On their first studio album in five years, and first with new drummer Kiefer Matthias, Minus The Bear captures a wistful, indie arena rock sound that is both melancholy and approachable, eschewing the self-important strains for credibility or reaching-the-rafters sonic overkill inherent in the genre. <\/p>\n
Voids <\/i>is too restrained and pop-oriented to be considered math rock (like some of MTB\u2019s older albums) but too smart and uncommercial for radio airplay; it\u2019s the sort of confident record that a band makes in its second decade of existence, and the sort where you may miss a few details here and there as you marvel how it all comes together.<\/p>\n
\u201cSilver\u201d and \u201cLast Kiss\u201d are the very different highlights. The former is a vaguely progressive hard rocker that probably comes closest to MTB\u2019s mid-2000s sound, and the latter is a hooky pop-rock gem that is easy to get immersed in. Hook after hook flies by on the record, such as on \u201cTame Beasts,\u201d where one guitar plays a simple six-note riff but leaves spaces between each two-note figure so that the second guitar (on the other speaker) can fill in some color underneath Jake Snider\u2019s very good vocal work and Matthias\u2019 drums. It\u2019s complex and addicting but never insular.<\/p>\n
The weaker moments here are when the band slows down into ballad mode, such as \u201cErase\u201d and \u201cWhat About The Boat?,\u201d which seem designed as lulls between the more energetic, kinetic songs like \u201cCall The Cops\u201d and especially the standout \u201cRobotic Heart,\u201d in which the guitars buzz and the multi-tracked vocals run rings around each other while the keyboards provide an eerie yet muted sheen. <\/p>\n
On the other hand, closer \u201cLighthouse\u201d is probably the best dream pop song of the last five years. It\u2019s proof that the genre doesn\u2019t have<\/i> to be mopey, keyboard-intensive, and boring as sin\u2026it just chooses to be. The propulsive solo and electronic overdrive jam that closes out the piece are just the cherry on top.<\/p>\n
What the listener may notice, if not right away, is that few of the 10 songs ever really settle; other than the ballads, there\u2019s always an edge, a dissatisfaction that pulses through the tracks. Voids <\/i>may mine familiar territory about heartbreak and emotional turmoil, but it does so through the lens of uneasy maturity and compelling songs that don\u2019t take the easy way out and reward repeated listens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":33054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9961],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-44838","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-minus-the-bear","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44838"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}