Review Summary: A positive, (not) guilty pleasure
It's hard to know what to think of an album like
Positive Force. The title is quite literal. It would be easy to be cynical and dismiss it as a too-ecstatic guilty pleasure. That is, however, exactly why it is good.
Right away,
Romona Reborn whips the listener into a nostalgic, gooey mess. Delicate Steve begins as he means to continue: the album is full of hooky, short and repeated slide guitar melodies accompanied by rich chords, and vocal oohs and aahs. Although this motif is rarely changed, it is not fatigued. The standout in this regard is
Afria Talks to You. The melody is near-perfect and deceptively simple. It is because of this simplicity that
Afria is so lucid: it is immediately accesible and therefore open to any and all interpretations. It best explains, in 3 minutes and without any lyrics, the appeal of this genre of music, of this type of feeling.
Although the album is almost entirely instrumental, the tracks suggest their own meaning. The nostalgia of
Ramona is countered by the in-the-moment indulgence of
Wally Wilder.
Two Lovers provides the come-down, and
Big Time Receiver brings things back up for a spaced out, poppy jam. Finally, the title track moves us back to the feeling of the first. The sequencing of the songs, then, is crucial to this kind of success.
There are weaker points, of course:
Touch feels like filler, as does
Redeemer. They're certainly not as strong as the tracks that surround them. However, when this album is strong it is so, so very strong; mawkishly comforting and encouraging. A real force.
