Fort Wayne’s own singer-songwriter Kevin Hambrick has been working hard writing and recording songs. 

For more than two decades, Hambrick has been putting out music under his own name, as well being the frontman and main songwriter for The Orange Opera. In both roles he writes songs that have origins in a lifetime of listening to bands like The Beatles, Robyn Hitchcock, and Big Star, artists that helped define power pop. 

In July, Hambrick released Refill, Part 1, a collection of tracks written and recorded but never released. Not that these weren’t worthy of a proper release, it’s just that sometimes you end up having leftover songs that aren’t stylistically compatible for a particular batch of songs. Or, releasing a double album isn’t in the cards. 

Hambrick is a pretty prolific musician, so of course we now have Refill, Part 2. 

We open up with the quiet and jittery “Hit Where It Hurts (mellow version),” an acoustic-led track that has Hambrick’s vocals front and center accompanied by his impeccable guitar-playing and what sounds like a farfisa organ. “Wired Mind” buzzes and sizzles with distorted guitar and a White Album spirit, ala “Sexy Sadie.” It’s a beautifully buzzing track.

Hambrick covers a lot of sonic ground on this collection. From the dusty and sinister “Sorry I Said (mellow version)” to the soulful and organ-led “Killing Time” to the sorrowful “Looney Bin,” Hambrick shows off masterful songwriting and a knack for pop melodicism. Two highlights here are the Midwestern pop melancholy of “Boy From Indiana” and album closer “End of the Year,” which lays on a layer of dreamy vocal harmonies and plenty of reminiscing and pop majesty.

Refill, Part 1 and Part 2 are an incredibly solid set of tracks, a journal entry written as perfect pop tomes, leading the way to a Hambrick album coming sooner rather than later.