Originally released in 1970, the first solo album by Emitt Rhodes is pitch-perfect power pop, entirely written and performed by Rhodes himself. Released in the same year as Paul McCartney's first solo album, to whom Rhodes bears a striking resemblnce both in sound and one-man-band production, Rhodes' self-titled debut stirred up some critical praise and audience attention, but that was quickly batted down by bad marketing and a from-the-shelf release by a competing label.

Rhodes released some subsequant work, which was met with nothing but an echo and some settling dust, so, soul-crushed at the age of 23, Rhodes unplugged the four-track and hasn't recorded since. Now, as Paul McCartney plays in front of 6 bazillion football fans (and actually sounding pretty good, which is a smal reparation for that awful "freedom" song), Rhodes has fallen into total obscurity, out of print and out of luck.

Film auteur/ mix tape expert Wes Anderson did his best to give Rhodes his propers when he got home by including the lovely "Lullabye" in The Royal Tenenbaums, but it wasn't nearly enough to admonish

the bitter, ironic boot that fate has planted so firmly in the recesses of Mr. Rhodes' ass. Seriously, the guy is good.

If you know the song "Lullabye", then you know how good. But you haven't heard "Promises I've Made", one of the best power pop songs of the seventies, written before the decade had even started. There are a number of gems here, as good as anything critic-lovejuice-soaked Big Star has done, better than much of Sir Paul's post-Beatles work (except for Ram, which is fantastic), so good it makes the world seem cruel and unfair. It's the Nick Drake story with a more depressing ending, because Rhodes has had to live with obscurity for more than thirty years. So here's what you do- you find the album (downloading it is probably easiest, the album is out-of-print and hard-to-find and Rhodes never made much money off of it in the first place), learn it, love it, spread it around until it's the new calling card for the cool club, or it finds its way to a car commercial or The O.C. or something, and then the album will finally get rereleased and Rhodes will get the respect he deserves. It's the 'adopt-a-pop-genius' plan, so get to work!

Chad Schell-McGaw