Today's album: Bear vs. Shark - Right Now You're In the Best of Hands (Equal Vision 2005)
Genre: Post-hardcore, Emo, Indie Rock
Running time: 12 tracks, 40:43
In a nutshell: There's more than one emotion in "emo" you know...
1. Ma Jolie
2. Campfire
3. Buses/No Buses
4. Employee is Not Afraid
5. We Were Sad, But Now We're Rebuilding
6. Kylie
7. MPS
8. Second
9. Don't Tell the Horses the Stable's On Fire
10. Bloodgiver
11. Michigan
12. Broken Dog Leg
Another relic from my adolescence pops up in shuffle. I seriously know this album like the back of my hand, I've listened to it countless times. Like In Reverie, this album has survived the corn and cheeze of my turbulent high school years and proven itself timeless. I remember seeing this on the rack at a Best Buy with a little sticker on it namedropping both Modest Mouse and Fear Before the March of Flames. You can't deny that the combination is at the least intriguing. Also like In Reverie, it does seem to hit the niche somewhere between indie and emo.
Is it 'emo'? I suppose you could call it that, but only if you don't associate angst with emo, and instead embrace the whole gamut of emotions. I've heard the album described as "happy hard-core", referring to the jubilant chorus and hand-claps of opening track Ma Jolie. The screaming on the album confers more than anger or sorrow; rather, what most comes across is some form of indescribable exhilaration. The sappiest tracks seem to be lost-love song Kylie, which I've read is actually the band's least liked song, a product more of label pressure than artistic intent. If I was going to suggest tracks for first-time listeners, I would suggest listening to the MPS and Second back-to-back. The former is somewhat poetic emo, just a clean electric guitar strummed over "deep" lyrics. The latter has lyrics which conclude in 30 seconds, followed by a 3 minutes of post-punk jam, spinning downward and landing softward.
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