****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
The Posies are an excellent band, lyrically and musically, a lot of my favorite songs of all time come from their incredible catalog of work. This record, while just as unique and sonically interesting as all of their other records, falls a little short of their usual genius. Being fair, how can every record be impacting and captivating over a 20-30 year career?The Auer compositions are the strong suit of the record, although Ken does deliver a few good songs "Licenses to Hide".If you want to hear the whole record in a few songs hit "Licenses", "Accidental Architecture", "The Glitter Prize", "Notion 99", and "So Caroline".The rest kind of plods along as the "hot dog", mid-tempo sleep anthems roll in. It just feels like we're back again with some political baggage thrown in for good measure. Only once you hit "Licenses" and "Architecture" do we really feel like we've made a left turn in Candyland.Maybe the days of rock and roll have been buried next to Lindsay Lohan in Never Never Land.The synthesizers and "space oddity" sounds of the record are interesting but I find myself playing the record as a backdrop waiting for something to knock me over the head. Maybe it's designed to be that way....I gave it four stars because when you hit the gems they are amazing, but the rest is the filling in the Twinkie. Jon and Ken do give you some surprisingly out there tunings and beautiful chords to munch on, and the vocal work is as great and well-crafted as usual. Were there drums? Yeah...there were drums on the record. Should've named it Hot-Dogatron, or Pro-Tools Architecture.
