Minus The Bear - Menos el Oso

Writing rock music is all about a delicate balance. You don’t want to be too sad, too happy, too simple, too complex, too heavy, (is that possible?). So I’m going to lay it out: Minus the Bear achieves this balance in a way like no other band I can think of. With song titles like “The Game Needed Me” or “This Ain’t No Surfin’ Movie” or even “Monkey!! Knife!! Fight!!” from their first album, you might expect these guys to be some insane instrumental act that thrives on making their music impossible to hum while you’re sitting bored in traffic. Instead, you get songs that are layered and complex with syncopated rhythms that are still strong on melody and deceptively dancey. The band members clearly feed off each other and know how each of them fit into every song as a whole. This album does more than maintain a listenable complexity. The production is remarkably bright and really adds something to the songs themselves. In other words, this is among my favorite albums I’ve had the chance to review. This is really quite fortunate because I can’t say I would have necessarily picked up this disk otherwise. Coupled with somewhat complex musical structure, we have singer Jake Snider’s pop-perfect vocals and melodies. The album has a nice steady build, so that by the time you hit the almost over-the-top solo of “The Fix”, you’re ready for the emotional pleading of “El Torrente.” All in all, certainly one of my favorite albums (not simply a collection of songs, but an ALBUM) of last year. [www.minusthebear.com]