It may not have been the hip thing to do at the time, but Shoes carried on the pure pop traditions of the Beatles and the Raspberries with a charming innocence and execution unmatched by the more derivative bands lumped into the category of power pop. After one self-recorded album and the unreleased Bazooka, enough critics and key people heard their 1977 breakthrough Black Vinyl Shoes to start a word-of-mouth buzz. A contract soon followed with Elektra, who released the group's next three, textbook power pop albums. With the instantly accessible, catchy quality of the songs, their work stands as high points of the era. By the '90s, the band's main focus was reissues, but 2012's Ignition showed Shoes were still capable of making top-shelf pop magic.