You’ll Pay For This album review

“Scrappier and punkier” than ever, experimental rock band Bear Hands is back with their third LP, You’ll Pay For This. While it isn’t very “punk-y” per say, the album is well composed for such an unbridled style of music.

Lead singer Dylan Rau and lead guitarist Ted Feldman first met and formed the band at Wesleyan University (an uppity liberal arts university in Connecticut) in 2006 and were later joined by bassist Val Loper and drummer TJ Orscher. The group began writing their first album “Burning Bush Supper Club” in 2010

Six years, three EPs and an LP later, Bear Hands released the singles “2am” (February 2016) and “Marathon Man” (March 2016) with “2am” peaking at number five on the ALT NATION ALT 18 and number 15 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart. For a band that most people haven’t heard of, that is very successful for an recently released album.

However, it’s unsurprising that the album has had success because of how well put together it is. While it isn’t normally what I listen to, the primarily falsetto melodies, piano and acoustic guitar lead lines, synthesizer ambiance and punk rock rhythm guitar and drums combine to generate a sound that lives up to the genre of experimental rock. Musically, it is an excellent album.

About now, some of you are ready to quit reading just in spite of the fact that I haven’t actually said anything bad about the album. Well, sit back down because we have made it to the music video of the song “2am”; the only music video released along with the album. It’s just straight up unoriginal. The main chorus line to the song, “nothing good happens past 2 a.m.” is an adaptation from the adage “Nothing good happens after midnight” (or a quote from Ted’s mother, depending on who you ask), and, of course, that is exactly what the music video revolves around. It features a bunch of people in their late 20s to early 30s at a at a party with lots of booze, and the people are filmed going about their business while holding up signs with the lyrics to the song scrawled on them. It’s just plain boring and does nothing to add to the depth of the song and thus takes away from the album as a whole.

To wrap this up with a nice little bow, musically, You’ll Pay For This is a fantastic album. It is both lyrically and compositionally well done; a great album as long as you are willing to look past the unoriginal music video.

The Parkway West Pathfinder gives “You’ll Pay For This” a 9.0/10.