As a teenager in the early 1990s, I never knew what to think of The Posies. On one hand, they did their fair share to bring power pop into the mainstream. On the other hand, they weren’t exactly Teenage Fanclub. Of all the bands that brought power pop back, I never quite understood where The Posies fit into the equation.
Now that they’re back, I can safely say that Every Kind of Light is perfectly fine. It’s not an album that jumps out at me immediately; it contains a number of mid-tempo songs that, frankly, start to blend together after awhile. Nonetheless, The Posies’ loud guitars are still in evidence (the blistering “Second Time Around” may be my favorite track), and lyrics like “I’m hiding here again from the January snow / And the bottles on the wall tell me there’s 93 to go...” demonstrate that The Posies can still do “intelligent and witty” as well as they have done for a long, long time now. They have not lost the elements of sweetness that made Dear 23 such a success; indeed, “Love Comes” sounds like it could have been released in 1968. The production is uncluttered, the mix is crisp, and the playing is excellent.
Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow have written an album that wouldn’t have sounded out of place in 1993, at the height of their career. Don’t get me wrong: I am immensely pleased that they did not, in fact, break up (as they had been planning to do for some time in the late 1990s). I’m just not sure that Every Kind of Light is the “comeback album” that they could’ve, would’ve, and should’ve made. So many of these songs show promise, but only a few of them sink immediately into your brain and start your toes tapping. The Posies have a power pop gift, and I hope against hope that they haven’t lost it. I wait with bated breath for their next album. |