Bear In HeavenFollowing up huge success is understandably hard. Bear in Heaven's Beast Rest Forth Mouth was epic in scope and breathtaking in its execution, so the double-edged sword of expectation has been hovering over their next project ever since. With I Love You, It's Cool they've got no wind in their sails, and just when they look like they're breaking out the oars, they lose energy and just kinda float there. Disappointing, but only in relative terms. On its own, I Love You... is not that bad.
Let's get the downers out of the road. There's no tension on this record. There was a feeling on their last album like they were escaping from something, and they needed to keep running, keep striving to get somewhere safe. This seems to be the unexpected conclusion to that predicament: they got there, and what they found was just not as fun. The pulsing rhythms they enjoy using are still here, but there's no drive, no real conviction to guide them.
Those killer hooks from Beast... are gone too, which can be felt acutely. Ultimate Satisfaction punched through the stratosphere, and that was in an album surrounded by memorable moments just like it. The closest we get here is maybe the conclusion to The Reflection Of You, and even that feels like they're just trying to wake up.
New Order homage Sinful Nature opens up nicely with a glistening chorus of nifty guitar posing, and the vocals have some guts, and Kiss Me Crazy is definitely a potential single. There are some lovely textures at work here and they've mastered tone manipulation through some nice synth work. It's an okay effort, but not as memorable. They can definitely do better.
