Bear in Heaven

Imagine a Krautrock-loving shoegaze band working their way through Wire’s synthesized work from the 1980s, and you might be within driving distance of Bear In Heaven's decidedly eclectic neighborhood (and I don’t mean the band’s homebase of Brooklyn). Yeah, just head towards the sound of Merriweather Post Pavilion, and hang a left at the drum circles.

While such directions certainly might bring to mind a four-letter word with negative connotations (pr*g), Jon Philpot and friends make it work. In the past, though, Bear In Heaven's music could be a daunting and difficult listen if you weren’t receptive to their particular charms. For their second album, Beast Rest Forth Mouth, the quartet solved that problem by cutting their usual cocktail with a straightforward, honest-to-goodness pop tune. But don’t think of “Lovesick Teenagers” as some sort of crass grab at the brass ring. It’s just Bear In Heaven putting on its Sunday best, filtering their eccentricities through an irresistible, glittering chorus, and an alluring world-weary optimism. “Lovesick teenagers don’t ever die,” sings Philpot. “They will live forever."

The same can be said for the song itself, which not only receives a welcome reprise in the album's concluding track, but (either by proxy or by osmosis) imparts its melodic splendor to the rest of the album. The end result is a heady middle ground, where the outre and the popular meet to create a spectacular, singular soundworld. —David Raposa