Minus the Bear Follows 2010's Trend with First Dangerbird Release OMNI

Closely following Death Cab for Cutie and Blue Scholars, Minus the Bear's Suicide Squeeze debut EP This Is What I Know About Being Gigantic was one of my first introductions to Seattle's intoxicating music scene. OMNI, the quintet's seventh release and first with Dangerbird, is a prime 10-track example of what seems to be the trend of 2010: wildly hyped but slightly disappointing albums groomed by big-name producers (in this case Joe Chiccarelli, but see The Morning Benders, MGMT and Band of Horses for more examples). Sadly the aggressive mathcore rhythms are less prevalent, the synthesizer more overpowering and aurally ambiguous and the electronic influences at times breaching into techno or '80s "Tarzan Boy" drum sounds. I want to love this album--I really do--and not just because it's Minus the Bear, but because it hasn't lost the band's signature sound that I fell in love with in middle school. Jake Snyder's voice is still perfectly channeled, the melodies still wondrously catchy--especially single "My Time" and middle-of-the-disk song "Hold Me Down." But they're no "Pachuca Sunrise" and OMNI just doesn't do the discography justice.