Proud garage-rockers through the heydays of Eighties synth-pop and Nineties grunge, New Jersey's Smithereens have kept it going, seemingly determined to be the Platonic ideal of a grizzled bar band that you might find in Anytown, USA. Lately they've been releasing tribute cover LPs, among them a muscular, scarily-accurate remake of Meet The Beatles, and an airtight version of the Who's Tommy that might out-rock Roger Daltrey's Who-less touring version this summer. But this set of originals shows that they're more than just a tribute act: They've internalized the lessons of their models, and still crunch harder than most of the power-pop acts they get filed alongside. "Sorry" is a cross between late Sixties London and late Seventies New York City. "One Look At You" chimes like the Byrds; "As Long As You Are Near Me" is a mid-tempo rocker recalling early Elvis Costello or Nick Lowe, with some vintage AM-radio vocal hooks sprinkled on top. You may not remember the tunes clearly in the morning. But good nights with a bar band are like that.

“Everyday People”

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.