SMITH & HAYES - Changed By A Song

Please PAY ATTENTION. 90% of you are going to love, love, love Smith & Hayes. This is just why we do this, period. Finding lost, unknown artists and giving them a platform to connect with people like you. That these 12 songs have such a competent ELO/Jeff Lynne influence is reason enough for many of you, but there`s plenty of 10cc(listen to Track #2), early solo McCartney, David Grahame(hope he comes back!) and all kinds of post-Beatley musings.

Here`s another great review from AbsolutePowerPopBlog that says it better than I and even pokes a bit of fun at me(bring it on! Yeah!): "I like to kid quite a bit about some of Bruce Brodeen`s catchphrases on Not Lame, such as the variations of "highly recommended" that he uses. Another one he uses quite a bit is "major find", when unearthing an obscure or older title that should have received more publicity (and he does a fine job in that department). Anyway, "major find" is the phrase that kept coming to mind after listening to Smith and Hayes` Changed by a Song, because this is a major find for fans of David Grahame, and by extension Emmit Rhodes and McCartney. (In fact, I almost broke out the siren again, but I don`t want to overuse it.) Like Grahame, Clay Smith and Bill Hayes are music business pros who know their way around a song as well as around a studio. The title track kicks off the festivities, and it`s a fine tune with great harmonies and Revolveresque guitars. Next up is another standout - the Wilburyish "You Be The World". But things really go to another level with "Nothing But Love", a slow-building ballad that Grahame fans will do a cartwheel over (and which features a timpani). Other standouts include "Before You Know It", cut from the same cloth as "Nothing But Love"; "Directions Are Inside", which gives off a bit of a Rutles vibe; "Child of Yesterday", which features the best middle eight on the disc; and the Nines-ish "Last Thing I Do". And you even get a "Her Majesty"-like closer with "It Must Be Love", strummed on a ukelele on what sounds like an old scratchy 78. There isn`t a bad track on the entire disc, and someone`s going to have make room in my top 20, if not top 10, for this one on the year-end list."

It`s just simple, if you listen to the tracks below and say to yourself, "These blow, what on earth are these guys talking about?!", well, you really are in the wrong place and h ave better things to do with your time. For the rest of us, get down, get with it and bring this baby home to roost in your life, now.

Song #1 - mp3

Song #2 - mp3

Song #3 - mp3

Song #4 - mp3

Song #5 - mp3