This article first appeared on The AU Review.
When it comes to New York’s Bear Hands, a lot of what’s involved in their latest album Distraction is what I’d call, “beautifully flawed”. For starters, in the first half a decade of being a band, they managed to split up, fall out as a band and with their manager, get back together all over again and release a debut album. To date, they have been trucking along for almost a solid decade and have released two full lengths with label support (their latest included), their popularity growing at a reasonably steady rate everyday. It took them a long time to get to this point, and despite a short backlog on hand the boys from Bear Hands have made sure that on first listen of the new album, you’ll find quality truly does kick quantities ass.
Distraction kicks off in an ominous haze of faux woodwind glory and intriguing vocals in “Moments Of Silence”, making short work of expectations, blowing them to smithereens when the song hits a huge climax that is both seizure inducing and liberating. It’s a tune to match the sweetest of anthems. Tracks like “Giants” and “Impasse” are messy and melodic, sticking with the whole brilliantly erratic vibe of the album. At one point the lyrics emulate this as frontman Dylan Rau spits, “You changed from crazy to calm,” something that rings true of this entire showcase.
When it hits the single “Agora”, it becomes abundantly clear that what we’ve heard so far is no fluke. For years, house parties have been lacking. Defeated to listening to tracks about hitting the town and sinking shots in clubs. But for those of us who enjoy a good old case of tins and a few friends ’round the backyard, there’s finally have a party anthem for the home-bodies – and “Agora” is it. The hook is smooth, packed with attitude and catchy as all diggity, singing ”You like to hang out, but don’t leave the house [cause I can’t]”, almost like it’s a courageous feat to be chilling at home. And I can’t shake this feeling that there’s a drunken sing-a-long on the way…
All the fun aside, if Distraction were to go down in history as one of the greats, it would likely be because of two singular tracks, “Bone Digger” and “The Bug”. The former builds in a clever way, chugging along with solidarity and just enough swag to make you intrigued about what’s coming next. By the time the keys and second guitar arrive to fill the gaps your head will be bopping in full swing. While a lot of the collection takes a bit of time to hit it’s stride (totally worth it), “The Bug” gets straight to the point. There are parts in there that kind of feel a little retro, either in the way that it’s recorded or even just the vibe in general. It’s a killer track with static, well placed bass meshing with off-beat guitar lines that combine for a friggen bad ass tune.
Usually, if I used the words “beautifully flawed” to describe an album, nine times out of ten it would be taken as a negative. But with this review, when I locked in my ear-buds and hit play it became apparent real quick. “Flawed” definitely isn’t always a negative. In the case of Distraction, it’s the things that would feel like flaws in a pop song that bring it’s tracks to life in a way that not a lot of seasoned rock acts can. Maybe it’s the recording techniques, maybe it’s in the attitudes or the way the songs can feel a little obtuse at times. It’s classic, raw, untainted. At the same time it’s authentic, anthemic and catchy enough to warrant a cheeky linger on the repeat button. All I can say is if it takes another decade to see what else they have up their sleeve, I’ll be sorely disappointed.
*****
Score: 8.3 / 10
Distraction is available now. For more information on Bear Hands visit their official Facebook Page HERE