![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/be_positives.jpg\")
This Manchester outfit released its self-titled debut in 2019, and has continued in earnest on a creative path in the months since then. A single, \u201cIt\u2019s Easy (If You Try)\u201d was released in December \u201820, and another track, \u201cCircles\u201d debuted around the same time. Now the band\u2019s second long-player, Everything About the Be Positives<\/i> has seen release in October of this year.<\/p>\n
If your idea of music from Manchester centers on the baggy\/druggie Britpop of the \u201890s, you\u2019re in for a surprise. The bracing, straightforward melodicism of The Be Positives has more in common with Supergrass, crossed with bits of Badfinger. There\u2019s a gleaming, chrome finish to the sings, but they\u2019re not slick or cynically sourced.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a nice balance of sophistication and muscle in the eleven song on this collection. The band isn\u2019t operating strictly within the framework of powerpop, but the best values of that style are evident. \u201cI Jist Want to See Here\u201d springs forth from the same well of exuberant creativity that gave us The romantics \u201cWhat I Like About You\u201d four decades ago. But The Be Positives add some creamy vocal harmonies that showcase a sonic palette that expands beyond powerpop.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s merely one set of musical textures. \u201cOnly What I Feel\u201d has a vibe a bit like The Spongetones, which is to say that it\u2019s Beatles-influenced yet original. And again, some well-placed backing vocals and harmonies elevate the tune to the level of something special.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease Please Please\u201d has nothing in common with James Brown; no, in fact it sounds more like \u201cBack in the USSR,\u201d with some appealingly overdriven lead vocals and an insistent electric piano that may conjure images of John Lennon playing a Vox organ with his elbow.<\/p>\n
But I don\u2019t want to make too much of Beatles influences; The Be Positives have their own sound. It\u2019s simply that coming from a city only 35 miles form Liverpool, they draw from some of the same wells of inspiration.<\/p>\n
That said, \u201cEverything About It \/ Lost & Found\u201d is warmly reminiscent of Wild Life<\/i>-era Wings. \u201cRain & Stormy Weather\u201d is every bit as appealing \u2013 perhaps even more so \u2013 but doesn\u2019t have a Beatle-y whiff about it. And for a rocking guitar band, The Be Positives sure do know how to work electric pianos into the mix. To wit: the roughly bouncing \u201cGoodbye,\u201d which adds some soaring guitar chords that reach for the sky, and clever tempo shifts. And more great harmonies!<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s hope that this album is misleadingly titled. As good as it is, I don\u2019t want it to be Everything<\/i> about the band. More, please.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This Manchester outfit released its self-titled debut in 2019, and has continued in earnest on a creative path in the months since then. A single, \u201cIt\u2019s Easy (If You Try)\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22115,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,51,55,62,65],"tags":[4722],"class_list":["post-22114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-pop","category-powerpop","category-rawk","category-review","tag-the-be-positives","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-55-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22114"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22116,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22114\/revisions\/22116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}