Brooklyn-based synth pop party dudes Bear in Heaven this spring released their first LP since 2009’s Pitchfork-acclaimed Beast Rest Forth Mouth. The new album I Love You, It’s Cool was first streamed on the band’s website slowed down to 400,000 percent of its original speed. The stream began in March and culminated in the release of the real album on April 3. That experimental preview is a far cry from the rhythmic, sparkling, dance jams on I Love You, It’s Cool. The album sounds like if Tears for Fears, Animal Collective, and Beach House were bosses in Mega Man 2.
The track “Sinful Nature” is typical of the I Love You, It’s Cool new wave influences. The mark of bands like The Smiths and The Cure is definitely audible, though Bear in Heaven balances them with a distinctly current experimental electro pop sound. “Sinful Nature” is the kind of song you might hear in an action movie about street racing and cocaine. In the hyper-tight-light of a Britney Spears music video, the scrappy, sweat drenched hero shakes off a teary-eyed blond (also covered in sweat) to step into his car. He knows it’s dangerous, but he doesn’t care. He has nothing left to lose.