Blood/Candy

Not a band anymore

     

First off let me say, I love The Posies. They released one of the all time great albums of the 1990s in Frosting on the Beater and Amazing Disgrace and Success were also brilliant. Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer are fantastic songwriters with solo work that outshines most singer/songwriters. My problem with their past couple of albums since they reformed is, as the iTunes review says, they sound like a side project. It's like you could put Jon's song on one side of the record and Ken's on the other. While "The Glitter Prize" is a heart stoppingly lovely, deceptively simple Auer melody it sounds like a cut off his solo work. "For the Ashes" or "Licenses to Hide" are examples of Stringfellow's more recent piano driven, flamboyant songs. Two song writers doing their own cool thing, but it's not a band to my ears. They've even got guests harmonizing on the songs now when once upon a time it was what they used to do so beautifully together. Blood Candy is a solid album with some stand out songs in "Notion 99" and "Holiday Hours" but it just sounds too uneven to be anything but a loose collection.