Minus the Bear
VOIDS

Minus the Bear - Voids

Since 2002, Minus the Bear have released a string of fairly consistent, ambitious (if not always successful) albums that navigate the shared ground between math-rock, prog-rock and groove-based dance numbers. Each album tweaked its predecessor’s formula enough to keep the band interesting and listeners on their toes. Even Infinity Overhead, which dropped the band’s penchant for experimentation in favor of a more straightforward, pop-rock hybrid sound, ultimately contained more hits than misses (and a few career highlights). VOIDS is the first album to flip this formula on its head and double down on its misses. Largely built on filler, it leaves listeners somewhere between disappointment and relief that it took the band this long to hit their weak spot.

Of course, it’s impossible to analyze VOIDS in a vacuum, but even if we did, the problem lies within the juxtaposition of quality of work here. We know what Minus the Bear are capable of, not only due to the strength of their back catalog, but because of the strength of some of the songs here. The band’s opening tracks are always on point, and “Last Kiss” is no different; a sonic cousin to “Steel and Blood,” the song opens with glitchy and distorted notes that energize the minor chords that follow. The chorus stands among the band’s best, with vocalist Jake Snider breaking through walls of guitar and rich-sounding synth singing, “Every look is a last kiss/Everyone is the enemy/I can’t believe it ends like this.”

But the best songs here are never followed properly, and it’s hard to blame that on sequencing when there’s only four truly remarkable tracks to begin with. A song like “Give & Take” contains all the pieces that make a strong Minus the Bear song – unique pedal play and guitar riffs — but its chorus feels mismatched in size and tempo, as if it was pulled from an entirely different song, and there’s something about the general muddiness and place of the vocals within the mix that just doesn’t feel quite right.

“Tame Beasts” suffers a similar fate. Sung by keyboardist Alex Rose (who puts on a more than passible impression of Snider’s uniquely smooth croon), the song is musically engaging and admittedly riff-y, but as cool as that pre-chorus sounds, the song still suffers from lyrical blunders and issues within the mix. These observations are nitpicky, but they’re made all the more obvious following “Silver,” the album’s centerpiece and the only song on VOIDS that justifies a length of five-plus minutes. “Silver” is the kind of Minus the Bear song that builds upon itself, showcasing all of the band’s best abilities and utilizing them to create something larger than life (not unlike Infinity Overhead’s “Diamond Lightning”).

Unfortunately, even as the longest song on the album, the energy and wit behind “Silver” is sorely missed throughout the rest of the album (an energy only partially hinted at during closing track “Lighthouse”). “Call the Cops,” another sung by Rose, feels crowded and half-baked, every vocal doubled in a strange song that never quite lifts off. The unique start-and-stop chorus of lead single “Invisible” does its best to pick up the energy (and as a song, it works much better in the context of the album), but that momentum is bogged right back down by “What About the Boat?,” one of two aimless, five-minute slowburners that not only deny to reach for something greater, but feel content in doing so.

These are the reasons that VOIDS, as a Minus the Bear album, simply doesn’t work. VOIDS lacks the inventiveness that once made the band relevant and settles for only trying new things when it feels absolutely necessary. The album features four-ish standouts that range from “redeemable” to “career highlights” as well as the worst song they’ve ever written (the artery-clogging lyrical cheese that is “Robotic Heart”) and five other songs that, quite frankly, could’ve held a disposable place on any Minus the Bear album. Fans of the band should take what they can from VOIDS and chew on it until the band returns with the next genre-bending record we all know they have in them, while those new to the group would be best spending that wait reveling in the highlights of albums passed.