Review: Paul Collins' power pop propels 'Out of My Head'

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Review: Paul Collins' power pop propels 'Out of My Head'

2018-09-26 00:41 Last Updated At：10:23

Paul Collins, "Out of My Head" (Alive Naturalsound Records)

New York-born Paul Collins has been carrying the torch of power pop for decades in bands like The Nerves and The Beat as well as a lengthy solo career. In just 33 minutes, "Out of My Head" completes an 11-stop journey that's loaded with melodies and hooks that make it one of the most enchanting records in his catalog.

Collins sings, plays guitars and drums and is assisted mainly by bassist Paul Stingo, who also adds delightful supporting vocals.

The jagged guitar solo on "In and Out of My Head," the opening track, mirrors the confusion of someone who is trapped in feelings from a past still haunting the present. Blink and you'll miss "Go," 95 seconds of energetic drums and strums backing a typically adolescent lyric that any heartbroken adult could sing, too.

In a curious case of coincidence, or something else, there are three songs in row each lasting 2:23 — the "Kind of Girl" could play as Charlie Brown makes another failed attempt to approach the Little Red-Haired Girl; "Just Too Bad You're Leaving" has a perfectly melancholy melody; and "Emily" applies gentle Hollies-like harmonies to a theme of uncertainty and ambiguity.

"You Belong to Me" describes an obsession with possession, and the noir-ish, bass-driven "Killer Inside" disturbingly suggests we're all walking around with one within us.

There's a more reflective approach on the last three songs, a sudden power cut that may have been more effective had "Lost Again," ''Tick Tock" and "Beautiful Eyes" been interspersed among the faster ones.

"Out of My Head" could have been recorded anytime over the past 50 years and it's a blast that Collins is still making albums like it today.

The Kennedy Center has added Trump's name to the memorial Congress created for John F. Kennedy

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Kennedy Center on Friday quickly added Donald Trump's name to the performing arts center Congress designated as a living memorial to John F. Kennedy, a day after the center's board of trustees voted to make the change.

Blue tarps were hung in front of the building to obscure workers on scaffolding as they executed the transformation. Hours later it had a new name: The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.

The board of trustees, handpicked by Trump, voted unanimously Thursday to add his name to what was enshrined as a living memorial to the Democratic president. Trump, a Republican, also is the board's chairman.

Critics of the vote, including Democratic members of Congress who are ex-officio board members, as well as some historians, insist that only Congress can change the name.

“The Kennedy Center was named by law. To change the name would require a revision of that 1964 law,” Ray Smock, a former House historian, said in an email. “The Kennedy Center board is not a lawmaking entity. Congress makes laws.”

Congress named the performing arts center as a living memorial to Kennedy in 1964, the year after he was assassinated. The law explicitly prohibits the board of trustees from making the center into a memorial to anyone else, and from putting another person's name on the building's exterior.

Some Kennedy family members oppose the renaming.

The Kennedy Center is the latest building in Washington to have Trump's name added to it. The U.S. Institute of Peace was recently renamed after him.

The Kennedy Center did not respond to an emailed request for comment Friday.

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AP National Writer Hillel Italie in New York contributed to this report.