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2022 release. No one label could ever hope to claim the musical force of nature that is Anton Barbeau. For that reason among many others, Big Stir Records is simply and humbly grateful to have the astonishing Ant along for the ride and bring you his newest record, the ironically titled Power Pop!!!, as well as continuing to serve up such singles and side projects as we may. It's to be said at the outset that the title of Power Pop!!! is archly ironic: Barbeau intends the album partly as a rebuke of the self-imposed limits of the titular genre. He's not sugarcoating it, either: "Put down your guns, you culture cops, there ain't no crime like power pop" is just one of the pointed barbs in the title track (which also happens to be as filled with hooks and grooves as anything Anton's ever done). The ongoing critique is amplified in "The Sound," a driving psychedelic takedown of facile genre purism, and the garage/new wave ode to "Julian Cope," a key Anton influence and fellow iconoclast equally known for blending melody and quirk into something utterly new. But more than a sharp commentary laced with both kinds of acid, the record is very much about Anton reinventing the very wheel he's puncturing. "The concept is, early ABBA gets hipped to Krautrock, disavowing their Schlager roots. Drugs happen. Their tight, super-pop sound merged with the kosmische vibe catches the ear of young David Bowie who offers to produce their next record. They convince him to co-write and sing on the record, and the rest is alternate-history," says Ant. "Can't say I lived up to that, but out of noble ambitions grow tiny Raspberries, I suppose!" No mere broadside, Power Pop!!! sees Anton Barbeau charting his own path forward as always, inviting the adventurous pop-rock fans of the world to follow. It's a work so unfettered by genre constraints that it can only be seen as our Ant's next leap, with much to offer to longtime fans and newcomers alike.