I was kinda scared what the new album was gonna sound like after having seen them live. It all sounded good enough onstage but some of the songs seemed to be more emopop and I couldn’t really wrap my head around that. But hey, I’ll admit it when I’m wrong and wrong I was! Because “Chasing Hamburg” is vintage Polar Bear Club. If one can call a band’s sound vintage when they’ve only released two albums.
Anyway, not a whole lot has changed compared to “Sometimes Things Just Disappear”. They still use those mathy guitars that swerve into something more melodic later on in the song with Jimmy Stadt growling all over them. It’s still something of a mix between Hot Water Music, Moneen and Small Brown Bike but rather than being simply another band sounding like them, Polar Bear Club is well on its way of becoming a band other acts are compared to thanks to their flawless track record so far.
There’s no surprises on here or it would have to be opener “See The Wind” which is probably the heaviest song they’ve recorded so far. Or maybe it’s “Drifting Thing”, a more poppy song where Stadt gets to show off his vocal range sounding all vulnerable. But other than the couple of newish things they’ve injected into their sound, this is still the same old Polar Bear Club you fell in love with delivering another awesome album. Do I sound like a fan? It’s because I am one.
Score: 8.5 out of 10
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