Positive Thinking The Power of Positive Thinking cassette
Given this band’s name and the artwork for this release, I couldn’t help but be a bit concerned when dropping this cassette into my tape deck. The modern trend of hip hardcore bands claiming to be “psychedelic” and repurposing ’60s-style art gave me pause. Add in the through-the-roof cheesiness factor of straight-up naming a band POSITIVE THINKING, and I was doubly on guard. As a straightedge punk with a love for ’60s psychedelic rock, surely one can understand my apprehension at this point. Lo and behold, my concerns were completely unwarranted. POSITIVE THINKING absolutely rips! A timeless approach to hardcore punk. There are moments that sound just like second-tier ’80s hardcore acts like 76% UNCERTAIN. Occasionally, the overly positive aspect present in eyeroll-worthy youth crew lyrics comes through a bit, but those moments are short-lived, and the band just as quickly moves on to topics of self-deprecation, disdain for society, gripes on the health care system, etc. I will say, if you are interested in getting a copy of The Power of Positive Thinking on cassette (which you should be), be sure to do so through the label that released this, as the band is charging a whopping $12 plus $6 shipping for a cassette online, with it being $10 for the digital recording only. Yikes! I absolutely recognize that everything is wildly expensive in the modern day and that I probably still way undercharge for releases on my labels, but $12 just feels offensively expensive for a cassette, especially when the label is charging $7 (debatably still too much).