Four-piece Seattle-based indie-prog band Minus the Bear recently released their fourth album, OMNI, three years after the critical and commerical success of their last LP. The opening track (and the album’s single)“My Time” vibrantly resounds with Passion Pit-esque synthesizers. As a whole OMNI runs the gamut of rock styles, but the recurrent pairing of synth and guitar is so damn sexy that listeners will forgive the album’s inconsistency.
The synth riffs in “My Time” may take center stage, but they fill only supporting roles in the rest of the album, typically fading behind lead singer Jake Snider’s dark vocals— and disappointingly so, as some of the keyboard’s melodies are more lyrical than the lyrics themselves. Although the vocalist makes a noble attempt in “Hold Me Down,” the line “I’m in the wind/ I am in the wind” was far less interesting to listen to than the driving guitar riffs behind the lyrics.
Luckily, the band manages to resolve this problem in the next track, “Excuses,” in which keyboardist Alex Rose weaves a complex harmony behind Snider’s croons. The catchy guitar refrain recalls the Motion City Soundtrack’s bouncy melodies. The album reaches a climax at the subsequent track, “The Thief,” which achieves a perfect balance between all facets of the band’s sound.
OMNI mellows out in the last few tracks, as “Dayglow Vista Road” and “Fooled by the Night” both hint at the experimental ambient sound that characterized their album Planet of Ice in 2007. As the final, 7:20 minute song rounds into the last minute of lyrical vamping and slowed tempo, I’m lulled into that indie-prog coma that only Minus the Bear can provide.
3/5 stars
