Northridge to Tulsa: The Best of Dwight Twilley, 1997-2007

Album Review

Dwight Twilley has been turning out the same brand of the Beatles-meet-Brian Wilson-meet-Tom Petty power pop for a long time now, and he's shown no signs of changing, although now his releases appear on his own or other independent labels. The sound is the same, and for fans of power pop, that's a very good thing, because Twilley does it very, very well, even if at times he does it so well that it sounds just like the last song he did. This set draws from Twilley's recorded output between 1997 and 2007, all of it originally released on small labels. It's Twilley being Twilley, and the best of these tracks have the vintage feel of his best songs. "Reach for the Sky" is lovely and positive, "It's Hard to Be a Rebel (No World" sounds like an FM radio hit from the 1980s that you somehow just never heard before, "47 Moons" is thoughtful and expansive, and "A Little Less Love" is the kind of pure power pop love song that Twilley excels at. There's also a live version of Twilley's 1975 hit "I'm on Fire" here, as well as an OK cover version of the Beatles' "Come Together." Sometimes Twilley's songs taken one after the other can start to merge into one big and endless track, but in small doses, say a song or two at a time, there's no denying his talent or skills. He's been doing this sort of thing for a very long time.