Given that it’s been five years since their last full length release, I really had no clue when Bear Hands would ever make new music again. But to my great joy, they’ve recently released The Key to What – yay!
Truthfully, I don’t know if I’ll ever like an album more than I did 2016’s You’ll Pay for This, but I trust that they will always have insanely bizarre and catchy songs for as long as they continue to make music. The Key to What is no exception. They impressed the pants off of me with their first single, “Intrusive Thoughts.” It’s so danceable and catchy that I don’t know if I’ll ever grow tired of hearing it. I think when it first came out I probably listened to it a hundred times within the week.
Their second single, “Floor It” impressed me less than the first, but upon hearing it again in full, it also really rocks. The beginning, as it did the first time, reminds me of something either out of a commercial or The Rugrats, but overall it has a sweet, slow groove to it. The guitars in the chorus are also so addictive. Kind of going off of that lighter vibe is the opening track, “Mosquito Song.” It was pretty cute and made me think of summertime a bit. Another song that I think I will grow to become obsessed with is “Dialtone.” It hooked me already with it’s very cool synth bass pumping in the background.
The rest of the album had a lot of experimental sounds that I have come to expect from the band. For instance, “Moonwalking on Eggshells” has rapping! It was very cool. “Car Wreck” is maybe the first song I’ve ever heard featuring another artist. Though I’ve never heard of Have a Nice Life, I thought they were definitely complimentary of this particular song, though I wasn’t a big fan of the autotune. Adderall/Ambien had a very fun video, but even cooler was some unexpected saxophone sliding in at the end! The lyrics address more serious fair like a lot of their other music, but they always seem to successfully turn it into an earworm.
The remainder of the album was neither good or bad, so I was happy with the overall listening experience. I’m mainly just so happy that these guys are making music, and I really hope some more tour dates are on the horizon so I can see them again soon. Or a festival date!