The Posies: Blood/Candy (Rykodisc, 2010)
I love The Posies. They will always hold the #1 position on my imaginary the best bands in the world -list. Sure they have some great challengers like Teenage Fanclub, The Beatles, Big Star, The Zombies, but still… I don’t need a tie-break to choose the winner. It will always be The Posies. After all, I haven’t listened to anything else half as much as I’ve listened to The Posies.
The new The Posies album Blood/Candy is finally here and the band is still in great form. Not that I ever expected anything else, because I really enjoyed Every Kind Of Light as well. I think it’s almost criminally unappreciated album and contains a bunch of wonderful songs. However, if I’m honest and of course I need to be, I was slightly disappointed with Blood/Candy during the first few days that we lived together. I instantly loved most of the songs. Take Care Of Yourself, The Glitter Prize, So Caroline, Notion 99, She’s Coming Down Again.. were just fantastic songs, but somehow the overall feel of the record, the arrangements and the production didn’t completely satisfy me. Basicly I thought it just needed a little more distortion, a little less sophisticated arrangements and a little more pure rock’n’roll. A minor part of me might still agree with my past self, but of course the reason is mostly the fact that I’m, as a fan, still stuck in the 90’s and they, as a band, are not. The majority of me have already set the clocks back to 2010 and have learned to appreciate also the ambitious side of the material like For The Ashes or Accidental Architecture. It would be impossible not to, because Jon Auer & Ken Stringfellow sing like two angels and are such a fantastic songwriters. One should actually praise them for being able to keep much of that old style of The Posies alive while adding some new dimensions to it. If I wasn’t such a simple fan boy whose sacred texts are called Frosting On The Beater and Amazing Disgrace, I might have instantly seen and accepted it.
4 Comments
You hit it on the head. I appreciate their progression as a band but more than anything, want that distorted, rocking side of The Posies! Hope to hear this album with some 90’s fuzz when they visit Denver in December.
They’ve done the big guitars/distortion thing and they nailed it. It’s time to move on. Face it, you’re going to have to learn to keep up with The Posies.
It took a few listens to lure me in, but this is a fantastic album! Jons songs are a lot closer to older Posies staple.. Kens tunes are a bit more expansive and progressive, as he has matured musically since his original departure from the band years ago.. Not to say that Jon’s tunes are anything less than stellar.. He just has a stamp that he puts on his arrangements that clearly make them his! His sound is closer to what made the Posies the band that they are..
This album is a bit of a departure from older Posies albums.. They have spread out and added more depth to their songs.. You cant play the same things over and over.. I will always love Amazing Disgrace as my favorite Posies album to date.
Give Blood/Candy a little time to grow on you… Sit back, relax, turn the lights down low and let your mind go with all the layers in this well conceived collection.. You wont be disappointed.. Just dont expect the band to remain in the 90’s..
i agree mostly with onechord.
only have to say that i really don’t dig the Accidental Architecture & Enewetak experiments…
and an old desease of Posies records is unfortunately back: the record is too clean, too polished… the live versions are that much better! and that’s ok, but the record versions are really too sophisticated… a little more distortion and unpolished sound would do them good…
nevermind, it’s just an opinion, but one that has many fans. because what i’m writing here had at least 5 serious likewise thoughts in Antwerp last thursday, and all those i made fan in this area agree on that.