Most musicians who die at the age of 41 are mourned for the lost potential of their careers. That wasn't really the case with
Phil Seymour -- the small but vital body of work he left behind when he passed in 1993 made it clear he was a major talent as a singer, musician, and recording artist, and his gifts and his drive were never in question. The tragedy was that he never had the commercial success he deserved thanks to the vagaries of the music business, and he was one of the few acts of the late-'70s/early-'80s power pop scene who truly had the stuff to be a real-deal rock star without compromising himself.
Prince of Power Pop is a 24-song collection that combines a sampling of
Seymour's solo work with a previously unreleased live-in-the-studio session, in which he and his band tear through 11 songs with plenty of fire and passion. The first 13 tracks hit the high points of
Seymour's studio work after he left
the Dwight Twilley Band to strike out on his own, and though the very '80s production bogs down some of the tunes, one listen leaves no doubt that
Seymour was a first-rate rock & roll singer. It was practically impossible to drown out the energy and spirit
Seymour could generate in front of a mike, and it's hard to fathom how tracks as good as "How About You" and "Don't Blow Your Life Away" failed to find a place on radio (the fact he recorded for not one but two record labels that went out of business in mid-release doubtless had a lot to do with it). As for the 11-song demo session that closes out the set, the audio is a bit scruffy in spots, but the band is tight and emphatic (even making sense of the faux-reggae of "Fade Away") and
Seymour is on fire, merging a power pop song sense with rock & roll energy as well as anyone this side of
Robin Zander. If lymphoma hadn't stalled his career and claimed his life, it's anyone's guess if
Phil Seymour would have become the rock star he deserved to be. But
Prince of Power Pop is an impressive introduction to his music that demonstrates the man never dogged it when the recording light switched on -- he was nearly always at the top of his game, and for ability and execution, few of his era could match him. ~ Mark Deming
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