Source: Album Artwork
POSI is Great Cynics’ infectious, high-spirited love letter to London. The band have taken the theme of positivity and run with it, creating an album knee-deep in whimsy, nostalgia, and the calming sound of a Basset Hound barking.
The album, due out on March 24th, is the fourth from Great Cynics. They premiered its first single ‘Only In Memories’ by playing it 50 times non-stop on Facebook. That’s over two hours of the same song.
POSI is reminiscent of summer from start to finish. Even the album cover boasts a Snapchat-esque rainbow filter, chalkboard typeface, and an artfully abandoned pile of clothing. It’s vintage in that polaroid, nostalgic way that reminds you of past road trips and old episodes of Skins.
The music is equally as comforting, packed with uplifting riffs and some solid advice for self-improvement. Tracks like ‘Let Me Go Home’ and ‘Only In Memories’ are clearly built from past experiences: “You can tell yourself it didn’t happen, you can try to forget all you like. You can use defense mechanisms to try to hide what’s going on inside your mind.”
Great Cynics ground their music with admirable honesty in a context often shrouded in negativity. POSI is so personal it becomes reassuring to its listener, with some tracks seeming to offer important life lessons. ‘Blue Roll and Duct Tape’, for example: “It’s not so bad they say, doing what you wanted to do anyway. Pick up the things you don’t need and throw them away because you need space.”
Their musicality is uplifting but it does lack a little variation. POSI is surf-pop meets punk-rock, infused with hooks and riffs which are near-indistinguishable from the next in the first half of the album. But when you’re attempting a genre mash-up this blunt perhaps that’s beside the point.
Great Cynics have succeeded in their mission: they’ve unleashed an overwhelmingly positive record just in time for the summer. It’s time to break out the Pimms.
