The Posies
Dream All Day – Best of the Posies (Interscope 490555)

What a pleasant surprise this CD was. I bought it having heard exactly zero Posies songs, knowing only that they were "Beatle-esque" and had connections to my two favorite bands, Radiohead (they played a mocking version of "Wonderwall" on a radio show with Thom Yorke) and REM (Ken Stringfellow toured with them in the Up band).

After listening many times to this best of and subsequently to the band's back catalog, I've come to see the Posies as one of the great undiscovered pop treasures of the '90s – less formulaic than Fountains Of Wayne (whom drummer Brian Young later joined), less abrasive than any of the other Seattle bands, and smarter than just about everyone.

Their best moments put them right up there with other great unheralded pop acts like Squeeze, The Hollies, and Big Star, all of whom the Posies love, as you'll see.

The CD starts with "My Big Mouth" from Dear 23, which remains their "big" album ("big" in terms of scope as opposed to sales). It's a great ragtimey kind of ditty with kind of a "call and response" vocal thing going on, and leads right into the sweetly melodic "Golden Slumbers," which harbors dark-ass lyrics about inadvertent pregnancy and unhappy marriage. Ringo covered this one later on, probably thinking, "Hm, sounds like the old Beatles," but he missed the bite of the lyrics. "Suddenly Mary" has some great harmonies and that cool "flange" effect near the end of it.

The comp is great not just for newcomers, but fans as well, as it collects several phenomenal non-album tracks: "Spite And Malice" is the first of 'em, followed by two cover songs ("I Am The Cosmos" by Big Star guy Chris Bell and "Kind Midas In Reverse" by them Hollies). They're done with such love you'd swear the Posies wrote 'em.

"Dream All Day" begins a series of angsty songs about belonging or death or something. Whatever, they're great. "I've got a lot of thoughts/I've got a lot of plans/I lost a lot of sleep/Trying to understand" … not exactly "Walking On Sunshine," but hey, moody rebels like me eat this stuff up.

The Frosting on the Beater album from '93 was arguably the group's weakest period, as they flailed a bit trying to figure out whether they were a power pop band or a balls-out rock band. The grungier stuff comes off a bit forced, almost like they wanted to capitalize on the trend.

Fortunately, this collection sticks mainly to the harmony-driven stuff. "Solar Sister" and "Definite Door" bring the gorgeous harmonies of Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow right to the forefront. "Coming Right Along" takes a total outsider's perspective for lyrics of failure, depression, and devastation ("Start a life and hate your own", etc).

Kind of like something the aliens from The Simpsons Halloween Specials would sing – "Foolish humans! You've doomed yourselves with your irrational behavior!"and so on. For such bright melodic writers, these guys were never the happiest fellas around.

OK, in case I haven't lost all credibility with that Simpsons reference, I suppose we can continue … "Please Return It" features the screamed line "There has to be an upside!" at the end. More poptastic meditation on mortality and "the point."

"Sad To Be Aware" follows our doomed life from the toddler period ("learning how to wet the bed") to painful adolescence to meaningless adulthood ("living in a carpet box"). "Are you sad to be aware?/'I really couldn't tell you.'/Are you happy to be here?/'Ask me when I'm older.'"

Hm, maybe I will jump off that bridge after all. No, wait, more melody first.

There's a couple of lighthearted Stringfellow pieces: "Ontario" (which poses the question "Why Ontario?" and answers it with "it sounds good on the radio") and "Everybody Is A Fucking Liar," which has to be at least somewhat tounge-in-cheek.

The epic Dear 23 closer "Flood Of Sunshine," also closes Dream All Day: eight minutes of gorgeous fluid guitar and vocals, with a grand sweep that sounds a bit naïve today, but only because Radiohead's doing it on a totally huger level.

So this is infectious stuff, a bit depressing as well. Fretting about existence and the meaning of life never sounded so great. It serves as a good intro to the band's major label stuff, though Dear 23 is still the best single disc to experience the Posies with (Frosting on the Beater incidentally being the worst).

Since it doesn't cover any of the band's indie releases, you miss amazing shit like "I May Hate You Sometimes (But I'll Always Love You)." Even so, it's a worthwhile disc for any pop fan. If you want to get more than your feet wet, though, snag the possibly too-comprehensive rarities box At Last, At Least for a more complete picture.

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Review by POW!