The Posies - Nice Cheekbones and a Ph.D. (CD)

The Posies - Nice Cheekbones and A Ph. D

By William  Mar 17, 2002

A good 5 song EP featuring the beautiful "With Those Eyes", and "Chainsmoking In The U.S.A.". "With Those Eyes" is a song about a doe-eyed beauty who can get away with anything; it kind of has the feel of the pre-disco Bee Gees ballads from the comp...osition right down to the vocal performances. I'm sure that the early Bee Gees must have been the inspiration. The Posies have often admitted to the influence of Chris Bell on their music, and "Chainsmoking In The U.S.A." is probably the closest that they've come to the authentic Chris Bell sound. This is a song that would be right at home on Bell's - I Am The Cosmos album. "Chainsmoking..." also has some of the most meaningful social commentary that the Posies have put into lyrics; the lyrics seem to paint an America that is losing its regional cultures and characteristics, and turning into the same homogenized landscape from sea to shining sea with subburbs with the same chainstores, the same chain-fast food, same large discount stores, and the same chain nightclubs making it "way to easy" for us to feed petty addictions to consumerism while we may be missing the more important parts of life. This EP is probably not as good as the previous Posies album Sucess which was absolutely stellar, but it is better than most of what is on the market today and definitely worth checking out. Read more Less