Frosting on the Beater opens with a thick wall of distorted guitars and booming drums kicking up a very melodic fuss behind
Ken Stringfellow and
Jonathan Auer's creamy-smooth harmonies on the psych-tinged "Dream All Day," and the track's sweet-and-sour blend immediately announces this is going to be a very different affair than
the Posies' major-label debut,
Dear 23. With noisy rock dude
Don Fleming in the producer's chair, it came as no great surprise that
Frosting on the Beater was a much harder-sounding album than the introspective
Dear 23, but surprisingly enough,
Fleming also knew how to make the most of the band's expert pop songwriting; with the tempos and guitars turned up, the tunes gained a needed physical impact that brought the melodies and hooks into the forefront, where they belonged. Just as importantly, the spot-on harmonies that were the highlight of
Dear 23 were still very much in evidence, resting atop the piles of fuzzy guitar chords like a dollop of hot fudge poured over a big scoop of ice cream. And prior to this, who knew that
Ken Stringfellow and
Jonathan Auer could rock out so hard (and so well) on guitars? One could argue that the big guitar attack of
Frosting on the Beater was simply
the Posies' way of trying to compete with the grunge sweepstakes that briefly turned their hometown of Seattle into the center of the rock universe. But one listen also reveals that it transformed a smart but overly precious pop outfit into a hard-charging power pop band that gained a wealth of strength without giving up any of their smarts in the process -- not a bad bargain. [In 2018,
the Posies celebrated their 30th anniversary as a recording act with deluxe expanded reissues of their three albums for
Geffen, and
Omnivore Records' deluxe edition of
Frosting on the Beater is a jam-packed two-disc set that transforms the 12-song LP into a 42-track epic. In addition to a fine-sounding remaster of the original album, this edition of
Frosting on the Beater includes a wealth of outtakes, alternate versions, and songwriting demos, 15 of which are previously unreleased. The songs that didn't make the cut are well worth hearing, especially the
Neil Young-ish "Looking Lost," the grungy "Start a Life," and the moody full-band version of "Coming Right Along." (Turns out the version on the album was actually
Jon Auer's original demo with some overdubs.) However, the wealth of demos is instructive but a bit redundant after a while. Nevertheless, the set rallies to a fun finish with the scrappy "Velvet Monkeys Theme" and "Fete le Muzz," and the liner notes feature notes on every track as well as enthusiastic appreciations from
Pat Sansone of
Wilco and
Craig Dorfman. If this is almost more
Frosting on the Beater than anyone but a fanatical
Posies fan would want, it's still crafted with love and care and treats the album like the minor classic it is.] ~ Mark Deming
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