Summary
The Posies, a power-pop band formed in Seattle in 1987 on the ashes of
Sky Cries Mary by vocalists and multi-instrumentalists
Jonathan Auer and Kenneth Stringfellow, crafted the
album Failure (PopLlama, 1988), a humble imitation of classic melodic rock whose velvety and pristine sound harks back to
Big Star's smooth elegies (At Least for Now),
Hollies' Merseybeat singalongs (Blind Eyes Open, I May Hate You Sometimes, Paint Me),
XTC's
stately
punk-pop
(Under Easy, Ironing Tuesdays),
and
They Might Be Giants's baroque
roots-rock
(Longest Line).
The subsequent
Dear 23 (Geffen, 1990) is even better orchestrated.
The crackling pacing of
My Big Mouth and the catchy refrain of
Golden Blunders are only the antechamber to a gallery of harmonious combinations, among which stand out the sophisticated arrangements of
Mrs Green and the maddening finale of
Flood Of Sunshine.
More austere and refined than the
Young Fresh Fellows or
They Might Be Giants,
the Posies best represent that era's revival of baroque pop.
Their guitarist Rick Roberts left the band, however (to form Peach).
On third album Frosting On The Beater (DGC, 1993), boasting the same painstaking songcraft but also more robust arrangements, the standouts are
Dream All Day and especially
Solar Sister.
After that album, however, the group seemed to disband: in 1993 the two leaders started a Big Star reunion with
Alex Chilton
himself, while the rhythm section retired to private life.
Instead, Auer and Stringfellow relaunched the Posies with a new bassist and drummer. The humility bath was useful for the group, which on
Amazing Disgrace (Geffen, 1996) abandoned the pretentious poses of Brit-pop (still visible in Hate Song) in favor of a more dignified grit, i.e.
Daily Mutilation and Grant Hart.
Broken Record and especially Ontario and Everybody Is A Fucking Liar are somewhat different beasts, whether in passion or arrangement, songs that open up new horizons.
With the next record, however, the Posies made a rapid reversal from the grit and liveliness: that of Success (Popllama, 1998) is shamefully soft and velvety pop, moreover without a single melody worth remembering.
Somehow Everything and Start A Life are so predictable that they could have been on any album produced by an amateur of 1960s-pop.
You're The Beautiful One is the only "progressive" song.
Jon Auer started playing in two Seattle bands: Lucky Me and Jean Jacket Shotgun.
Kenneth Stringfellow played in Saltine and released his first solo album,
This Sounds Like Goodbye (Hidden Agenda, 1998), a schizophrenic
collection of instrumental experiments (Trans Potato)
and lo-fi pop (Your Love Won't Be Denied, Too True).
The Posies reunited for two live albums,
In Case You Didn't Feel Like Plugging In (Casa) and
Alive Before The Iceberg (Houston), while two anthologies hit the market:
the four-CD boxed set At Least At Last (Not Lame) and the one-CD
Dream All Day (Universal).
The first new material after the reunion (particularly,
(Matinee and No COnsolation)
was released on the EP
Nice Cheekbones And A Ph D (Houston Party, 2001).
In the meantime, John Auer released a collection of covers,
6 1/2 (Pattern, 2001).
After singing with the Orange Humble Band,
Kenneth Stringfellow released his solo album Touched (Poptones, 2001),
a collection of pop tunes embellished with sophisticated arrangements
(Uniforms, This One's On You).
The two reunited for the EP Private Sides (Arena Rock, 2003), which
offers three acoustic songs by each (notably the catchy
When the Lights Go Up and Beautiful).
Stringfellow's
Soft Commands (Yep Roc, 2004) finds him in an unusually pensive
and adult mood, and it is his most sophisticated solo album yet.
Every Kind Of Light (Rykodisc, 2005)
was Ken Stringfellow's and Jon Auer's first album
as the Posies in seven years.
Unfortunately, it sounds like they saved their best material for other projects,
and used left-overs for the Posies.
The Posies' Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow helped Alex Chilton on the
dreadful Big Star reunion album,
In Space (Rykodisc, 2005).
Songs from the Year of Our Demise (2006) was Jon Auer's first solo album,
a collection of 15 senile elegies. The centerpiece is the seven-minute
You Used to Drive Me Around, an old song that originally appeared on
the EP The Perfect Size (2000).
Stringfellow formed the Disciplines and delivered a hard-rock version of
the Posies' power-pop on
Smoking Kills (2009) and
Virgins Of Menace (Spark & Shine, 2011).
The Posies continued to embarrass themselves with albums such as
Blood/ Candy (Rykodisc, 2010).
Solid States (My Music Empire, 2016), released just after the death
of drummer Darius Minwalla, still contains mostly filler but a few songs
are cute time travels:
the anthemic keyboards-driven We R Power harkens back to the new-wave era of the Cars;
the sensual synth-pop ballad The Definition harkens back to the age of Soft Cell;
and Unlikely Places harkens back to
bubblegum-pop of the 1960s.
