Clive Gregson was one of the dozens of singer/songwriters who saw his chance for reaching a larger audience when the new wave scene kicked into gear in the late ’70s (there’s little arguing that it raised the bar for rock songwriting at a time when such things were sorely needed), and the first album from his group Any Trouble, Where Are All the Nice Girls?, immediately established him as a pop tunesmith of uncommon talent. As a decidedly non-heartthrob looking guy with glasses who recorded for Stiff Records, Gregson was initially tagged as an Elvis Costello rip-off. But heard today, Where Are All the Nice Girls? ironically sounds a bit more like an early Joe Jackson record, with its dry-as-dust production, hyperactive basslines (courtesy Phil Barnes) pushed up front in the mix, and Gregson’s fluid vocals, which don’t snarl so much as they beg, insinuate, or comment on the passing parade. As a lyricist, Gregson’s perspective as a regular guy done wrong by love was very much his own, and the album’s highlights — the pure pop gems “Second Choice” and “Romance,” the tougher and moodier “Playing Bogart” and “Turning Up The Heat,” and the heartbroken title cut — manage to sound intelligent and thoughtful without ever sinking into pretension, and the band tears into these songs with a lean and speedy enthusiasm that speaks of the classicism of pub rock with a healthy dose of punk firepower. Where Are All the Nice Girls? almost seems too willfully modest to earn the moniker of “overlooked classic,” but more than 20 years after its release, Any Trouble’s debut still sounds fresh, engaging, and exciting, packed with sharp tunes, clever observations, and that rare Bruce Springsteen cover that works. Anyone who loves smart, up-tempo pop with equal measures of brains and heart needs to have this album in their collection. – Mark Deming