Can’t Solve This Musical Equation
Bear In Heaven’s latest release, Time Is Over One Day Old, is a record that’s hard to describe in just a few words. The Brooklyn band’s sound falls under the wide category of “rock” mainly due to their instrumentation, but the genre is just a placeholder for the other influences they pull from. This record is Bear in Heaven’s attempt to fit their sounds into one big bag. The problem with this is the album as a whole. It appears like a mixtape of demos- as if the band was caught in the middle of experimenting with different sounds. The result is a series of tracks that are forgettable, empty, and lacking in flavor.
Bear In Heaven isn’t devoid of emotion or passion. They’ve logged in their hours in producing this album – their close attention to detail is impressive. Every hi-hat flick and ethereal “ooh” and “ah” seem strategically placed. They like to play with different textures: from the bass and drum heavy “If I Were To Lie” to the spotlight on vocal effects on “They Dream.”
One of the strengths of this record lies in their ability to create scenes with these textures, almost like painting sound landscapes. Jon Philpot’s voice is guided by female angels singing on “Demon,” as if they’re floating up in the clouds. There’s also good synth/drum interplay on “Way Off,” especially around the three-minute mark.
All of this is good, but it seems like they can’t decide on a color scheme for these paintings. Their work appears mathematical; they match drum machine-like layers with synths and keyboards that bring to mind images of grids and pixels. Listening to the album is like spinning a game show wheel and not knowing what sound will come next. It’s as if they painstakingly formulated an equation the band can’t seem to solve themselves. Overall, it’s just confusing.
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