
Bear in Heaven
I Love You, It’s Cool
Hometapes/Dead Oceans
Apr 02, 2012
Issue #40 - In the Studio 2012 - Grizzly Bear, Dirty Projectors, and Twin Shadow
Bear in Heaven have been kicking around the Brooklyn scene for the better part of a decade now. They made a couple of really good Kraut-heavy records that few people heard (2004's Tunes Nextdoor to Songs EP, 2007's Red Bloom of the Boom), and another that garnered them long overdue accolades and an audience, 2009's superb, yet slightly more conventional Beast Rest Forth Mouth.
The band, now consisting of singer/keyboardist Jon Philpot, guitarist Adam Wills, and drummer Joe Stickney, have built their own innate musical language after years of intense touring, and they exude a certain kinetic verve on I Love You, It's Cool.
The album certainly hews more closely to Beast Rest territory than their earlier, more experimental material. It's filled with sharply written hooks, albeit unorthodox ones, as the percussion is often as melodic as the synths or guitars. This doesn't detract, however, as the songs are still largely accessible.
Opener "Idle Heart" glacially builds from a sinewy drum and bass groove into a restrained crescendo of glossy, colliding synths. It's a nice introduction to the album, and a gateway to its first single, the jittery, hyper-melodic "The Reflection of You."
But the record's apotheosis is found on the scorching "Sinful Nature," which is something of a licentious flipside to the more quixotic Beast Rest standout "Lovesick Teenagers." The tension simmers beneath the surface on "Sinful Nature," as the synths percolate in a manner redolent of early Throbbing Gristle, and Stickney's bedrock drumming holds together the proceedings with metronomic efficiency.
Yet the ultimate kiss-off is delivered in Philpot's deceptively sinister intonation, "I know what it is/It's a phase/You just don't know." The power lies in the pregnant pause between "phase" and "you," imbuing the line with devastation and regret. It's subtle moments like these that illustrate just how far Bear in Heaven have progressed as songwriters, and I Love You, It's Cool is an album rife with them. (www.bearinheaven.com)
Author rating: 8/10
Average reader rating: 10/10
Most Recent
- Leon Bridges Shares New Song “Beyond” (News) — Leon Bridges
- DRINKS (Cate Le Bon + Tim Presley) Share “Corner Shops” Video, Plus Stream Their Album (News) — Cate Le Bon, DRINKS, White Fence
- Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson Announce New EP, Share New Song “Bad Dreams” (News) — Pete Yorn, Pete Yorn and Scarlett Johansson, Scarlett Johansson
- Eleanor Friedberger Shares New Song “Everything” (News) — Eleanor Friedberger
- Son Lux on “Brighter Wounds” (Interview) — Son Lux
Comments
Submit your comment
June 12th 2012
5:07am
Here’s a video of the performance - from on .AHNE by Ted James Butler feiutrang -Eric Crawley Moog Taurus 3, Synthesizers.com modular, Cat Stick, Haken Continuum, The Persephone, Buchla 200e, Buchla Electric Music Box, Roland Super Jupiter, others?Bill Manganaro Klee Squencer, Doepfer Dark Energy, Korg Kaossilator others?Kyle Jarger - Maxi-KorgBob Chidlaw ARP 2601withvisuals by Dr T