The Pozers’ award-winning 5th CD, 'Embrace Your Addiction,' serves up 13 delectable, melodic “addictions” for your listening pleasure: It's The Beatles meets Cheap Trick...power pop at its finest!

With their 5th CD release, Embrace Your Addiction, The Pozers serve up 13 brand new delectable “addictions” for your listening pleasure. This award-winning CD illustrates why The Pozers are considered, by many, to be one of the most original, creative, and intelligent bands in music today.

Gary Glauber's glowing and insightful review of Embrace You Addiction for Fufkin Magazine sums it up perfectly:

"The music world is over-populated with trios ironically capable of playing only three rock chords in limited variations, bands that sound generic and mundane and tired. Thankfully, The Pozers are anything but that. Each of these three band members (Jim Richey, Kenny Swann, Jeff Hamm) from Dallas, Texas, sings, writes and plays multiple instruments. As such, The Pozers tend to break down the typical limits associated with a rock trio.
The CD booklet contains this quotation from poet William Blake, "I must create a system of my own or be enslaved by another man's." It's obvious The Pozers seek a system of their own. On this, their fifth release, there's a wide variety of sounds on display. There's a sort of "concept" feel to Embrace Your Addiction, songs separated by short audio clips from stage, screen and elsewhere that serve to punctuate and emphasize the music that follows.
If there's a unifying theme to this collection of 13 new songs, it's one of memories - that which is gone, but not forgotten. The CD opens with "The Time and Place," one of Richey's compositions. It's a song of reflection and contemplation, with idle time available to ponder past regrets. There are pleasant harmonies and crunch to the pop, along with unexpected tempo shifts (from psychedelic-tinged pop to something more powerful) that elevate this above your standard pop-rock offering. There are adept lyrical flourishes as well: "Every single little word or phrase, every stage, is locked in my head / And I'm cursed to relive every single one of them until I'm dead."
Swann gives his spin on the past with "Cindy See," a song that connects to one's inner Fountains of Wayne. Cindy's gone as a lover, but her memory lives on to drive him insane, and the guitars drive home the point effectively in another melodic tune.
Richey's "Lucky Face" takes a similar musical approach ("your lucky face is all I have to remember"), but raises some interesting generational explanations too (All of the normalcy that's thrust upon our age / we can't be blamed for living beyond our years, beyond our fears." John Lennon adds a sweet spoken coda to the track.
Even what seems to be a regular rock song is so much more - "Starving Artist" name-checks Nietzche, James Dean, Lennon and Marx and more, in pointing out what bohemian ideology is tossed when opening a restaurant to "feed his wallet and his mind."

Hamm notes that in "trying to write a song, that I'm trying to right a wrong." He does a very nice job of that with "Whether," a clever lyric-laden jaunt that takes a stoic stance on how things remain in a certain static condition, regardless of what goes on: "Whether we start or if we're through, what you think I think of you, whether we've got a thing to do, no matter what, it's still the same."
The verses of "When Intellects Collide" ride on top of a sweet walking bass line, a song that speaks up for the unspoken, heralding passion and the fears of letting too much love ruin a good thing (it also name-checks the film The Purple Rose of Cairo and its way of mingling artifice with what's real).
"What's The Story?" contrasts sweet lyrics of an all-consuming love with hard-rocking guitars that nearly drown out the vocals (with the exception of a "borrowed" musical line from The Beatles' "Here There and Everywhere"). Again, not standard pop-rock fare, and that's to The Pozers credit.
"Sunshine (Smiling Face)" is another strange amalgam of styles that manages to work well (it features some fine guitar solos too). In the title track, The Pozers blend heavily psychedelic elements with hard rock noise, mixing cacophony with melody, shifting phases, moving in and out as the lyrics explore opposites ("you're everyone, you're no one" and "focusing darkness only concentrates the light").
The moon figures in two songs here. "Under The Moon" is another song of reminisce, an exploration of what could have been, a youth that ended too soon. "Lunar Eclipse" takes arena rock and infuses it with punk energy, a melodic ditty about a game-playing vixen known for breaking hearts and getting her way. Another song that dwells about what could have been so long ago is "Hopefully," a power ballad of sorts that weighs longing versus letting go.
"Everybody's High," the album closer, starts off with bong water bubbles as percussion and segues into a pseudo-rap general condemnation of the world today: "Everybody wants and everybody needs, everybody's filled with 2 tons of greed, Everybody lives and everybody loves, nobody wants to put on the gloves, everybody lives and everybody dies…everybody's high." There's a lot of lyrics here, and the song extends over five minutes, but it never seems too much.
The Pozers continue to refine their sound, and are well-served by having three distinct songwriters at work. Embrace Your Addiction does a laudable job of combining intelligence, humor, street-cred, and sarcasm within music that contains elements of what's gone before, but often strives to do new things with them. This is far from your typical rock trio, and for potential listeners, that's a very good thing." –Gary Glauber (Fufkin Magazine)

Here is what some entertainment industry people said about Embrace Your Addiction:

“This is your best yet!! You guys are great!! I think that you will do well with this one... very up beat! I loved listening to it!! Will help out wherever I can!!” –Bruce Brodeen (Not Lame Recordings/ Pop Geek Heaven)

“F*@#in Love it!! Really good man. Good hooks, lyrics…really, really good all around. I really like the art work/motif... looks pro & has a totally good power-pop vibe to it. The check on the back with the track listings is a great idea!” --Johnny Monaco (Enuff Z’nuff)

"The CD was great! I wish you the ABSOLUTE best with it." --Cady McClain (Actress/All My Children)

"I get a lot of crap sent to me--your CD is a very pleasant surprise! Listening to your CD right now, track 11 - great homage to Elvis Costello. You guys blow away the Rembrandts. I sincerely love the CD. I wish I got to listen to it sooner. After one listen, consider me a Pozers fan. Great audio clips. Excellent production, mixes are great, vocal arrangements great. Congratulations on a great sound. Stay in touch. Keep me a abreast of what The Pozers are up to." --Gordon G.G. Gebert (Author/ musician)

“This CD is awesome! It has classic influences but is current as far as the production. I feel The Pozers are worthy of a major label record deal!” – Joey C. Jones (Sweet Savage and the C.C. Deville band)

“…Kind of a 60's pop feel, backing vocals were phenomenal! The lyrics were original and intelligent. The melody and the flow were excellent! The best songs I reviewed in a long while! Nice music; you sound like a new Beatles.” –Garageband.com

"The Pozers Embrace Your Addiction CD came to me with some pretty impressive credentials for the band and their previous releases, 4 in all since 1994. These 3 distinct musicians, competent songwriters and vocalists in their own right are back with their 5th CD of rather unique 'retro' pop. Their sound combines obvious elements of the Beatles and the Beach Boys with a bit of a modern edge, mostly in the form of punchy guitar licks. My favorite part of listening was the contrast between their high vocals and the low, punchy guitar that ripped through at times. Although they are all obviously in the same boat and on the same journey, there is a noticeable difference in style from song to song, as each takes turns at the helm. To their credit, the songs are arranged so as to be distributed in the most democratic way possible, whether that was conscious or not, so I think we know that this collaboration is fairly ego-less. I was interested after a few listens, waiting for the songs to grow on me. Two main elements of the songs: 1. Strong melodic and vocal phrasing 2. A consistent, upbeat vocal to get into
Of the three, Richey's are the most engaging, and Hamm's are the easiest to enjoy. They each have their moments, and as per their desired style there is ample voice modification to give us that 'Sgt. Peppers' vocal feel. Each of the 3, playing a variety of instruments, performs flawlessly. I can't honestly pinpoint a weakness there. Interesting sounds and musical ideas abound. The first song to really grab my attention is 'Luner Eclipse.' Elements of 'What's The Story' are really great. I'd love to hear more like this. I actually liked the Eddie Money & Led Zep inclusions in the fadeout - they fit nicely. Continuing on, 'Everybody's High,' a solid tune, it plods along, monotonously and repetitiously. Another excellent example of a solid song idea. So many elements to enjoy. I liked a lot of this CD, I honestly think that The Pozers are closer than many others to breaking through the mass of independent bands out there to being truly unique and worthy of mass appeal.
I look forward to another round with you guys. For Fans Of: Beatles, Beach Boys, Squeeze, Crowded House
Fav Tracks: 'Whether,' 'What's The Story,' 'Luner Eclipse,' 'The Time And Place.'" --Steve Allat (The Muse's Muse)

"Here's an album just chock full of great melodies, lovely tunes, cool harmonies, psych-drenched guitars, and sweet power pop sounds to delight your ears! THE POZERS are a real power pop group that sounds like a mix of CHEAP TRICK, BEATLES, and APPLES IN STEREO. This formula is a winning blend...crossing the bridge between major label and indie sounds...If you are a BEATLES fan, I HIGHLY recommend THE POZERS!!! Grade A power pop!"
--Jam Records (jamrecordings.com)

"On their followup to "You Just Don't Get It Do You", and perhaps their best effort to date, The Pozers have created a unique, defining sound that reads like a musical textbook - pushing the gamut from the lush "Sgt. Pepper" meets "Pet Sounds" choral brilliance, to jazzy-piano and arena rock - that continues to display their trademark formula of power pop/rock! The band features 3 gifted lead vocalists/songwriters, lyrical depth, melodic hooks, rich vocal harmonies and punchy guitars which prompted garageband.com to declare "You sound like a new Beatles!" EXCELLENT!!!"
--Kool Kat Musik (www.koolkatmusik.com)

"With their 5th CD release, The trio known as The Pozers (Jim Richey, Kenny Swann, Jeff Hamm) serve up some brand new “addictions” for your listening pleasure.The albums overall theme is on memories (specifically 1987) and musical influences are straightforward; starting with 'The Time and Place' it slowly morphs from harpsichord into a rich combination of guitars and Beatlesque harmonies. Then 'Cindy See' is a very Fountains of Wayne styled gem to honor an obsession with supermodel Cindy Crawford. Richey’s poignant fuzz guitar 'Lucky Face' emphasizes 'We get no guarantees (I guarantee that)' and the Beatles style is especially strong on “When Intellects Collide,” and then it changes slightly for the breezy gem 'Sunshine (Smiling Face)' with some horns added to the raw vocals. Many songs densely packed, with sharp wit between each drum fill and chugging riff. This is still one of best Pozers' albums out there."—Powerpopaholic