Well, I must confess I have never been a huge Minus the Bear fan, but there are songs of theirs that I thoroughly enjoy so I decided to give their newest album Planet of Ice a listen. The only comparable way I feel I can describe it is when someone stands on a high dive and attempts a back flip. Sometimes they stick it and land feet first and everyone is amazed; sometimes they land squarely on their belly and all close enough to see/hear the spectacle wince. Either way you have to hand it to the person for having the balls to try. On Minus the Bear's new album , I applaud them for taking risks and not recording the same album four times in a row, but it is not entirely spectacular. The album fits somewhere between a belly-flop and a 10 point, jaw-dropping, double gainer. Sonically the group sounds much more mature and developed which is reflected in the mood of the album and the brevity of the song titles, compared to songs in their back catalog such as, "You're Some Sort of Big, Fat, Smart-Bug, Aren't You?" and "This Ain't A Surfin' Movie", "Knights" is a lot fewer syllables. The sound itself could be summed up in a simple equation:
the moodiness of Radiohead's Kid A + funk - the danciness of old Minus the Bear = Planet of Ice
Here's one of the standout tracks:
Minus the Bear-When We Escape
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