Even if you’re not a devotee of vintage power pop, you’re two degrees of separation from Paul Collins if you’ve heard Blondie’s “Hanging on the Telephone,” a cover of the 1974 tune by Collins’ early band The Nerves. He assembled The Beat in 1977, eventually embarking on a solo career in the early '90s. By the late '00s he'd re-formed The Beat, officially known as The Paul Collins Beat. The 2008 album Ribbon of Gold gives the self-proclaimed “King of Power Pop” back his crown with a bold return to the skinny-tie sound. The bouncy “Hey DJ” opens with a shimmering jangle and the kind of barbed song hooks that latch onto you for days on end. (It was actually written in the '70s but not recorded for 30 years.) The title track is an admirably impassioned tune, musing on the past without getting overly maudlin or tragically nostalgic. While Collins’ songs still resonate with those gold sounds of yore, he’s not lost in his heyday. Both “I Still Want You” and “Fallin in Love” are laudable indie-rock numbers.