Bearsuit – The Phantom Forest

Album Review by Sam Wiseman | 23 Mar 2011
Album title: The Phantom Forest
Artist: Bearsuit
Label: Fortuna POP!
Release date: 14 March

Bearsuit are one of the last bands you'd associate with maturity, but that is nonetheless what the Norwich indie-electro outfit seem to be grappling with on The Phantom Forest. The explosive choruses and frenetically silly pace of their early material has been notably toned down, eschewed for an approach which retains their ear for a tune but mingles that with a more subdued, almost melancholy, temperament – particularly on single Please Don't Take Him Back.

That said, the old energy is still evident on tracks like Jim Henson's Creature Workshop, which lurches through careering synth lines before colliding in a chorus of clattering guitar noise. While such moments are too infrequent to place The Phantom Forest among Bearsuit's best records, they nonetheless demonstrate that the band have by no means lost their mojo. Still, here's hoping they realise before long that maturity isn't necessarily something worth aspiring to. [Sam Wiseman]

http://www.myspace.com/bearsuit