Folk-influenced English Rock: The Posies' Every Kind of Light

The door opens, and the Radio Shack door chimes gives an electronic “ding dong,” alerting the Posies that they have another customer—you, the listener, have just pressed play, walking into Every Kind of Light. Basslines walk while treble sounds make movie music of the dreamy kind. “It’s Great to Be Here Again” could be what the band says or what the customers say when they arrive.

Vocal harmonies head skyward in falsetto on “Conversations,” dropping down into a rock-on chorus. The Posies are in good form after all these years, still tapping into the Byrds psychedelic folk while never ditching the Seattle sound. “All in a Day’s Work” takes a Garage Rock riff pattern, but those vocal harmonies don’t let this be a muddy sound.

“Second Time Around” has the urgent tempo like Teenage Fanclub. This leads right into “Last Crawl” (acoustic-led jazzy ballad) and “Could He Treat You Better?” (bluesy end of the night vamp), showing again that the rock of the Posies will not be a barrage, thrown up to see what actually hits the target. Urgent rock is carefully, artfully directed harmonically with the Folk-influenced English Rock sound. (For more on why this sound inspired by the Byrds gets labels as British, please see Cerveris review).

Thanks to The Posies and Rykodisc for the review copy.