Early review of the new POSIES CD - Every Kind Of Light
Amazon.co.uk Review
Absence makes the heart grow fonder and seven years in exile has done precious little to wilt the efflorescent flair of Washington state power-pop stalwarts The Posies. The band's comeback studio album Every Kind Of Light - composed, rehearsed and demoed in a knee-jerkingly vibrant 21 day period in early 2004 - certainly rekindles the old flame. While mainstays Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow have extended the songwriting mandate to include new recruits Matt Harris and Darius Minwalla, this germinal four-way democracy hasn't contorted the band's traditional symmetry. Thus, Every Kind Of Light balances the soft-focus rock and Brit-Invasion tunesmithery of yesteryear although the reflexive three-week recording surge has left a song like "That Don't Fly" a little more exposed than more deliberation would have afforded. On the other hand, the hastened circumstances indicate that the more superlative facets of The Posies come entirely naturally. Who would deny that "Conversations" - a stealthy, swooning, timid but climactically high-tensile ballad - is one of the greatest things to bear their name. Or that "I Finally Found A Jungle I Like" parallels the swashbuckling hubris of The Who's machinery-trashing adolescence. Or even that Ken Stringfellow's REM activities have rubbed off of him in the nicest possible fashion. The Posies are back - with a bouquet. --Kevin Maidment
Absence makes the heart grow fonder and seven years in exile has done precious little to wilt the efflorescent flair of Washington state power-pop stalwarts The Posies. The band's comeback studio album Every Kind Of Light - composed, rehearsed and demoed in a knee-jerkingly vibrant 21 day period in early 2004 - certainly rekindles the old flame. While mainstays Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow have extended the songwriting mandate to include new recruits Matt Harris and Darius Minwalla, this germinal four-way democracy hasn't contorted the band's traditional symmetry. Thus, Every Kind Of Light balances the soft-focus rock and Brit-Invasion tunesmithery of yesteryear although the reflexive three-week recording surge has left a song like "That Don't Fly" a little more exposed than more deliberation would have afforded. On the other hand, the hastened circumstances indicate that the more superlative facets of The Posies come entirely naturally. Who would deny that "Conversations" - a stealthy, swooning, timid but climactically high-tensile ballad - is one of the greatest things to bear their name. Or that "I Finally Found A Jungle I Like" parallels the swashbuckling hubris of The Who's machinery-trashing adolescence. Or even that Ken Stringfellow's REM activities have rubbed off of him in the nicest possible fashion. The Posies are back - with a bouquet. --Kevin Maidment
posted by Future Sounds at 9:21 AM
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