Bear & the Woods – Sink or Swim EP

Bear & The Woods released their debut EP last week entitled Sink or Swim, for me it was a first chance to cop a listen of a band whose name is weaving its way around the Reading music ether. It’s odd how a name can conjure up an idea in the mind as to how a band will sound and in some respects I was somewhere near and in others I wasn’t. Rather obviously maybe I was expecting this to growl which it does in a youthful bear cub way but musically it is slightly more folk with a touch of a rougher irreverent edge.

It’s fair to say that Folk, Americana and Country are on the up in the UK of late with the chart friendly Mumford and Sons seemingly on anything and everything I tune into on the radio or TV. The upside of this though is the positive effect it’s having on this genre of music as a whole and, for bands like Bear & The Woods, that can only be a good thing. Their sound manages to do that tricky thing of straddling both US and UK sounds with a very English rough and ready folk vocal style, slightly aggressive but in not scary way, and although the singer professes in opening track Buoyancy Aids that “My lyrics are shit”, I think he may be fishing for compliments because I’m liking his lyrical style. There’s story telling here a plenty.

For me the opening track is the most instantly captivating with its seesaw arrangement scattergun drum beat and rattling guitars and mandolin riff, the more I hear it the more I’m liking it, which is always a good sign, I can imagine this being a great song live too. Wolf is a lovely, lilting song with some great harmonies which you can’t help but sing along with “I’m just a lamb dressed as a wolf, carry me home, carry me South”. Jonah has more pop sensibilities than the other three songs and is quite catchy but for me is the weakest of the four songs. They finally tick all the boxes by stripping it right down for the lament Down Down, a heartfelt song of sadness if ever there was one. The arrangements throughout the EP are very well thought out and considered with very nice earthy production, it sounds like real music by real musicians. All in all I think I’ll always enjoy Buoyancy Aids but Down Down is a song that I think I’ll be listening to in years to come.

This is definitely a band I’ll be seeking out to go and see, I’d suggest you do the same too. Check out Buoyancy Aids below and then ignore all the signs go feed those Bears, buy their EP…

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