Bear In Heaven: I Love You, It's Cool - Album Review

Bear In Heaven
I Love You, It's Cool
Rating: Woof Daddy

Bear In Heaven's last album, the brilliant Beast Rest Forth Mouth, was a Bergman movie in comparison to their new album's technicolor/vistavision spectacle. Trading BRFM's glacial cool for brighter moods and temps, I Love You, It's Cool is a shimmering day-glo fantasy, full of bursting synths, driving rhythms, and wide open expanses. While the tracks on BRFM could get lost in their insular world, the 10 tracks here are practically begging to be played in a huge stadium.

The change in mood is noticeable from the first track. "Idle Heart" glides along a tight rhythm, the pounding drums anchored by a smooth bass line, with the sparkling rush of keyboards taking the track ever higher.



Leading into the first single "The Reflection of You," a mountain of a track which pours more and more waves of synths into the mix until you think the track can't handle anymore.



Which shows that the band really understands how to structure their sound for the most effect. Two tracks in particular should be case studies for how to put together a wall of sound. "Sinful Nature," a track about repressing your true inner self, could be a lost track from The Cure's Disintegration, the synths powered up to high, the ringing guitars soaring overhead, as the track gains more and more density. The ending swirl of massive synth swells is like a fierce acid trip.



And "Space Remains" commands tribal drums over buzzing keyboards and almost chanted vocals. The smooth curl of the start of the track goes completely off the rails with the drums almost going off on their own, slowly righting themselves, before a final freakout of space invaders style synths.



A whole album of songs like this would grow wearisome quickly. Fortunately, Bear In Heaven understand the need for pacing and fill the rest of the album up with gorgeous pop songs, like the piano inflected "Noon Moon,"



the pop buzz of "Cool Light,"



and the lush spaciousness of "World of Freakout."



And what first struck me as a sore thumb on the record, "Sweetness and Sickness" ends the album on a bizarre, psych-folk number. Airy, fractured synth patterns wash over muted percussion and acoustic guitars, as the vocals float in and out of the mix in a heavily reverbed fog. While this track at first felt out of place, it has now come more into focus, as it were, as a nice comedown from the sonic richness of the previous 9 tracks.



Beast Rest Forth Mouth was such a huge leap from their debut album that I wondered where they could possibly go with with their sound. I Love You, It's Cool is another huge step forward, using the blueprint from BRFM and upping the volume and expansiveness, creating a stunningly realized album. I Love You, It's Cool is now in a pretty heated fight for album of the year with me right now.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and peaks one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.