Citizen Dick Retrospective – Best of 2009 – Bear in Heaven

Bear in Heaven is coming to play for students at Case Western Reserve early in the new year, and even if I have to crawl inside a guitar case to smuggle myself into the show, I’ll somehow manage.  To put it mildly, Brooklyn-based Bear in Heaven’s Beast Rest Forth Mouth was a huge blast of refreshing energy to my music arsenal this year.  If anyone has a music list without this album squarely featured, they’re missing the boat.  In my October review of the album, I couldn’t have used a better simile than “It’s like someone’s singing you a lullaby while your bed’s on fire.”  This ten track album is epic in scope, full in sound and intensity, and intricate in its arrangement.  We’re excited to host the band in Cleveland in a few short weeks, and even more intrigued to hear these tracks in a live setting.  Jon Philpot has alluded in interviews that many of the tracks on BRFM have been honed over the long haul since their debut LP, and one listen in its entirety brings this idea home abruptly and pleasantly.  To put it mildly, there’s not an album released in 2009 that sounds like this.  In this business, that’s saying something.

Much of BRFM’s value lies in the multiple listens it requires.  Huge tracks with major prog-rock tendencies are laid out with multiple layers of sound, spiraling between primal percussion and swirling synth driven pulsing.  Most of the record is electronically situated, but what makes the album sing is that it doesn’t have that feel to it.  It’s gritty and loud, intense, and full of hooks.  “Ultimate Satisfaction” is one of my favorite tracks of the year.  Much hype has been given to “Lovesick Teenagers” due to the pushing of Edward Droste and our great pals at Pitchfork, and while the song is good, it’s in no way indicative of the largeness of the album.  Tightly coiled rhythms bounce and pummel throughout the album, and create a catchy and infectious vibe that remains edgy enough to tense the shoulders and hit people with.  Songs like “Dust Cloud” and “Drug A Wheel” soar into nearly freakout mode, but the band always manages to rein things in just enough to keep their sound from exiting the arena.  From percussion, to synthesizers, blips, sludgy fuzz, to soaring and cinematic vocal delivery, this album has a present for every listener.

In the year that was, much heraldry was placed on the experimental side of things in the indie world.  I’ve come to the conclusion that experimental doesn’t always equate genius or intelligence.  I’ve listened to a lot of music this year, and Beast Rest Forth Mouth takes home the blue-ribbon in about fifteen indie categories, and they do it with enough intricacy to keep this on your turntable for years to come.  Enjoy the aforementioned, “Lovesick Teenagers,” and “Wholehearted Mess.”

Check out the rest of our slowly building “Best Albums of 2009″ list.

Bear in Heaven Official Site

Buy Beast Rest Forth Mouth at Insound now!

Bear in Heaven – Wholehearted Mess

Bear in Heaven – Lovesick Teenagers