Smoking Popes hailed from Chicago, wrote smart, delicately melodic powerpop, made deceptively simply “punky” chords sound sweet, and this is their tribute.
Some good names here, and some of the stuff that makes my skin crawl, but others may have the list the other way around, so that makes this a good comp.
Can you imagine Curtis Mayfield or Lenny Kravitz settling for a vocal that simply matched the guitar? We’d’ve been denied melodies we belt out on road trips.