Minus the Bear’s newest album, Omni, proves
the band can give fans everything they want
in an album and still leave them wanting more.
3.5 Buzz Worthy.
There is no denying that indie rock heavy weights, Minus the Bear, know their way around a pedal board–hell, their sound has been focused on blending technical instrumentals with weird effects and catchy hooks since their debut in 2001. Whether you are listening to their groovy Highly Refined Pirates, with its chill, “I’ve only had a few beers but I’m cool to drive,” feel, their very successful Menos El Oso with a poppier, rock-driven sound, or their prog-rock album, Planet of Ice, where the band showed they can spend more time song writing and less time title thinking, you know you are going to end the experience with two things: a weird taste in your mouth and a warm fuzzy feeling. With the band’s latest project, Omni you can expect all of that – and then some. With Omni you’ll get a throw back to all of the band’s previous sounds with new, even weirder ways of keeping the album fresh and catchy.
Sounds like the next logical step forward in the bands evolution, right? Well, it would have been, if the album did not feel like it fell short on the delivery somewhere. Sure, you get every nougat-y bit of goodness from all of the band’s previous work (plus newer, more experimental and pop-inspired sounds), but fitting it all into one album really spreads the whole thing thin. Nothing on the album really gets time to shine and everytime you feel like you are about to get somewhere, the sound makes a jarring turn in a different direction leaving you wondering how the hell you got to your final destination. When it is finished, you’ll know you’ve listened to a Minus the Bear album because you have that weird taste in your mouth, but you’ll lack that warm fuzzy feeling.
The album opens with the single ‘My Time’ which really does bring something new to the table. But who would of thought that something would of been the removing of their most impressive aspect, Dave Knudson’s lead guitar lines. Knudson instead plays a catchy hook over a synthesizer giving the song a different kind of depth while the rest of the band still do their thing. Unfortunately the word “hook” is singular: the line is repeated over and over throughout the song, giving it that overly used, “Hey, we should of called it quits a minute ago,” vibe that makes a three minute song sound like a seven minute song.
The album continues with songs like the melodic ‘Summer Angel’, the driving ‘Secret Country’, and experimental ‘Hold Me Down’ that have eveything you would expect from Minus the Bear from lyrics that leave you feeling sexually assaulted, groovy bass lines, and Knudson back to doing what he does best, ridiculous guitar playing and over the top loop and delay effects. The album trucks along in this manner until Into the Mirror which has another first for the band, a female vocalist to accompany singer Jake Snider as he tries to molest you via song. The only really weak track on the album I can see is Fooled by Night, which felt like a failed attempt to to recapture some of their glorious Planet of Ice moments. But the song just drags on and leaves you wanting to move to the next song long before this seven something minute one finishes. The album get’s back into the groove of things with Broken China where things get really fun with it’s catchy guitar riffs and up tempo drum beats the album really ends on a strong note.
So in the end what does that leave us with? Omni is a strong album with several noteworthy tracks that are both listenable and enjoyable. But when compared to the bands previous works the album seems a bit bare and underdevoloped. Like sure, there is a Minus the Bear album here but where is the charm? Where are the moments that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up? Or that one riff that you rewind and listen too several times going, “Whoa.”?
Tags: Album Review, Experimental, indie rock, Math Rock, Minus the Bear, Omni, RiffRaf, Rock
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