing alongside the Raspberries and Badfinger in how they drew equally from the Beatles and the Who. If anything, Blue Ash leaned on that Who influence harder than the Raspberries, rocking a vigor rarely heard in power pop and also opening themselves up to the lyrical vistas of Bob Dylan by covering the rarity "Dusty Old Fairgrounds," a move rarely made by power poppers. All this indicates that Blue Ash were a rock band first and foremost, placing the sheer rush of sound over hooks, something that a lot of their progeny never did. That's what gives their debut No More No Less -- finally reissued by Collectors Choice in 2008, a full 35 years after its release -- such a punch: they are one of the few groups that truly put some power in their pop. This much is evident by the raucous album-opener "Abracadabra (Have You Seen Her)," a song with all the melodic rush of "Go All the Way" but leaner and meaner. Not all of the album keeps up at this same furious pace, as the guitars jangle as much as they roar and the group occasionally dips into a loping country-rock groove -- not on the Dylan cover, which again sounds a bit like the Who, but on "Just Another Game" -- and they do get sunbleached and mellow on "What More Can I Do." But most of No More No Less filters old-time rock & roll (the big-time boogie "Let There Be Rock") and '60s guitar pop ("Plain to See" evokes the Searchers, "I Remember a Time" the Byrds, and "Anytime at All" is a Beatles cover) through the outsized amplification of '70s hard rock. It's an addictive sound -- and one that hinted at the power pop that was to come even if it didn't directly influence it -- and it still carries a mighty punch all these years later.