Oliver Future - Bear Chronicles V.2 Review
By Rob Nipe
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I like Oliver Future. They have a great sound. They have a fantastically weird and cool website. They are the band that you like to just happen across because then you can tell everyone you know that you love this band and they should get it. I had a similar experience with Billy Talent. I loved that album and wanted everyone else to love it as much as I did. I think the similarities between the two bands don't stop there either.
Both bands have some of the most unique vocals I've heard. For those that are familiar with Billy Talent, Ben Kowalewicz has this tendency to switch from nasal shriek to singing in the blink of an eye. It can't be traditionally described as a scream per say because the uniqueness of the sound shows more depth of emotion that an ordinary scream. Oliver Future's Noah Lit has a similar if not a more understated style which fits his band perfectly. On "What Heart?", Lit screams this refrain as an answer to the old adage "Listen to you heart." "Seppuku Sunday" has Lit singing about the tequila shots he is drinking on Saturday because-on Sunday-it is going to hurt a lot when he kills himself. While Billy Talent is a more a punk band and overt in their meanings, Oliver Future takes a more new wave, mature approach that realizes the power in understatement. There are big songs on this album but they are tempered with subdued, intricate handling that makes them infinitely more interesting.
Some of the big songs though don't match up to the rest of the album. It isn't unreasonable to look at an album-or rather the experience of an album-as a journey. It may be tired comparison but it is one that I found rings true none the less. Good albums feel like there is no time elapsed at all. You are carried away in the experience and that is great. Eighty percent of the time in Oliver Future's album, I'm happily going with them. But the third song (on an album that only has five songs) completely takes you out of the experience. The band recovers with the final two songs but what the heck? If I had a gun to my head and was forced to continue the annoyingly, played out journey metaphor, likening the listening to the album to a car trip, the third song is the equivalent of the driver leaving the car to go to the bathroom and insisting on taking the keys with him so you can't have the heat or the radio on while he is gone. It just comes out of nowhere and derails you for a while. But Oliver Future is good enough to get you back on track. Just be sure to call shotgun so you can control the music so you can listen to Bear Chronicles V.2. So, I'll leave you simply with these words, Oliver Future Keep on Truckin'!
