Minus The Bear - Memos El Osos
The first track here, The Game Needed Me, is fabulous. It's mature indie rock with warped riffs and complex time signatures, sounding like Jimmy Eat World playing Meshuggah. Dave Knudson's guitar playing on this track, and throughout the album, is sublime. The guitar work is still quirky and technical but it is less gimmicky than on their debut, Highly Refined Pirates.
Drilling is a great driving rock song with a delicate math pop touch. El Torrente is a dream of a song with its delicate, dreamy, meditative indie rock. Pachuca Sunrise is where both styles converge, mature American indie rock on the verse and quirky, technical pop on the chorus.
The first album was initially a blast but time hasn't been as kind to it, especially as more and more bands have taken their blueprint and run with it (see Foals). This album is the complete opposite as it gets better and better with each play.
Overall, how would I describe the sound on this, their second album? Math rock? Complex indie rock? Emo pop? It's probably all of these and more. I think this is Minus The Bear's most complete album. All of the songs feel fully formed rather than their previous record's Dillinger Escape Plan gone pop, which was essentially a showy collection of collection of riffs and guitar licks.
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