Artist: Mark Bacino Title: Pop Job Catalog#: Parasol-CD-023 Price: $7.50 CD Vinyl LP with an exclusive bonus track, a new version of "Inside". Only $7.50	Tracks on this CD:
	Wonder
	Baby Won't Come Down
	Kay
	Keep Me Awake
	Inside
	Diggin' That Girl
	Past Tense
	One Week Away
	Gone
	Sugary
	Maybe Someday
	"The Hidden Track"

Other releases by Mark Bacino
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Mark Bacino-Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Piano
Guest Vocalists: Michael Shelley & Willie Wisely

Pop Job…The Long Player!

Amongst the din of today's "alternative" sound, it's refreshing to hear an artist whose music truly emphasizes the "POP" in contemporary pop music. Twenty-nine year old singer/songwriter Mark Bacino is such an artist. With a musical style that draws, not from angst, but from an obsession with melody Mark says, "The first thing I think about is the song. I love catchy melodies; and if people don't go away humming the songs after the first listen, then I haven't done the job right."

Someone's doing his job right…

Writing pop songs for close to fifteen years, Mark's knack for the "hook" is unique amongst his contemporaries. Guided by the pop muses of the mid-to-late '60s, Mark's songs continue in the tradition of pop's favorite songwriters.

The studio is where Mark's songs truly begin to "pop 'n' glow…"

Radio friendly; Mark's studio productions achieve a sheen and polish without losing the humanity and spark that make a record a classic. The intricate background vocals on tracks such as "Inside" and "Gone" perfectly complement the relaxed feel of the rhythm section and the jangle of the guitars.

Prone to perfecting each and every nuance in his music, Mark is foiled by his present producers Richard Brukner and Ron Zabrocki who insist on keeping takes as loose as possible while still maintaining Mark's melodic and harmonic punch.

It's the voice though…

Although Mark is a skilled multi-instrumentalist (guitar, piano, bass, etc.), his voice proves to be his most versatile instrument. There are as many as 15 simultaneous vocal tracks (all sung by Mark alone) adorning the aforementioned recordings. Time consuming but worth it.

So…

If you're a consummate or casual fan of pop music and catchy melodies, give Mark a listen and be prepared to "go away humming the songs" but also be prepared to come back…wanting more.

Reviews for Mark Bacino’s Pop Job...the Long Player CD

Shake It Up

Pure Pop Website
by Alan Haber

Mark Bacino / Mark Bacino's Pop Job...the Long Player!
Parasol, 1998

Sporting an extremely welcome, unrelenting, sunny disposition and outright cheery approach, an abundance of oohs, aahs, handclaps, and do-do-dos, and clearly the biggest bubble gum bubble ever emblazoned on an album cover, Mark Bacino’s Pop Job…the Long Player! is a confectioner’s piece de resistance: an 11 song sweet treat of bubblegum pop that clocks in at 27:50, neither ends nor goes on a millisecond longer than necessary, and has inspired perhaps the longest opening sentence to a best-of-the-year entry known to man. Featuring the entirety of his 1997 Pop Job EP, Pop Job…the Long Player! simply offers more Bacino, which is a good thing, indeed. Not a scintilla of sound is wasted. Harmonic and melodic to the max, this is the real deal: a true pure pop album for the ages. And bubble gummy at that. Sing and smile along if you dare.

BIG O
By Kevin Mathews

MARK BACINO - POP JOB ... THE LONG PLAYER (PARASOL)
Wonder, Baby Won't Come Down & ten more.

If the finest examples of classic pop are all about uplifting the soul, energizing the spirit and putting smiles on faces, then Mark Bacino gets the job done. Or in this case, I should say - the Pop Job. Bacino's debut album may be short on length (clocking in under 30 minutes) but long on quality. And so songs like the sublimely tuneful Wonder, poignant Past Tense (a tribute to Bacino's late father) and the bubbly Kay, amongst others, will have you enthralled and hooked in no time with their unbridled melodic charm, shameless lack of affectation and pop smarts. (7.5)

Shake It Up
By Claudio Sossi

Mark Bacino
Pop Job...The Long Player - Parasol Records

What was an extremely promising career launched by a four song EP has now turned into a full-fledged realization of pure talent. Mark Bacino's Pop Job...The Long Player was indeed one of 1998's more anticipated projects, and this is a case of a promise being more than fulfilled. There's a familiarity that rings throughout Pop Job...The Long Player and it is that familiarity that makes it so endearing. The melodies here are strong and quite addictive. If Bacino's agenda was to write a set of songs that one would only have to listen to only once in order to know it intimately, then he has succeeded. The four tracks from the aforementioned EP (entitled Pop Job) are represented here, working well within the new framework supplied by seven additional tracks. Keep Me Awake, with it's joyful tone and charming lyrics, is the highlight here followed closely by the exuberant Inside with its great chorus. Gone ends up standing out as one of the more daring arrangements with its disjointed rhythm and slight jazzy feel. Maybe Someday serves as the closer here - a swaggering rhythm and lovely piano making it quite effective as such. What Bacino represents on the remaining tracks is not "more of the same", but rather an extension of the spirit that brought these for tracks to life. Baby Won't Come Down features a lovely arrangement that features Michael Shelley countering on the chorus. The two very different vocal styles probably shouldn't work but somehow they do. Diggin' That Girl finds Willie Wisely supplying backing vocals on a great clapalong evocative of bubblegum's finest moments (competing with the wonderful, if too short, Kay). Past Tense gives Bacino to go in otherwise unrepresented territory for him - a soulful ballad. He supplies an effective and almost whispered vocal here, making it a perfect "slow-dance" number (these waters were indeed tested!). One Week Away is another vocal highlight, with Bacino convincing of the anticipation within. The fuzzy guitar solo works perfectly here as well. Easily one of 1998's finest releases, Pop Job...The Long Player skillfully accomplishes what it's predecessor did - and that is wanting to hear more. Soon.

LUKE
By DK

Mark Bacino
Pop Job... The Long Player
Parasol

Originally released as an EP, the response was so positive that Mark Bacino was picked up by Parasol and put in the studio to record another seven tracks: Pop Job... The Long Player was born. It's an accomplished piece of work, if a little on the short side, and one that indicates that Bacino undoubtedly has an affinity with some of the better pop writers (Macca, Bell, Von Sneidern, etc.) of the past 20 and 30 years. In fact, as you've probably guessed from the title, this is an LP that really is pure pop. Sure, it still retains a certain urgency but any rough edges that may have been present were long ago smoothed out and replaced with hooks, melody and some fantastic harmonies, all courtesy of the main man. It's a charmer and an absolute must for all pop-pickers! (8)

Mark Bacino / Pop Job... The Long Player
Parasol Records, 1998
By David Bash November 1998

Amidst the wealth of great pop music out there these days, only a handful of artists truly succeed in recapturing the carefree simplicity of songs like "Happy Together," "Windy," or for that matter, "That Thing You Do." Mark Bacino has slid into that select group with his debut CD, Mark Bacino’s Pop Job…The Long Player. Bacino has the gift that some of the best songwriters of the 60s had; he touches a special place from our youth with a dozen short, bright, soulful pop songs, and he does it with unabashed elan. If you can listen to tracks like "Wonder," "Baby Won’t Come Down," "Inside," and "Diggin’ That Girl" without smiling, nodding your head, and tapping your feet, you must be flat lining. Bacino wears more than one hat on this debut album, four songs of which appeared on an EP last year: he pulls off the smooth early 70s-like soul-ish ballad "Past Tense," the jazzy, Costello-ish "Gone," and the glammy yet appropriately sweet "Sugary." The best track here, "Kay," says it all in two minutes, celebrating being in love as purely as any song ever has, with loads of ahs, handclaps, and "ba ba bas" adding an exclamation point to the gushing lyrics. Mark Bacino’s Pop Job…The Long Player is one of the best albums of the year, but heed these words of Dr. Bash -- Warning: this album has been shown to affect your memory, because one listen will make you forget all your problems.

Mark Bacino
Pop Job…the Long Player
(Parasol)
by Bill Holmes

When you consider the number of artists trying to stuff seventy-plus minutes onto a CD, it’s ironic that something referred to as a "long player" would clock in at a mere twenty-seven. But just like the term "long player" is reminiscent of another era, so is the fruit of Bacino’s radar. Like a long lost slab of classic vinyl, Pop Job is eleven three-minute hit singles gathered for your enjoyment. Twenty-nine year old Bacino was born after the era of sugary pop singles but somehow was drawn there anyway. A multi-instrumentalist who has been writing songs since his mid-teens, he has a knack for nailing a hummable melody. The musicianship is solid but uncomplicated, giving the spotlight to the song’s hook and the impressive vocal arrangements - some tracks have fifteen layered vocals! Willie Wisely and Michael Shelley, two other guys who know what a hook is, share vocals on a track apiece. Summer and girls and love and broken hearts abound in "Kay", "Keep Me Awake" and "One Week Away", and the stunning "Sugary" almost jumps off the disc with its crunchy guitars and "doo-doo-doo-doo" chorus. The slow dance beauty of "Past Tense" sounds like a collaboration between Brian Wilson and Smokey Robinson, and Rubinoos fans will do a double-take when hearing "Maybe Someday" and the majestic "Diggin’ That Girl". It’s impossible to listen to Pop Job without smiling, let alone singing along. How could you not be in a good mood after listening to this? For pop fans, a serious contender for the best release of 1998.