Those are two good ones. I wouldn't call "Alex Chilton" power pop either. It just rocks too hard.

If I were forced to pick the greatest power pop song I might go with something by Elvis Costello or maybe "Go All The Way", which might be the greatest rock song of any kind.

I hadn't really ever seriously listened to "Go All the Way" until you mentioned it in a list of your favorite songs here some years ago. You are right--it's pretty close to flawless.

"Stacy's Mom" and "Just What I Needed" are great choices, too.

Some of my other favorites include:

"Renee Remains the Same", Material Issue
"Surrender", Cheap Trick
"Letter from an Occupant", New Pornographers
"What You Do to Me," Teenage Fanclub
"Let's Go", The Cars
"Bright Future in Sales", Fountains of Wayne
"Mexican Wine", Fountains of Wayne

That whole "Welcome, Interstate Managers album by Fountains of Wayne is really good. I love the way they blend the power pop musical aesthetic with their interest in white collar proletarianization.

Camper Van Beethoven sounds like one of my German cousins.

Highly misleading URL.

Here's a funny little story about how Girlfriend might have never come to be if A&M were good at their job.
https://superiorshit.blogspot.com/2020/01/matthew-sweet-and-peter-frampton-fucked.html

That Vixen song is bad, really bad.

That's a good blog, I've been enjoying the archives. Can't agree with his shots at Loveless and Being There, though.

Camper caught on, or at least seemed to, on college campuses.

Cracker was a bigger part of the zeitgeist. Right time, right place, right lyrics, right sound. I always liked them, though they seemed a bit interchangeable with every other band.

Technically Sugar is a much bigger band than Husker Du

Based on the gloriousness that is the BEASTER EP.
Man, that shit still holds up today.

I don't know, man. I've never been a big Hüsker fan, but they made some important records.

I could never get past the thin sounding drums of Husker. It's like the aural equivalent of standing water.

I'm being completely biased. I know who / what Husker Du was....couldn't tell you a single song.
Sugar's Beaster and Copper Blue were staples of my college years. Those are masterpieces. Likely sold more in terms of records, but I can see where Husker Du was more influential to a lot of other bands.

One thing for sure....Bob Mould is in my underrated hall of fame.

I think a lot depends on when you were exposed to Mould's work. I came in during the 90's and think Copper Blue is an absolute masterpiece. I then branched out and bought Zen Arcade during the mid aughts and listened to it about three times. It seemed almost completely tuneless, and just sounded like noise. However, if I was 16 in 1984 and heard it then, it might have sheared the top of my head off.

I could never get past the thin sounding drums of Husker. It's like the aural equivalent of standing water.

He's always been an xrt darling. I never liked him much. Not my thing.

I saw Mould do a one man acoustic show at Illinois Wesleyan...it was somewhere in between Copper Blue / Beaster and File Under Easy Listening.

He was nothing short of amazing.

Like I said, I was never a big fan of Hüsker and I wasn't really sure why. They were a band you were supposed to like. I don't care for Mould's voice. It's obvious that he has some strong melodies in mind but he's physically incapable of executing them. And I guess their earnestness vis-a-vis the clownishness of the Replacements was off-putting. I was a clown myself. So it was hard to dig Serious Bob. But I didn't realize how weak the drum sound was until you posted this and then I heard one of their songs on Sirius yesterday.