The John Sally Ride: Melomaniacs

New York power pop band The John Sally Ride made a concept album of sorts. Melomaniacs gives a thumbs up to all people who fell in love and spend as much time as they can listening and organizing. His Record Collection sums it up quite nicely: "When he got his allowance he would save every cent // Only at the record store is where it was spent // Now he’s an adult and things are mostly the same // An obsession he could never tame".

The band's songwriter John Dunbar is quite possibly one of them himself, but he can distance him from it to write about with a mix of humour, wonderment and compassion. Nobody in his right mind would call Everybody's in Show-Biz a high point in their discography, but it is for someone who saw the cover in the record store and made it His First Kinks Album. A fan can become a hater almost overnight in She's Breaking Up With The Band and a well-written review could be the gateway to discovering an act or style you were not aware of (God Bless The Music Press).

JSR: The Other Women

For quite a lot of women, it really sucks that their first name was used for a popular song. People will keep mentioning all the time, wondering aloud if their parents named them after said tune and even going as far as singing a bit of it too (quite badly most of the time). For ten of those affected, NYC musician John Dunbar wrote an alternative track for his new album The Other Women.

The horrendous Kiss song Christine Sixteen was updated to Christine Sixty, who has aged quite well, but takes shit from nobody. Sweet Caroline is replaced by the way cool alternative Mean Caroline, and the Beach Boys' Help Me Ronda is now reimbursed for all her hard work when the singer offers to help her out instead. Pink Floyd's Emily is now longer playing. She has grown up is now and is working in an office, blissfully unaware of the crush one her co-workers has on her. Dunbar mostly navigates through '70s-tinged pop for his alternate versions, gravitating to rock for the frankly quite hilarious Sheena Is A Prog Rocker: "Sheena loves Genesis, but only until Peter Gabriel quits // Her friends don't understand, they all much prefer the later hits".