Note: this is an archived copy of Paul Routenburg's excellent Killed By Hype site which was previously located at http://plaza.powersurfr.com/paul/punk.html and http://ca.geocities.com/kbd77@rogers.com/punk.html. It contains a lot of great information about punk records so I decided to keep it alive here after the demise of GeoCities.

The Powerpearls Series

This series focuses on powerpop rather than punk though a few of the tracks featured would not be out of place on a punk compilation. The first two volumes are rather wimpy, lots of pop without much power behind it. Vol. 3 is better and maybe the one to get. Maybe the reason for this series is to get Japanese collectors to pay even more for mediocre records?

[ Volume 1 ] [ Volume 2 ] [ Volume 3 ] [ Volume 4 ] [ Volume 5 ] [ Volume 6 ] [ Volume 7 ] [ Volume 8 ] [ Volume 9 ]


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Powerpearls Volume 1

A few good tracks (Bureaucrats, Straight Up, Fastbacks, Rousers, Tweed) otherwise this is pretty wimpy stuff. There are better mod and powerpop records out there to choose from I think.
Rating: 6.5 (it would be lower if not for the Bureaucrats track).

Powerpearls Volume 2

Mostly average pop. Moderns, Kollaa Kestaa, Ratsia are good but not too much else really excited me.
Rating: 6.5.

Powerpearls Volume 3

Third time's the charm. Most of the tracks here are very good powerpop, some of them bordering on good punk. Seventeen, UXB, Problems?, Testors, Blitzz, Goteborg Sound, Donkeys plus others make this worth having. Replace several tracks here with the better ones from the first 2 volumes and you'd have a great LP.
Rating: 8.

Powerpearls Volume 4

About all this will do is make more lame $5 - 10 records into $50+ records. A handful of good tracks (Tunnelrunners, Fingers, Blue Peter, Vice Creems, Strate Jacket) and some lame to average filler. If the guy who did this would have included the other 2 Fingers tracks it would have been much more worthwhile.
Rating: 6.5 (lower if the Fingers hadn't been included).

Powerpearls Volume 5

Pretty consistent selection of slightly above average powerpop. Dagen D and Rotjoch (two that I've never heard of before), the Young Lords and a couple others are the best here. The best tracks from this LP and the previous 4 in the series could be condensed down into one great LP.
Rating: 7.

Powerpearls Volume 6

You should know what to expect from this series by now. Doubt are really good, so are White Heat. A bunch of others are OK and a couple are quite lame. The bands from Japan and Portugal aren't that good, just very obscure. Interesting for just that I guess.
Rating: 7.

Powerpearls Volume 7

One of the better volumes of the series so far. Consistently good set of tracks (except for the awful Rudies track). Rottweiler and Riptides are maybe the best here.
Rating: 8.

Powerpearls Volume 8

We internet music and compilation critics are so hard to please! There's not that much wimpy pop here. Mostly worthwhile powerpop along with some shitty new wave crap with moronic lyrics like the Transistors thrown in. I'm not really sure that things like Fingerprintz or Rudi really belong here. They aren't bad, they're just not particurlarly rare.
Rating: 8.

Powerpearls Volume 9

Overall pretty good. Side 2 is consistently better than Side 1. It was nice to finally hear something from Ail Symudiad after seeing their records go for big $$ on eBay.
Rating: 7.5.


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