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The Positions, Bliss!

by Stephanie Allerdice
01/26/2008

Even if you don’t like indie-pop, you will find it hard to keep from bobbing your head and tapping your toes to The Positions album Bliss!.

The music consists of mostly quick, upbeat rhythms somewhat similar to a few Save Ferris songs and the sugar-sweet voice of Nicole Stoops, whose fine female voice is reminiscent of 80's singers such as Kim Carnes.

The CD starts with a slightly Spanish vibe and beat with the first track, “Someday.” It’s a very bubbly song accompanied by not so cheerful lyrics. But that is part this album’s charm, they deliver sometimes sorrowful stories to fast pop beats and half the time you don’t even realize you are listening to a sad song.

“Back to Me” starts out with the beat from The Ronettes song, “Be my Baby.” I’m usually all for originality, but in this case borrowing worked because they didn’t completely rely on the borrowed material.

There is a Mariachi band feel in a few of the songs such as, “Flowers and Trees” and “Think I Can Tell,” soft song with a loud horn section which is interesting.

“I Need You,” is a duet that gets repetitive after awhile and, unfortunately, is the longest song on the album, a low point on an otherwise okay album. However, the duel male and female vocals were a good match for each other.

“Thing You Never Said” is a refreshingly honest and surprisingly upbeat break up song where they literally say they wish the other was dead. It’s nice to here an honest opinion for once.

All the overly cheery songs were at the end of the album. The last five songs were forgettable and they all seem to blend together in one jolly love-fest of music and lyrics.

Bliss! is not an amazing album. But it would probably be good for background music at a party or the source of a peppy song to start a road trip.