POP MUSIC REVIEW : Posies: ‘Abbey Road’ Is Alive, Well

Midway through the Posies’ set on Sunday at the Coach House, singer-songwriters Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow had a brief disagreement over whether their recent major-label debut, “Dear 23”--with its multiplicity of muted album cover shades--should properly be referred to as “the blue album” or “the brown album.”

This allusion to the Beatles’ “white album” was in modest jest, but such is this Seattle quartet’s greatness that even in seriousness such a nod would be far from heresy. The expansionist classic-pop spirit of “Abbey Road” is alive and well in the deliciously melody-driven Posies, along with a precociously clever lyrical maturity, a rambunctious garage-band spirit and, in Auer, a budding rock god of a lead guitarist.

“Dear 23” is as close to perfect as you’d want a pop album to get, and so the reasoned rough edges of Sunday’s show provided some welcome sloppiness. Even so, their prowess was unexpected, with Auer’s infrequent Hendrixian leads soulfully breaking up the power pop and the drumming of Mike Musberger--who spends more time pounding on toms for dramatic effect than anyone this side of Keith Moon--putting thunder into even the power ballads. From the Monkees-cum-Squeeze opener, “My Big Mouth,” to the hard-rock encore, Big Star’s “Feel,” this was your basic ‘60s-meets-’90s nirvana, unencumbered by undue slickness, slackness or attitude. The Posies also appear tonight at Bogart’s and Wednesday at the Whisky.