Gold Bears: Are you falling in love (2011)

Uno de los discos de 2011 que rinde un tributo más que rendido al Indie noventero es este Are you falling in love (2011), estreno discográfico de Gold Bears, joven banda de Atlanta compañera de sello de The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Bueno, compañeros de sello además de compartir ciertas afinidades: gusto por la distorsión, por las melodías urgentes, por los riffs de guitarra punzantes y directos. Incluso tienen una chica enrolada en sus filas también de rasgos orientales (Juliet Sy).
La música de Gold Bears es un compendio de las mejores enseñanzas de Bob Mould en los noventa. Hüsker Dü y Sugar, sus dos bandas referencia, son la principal inspiración de este disco de Pop-Punk acelerado (Record store, All those years, East station attendant, Totally called, In this city i´m invincible, Tally…). Cuando dejan a un lado la herencia de Mould, los chicos prestan sus oídos al C-86 más acelerado (So natural, Are you falling in love?).
Las comparaciones con sus colegas no son del todo correctas, pues, a mi entender, a Gold Bears les falta ese puntito de ingenuidad adolescente y de nostalgia distorsionada de TPOBPAH, y a cambio los de Atlanta han facturado un álbum en el que prácticamente no hay tregua. Ahora habrá que ver si Gold Bears pasa la reválida de su próximo disco. The Pains la han pasado. Y con nota. Recomendable.

Gold Bears – Are you falling in love (2011)

“Given their looks, their taste, and the fact that their repertoire includes song titles like ‘Record Store’ and color-bleeding complete-sentence quips like “After sex, I was lying awake in bed with visions of sugar plums dancing around my head” – it’s easy to tell Gold-Bears were probably pretty ecstatic to land themselves within the exclusive pedigree of Slumberland. The Atlanta collective are probably a few years too old to be getting away with their rosy jangle with complete teenaged earnestness, but their nostalgia and the pure idolization offered to the bands they’re imitating is truly palatable.
We’re talking about an album called Are You Falling In Love? for god’s sake – and the band trots out the exact miniature twee you’d expect them to; blending in soft-focus to an even greater degree than label-mates Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Sunbeam guitars, Spartan drums, frantic songs about love and music – all covered in a gentle gauze. The aforementioned ‘Record Store’ rages in the High School age; all clattering guitar jostle while frontman Jeremy Underwood’s life is saved “from the back-door /of a crowded record store.” The 2-minute ‘All Those Years’ follows in similar fashion with saccharine start-stopping chords and a particularly well-placed harmony from Juliet Sy (who, naturally, sounds quite a bit like the Pains’ Peggy Wang.) Save for the faded title-track and the gentle crash-pop of closer ‘Yeah, Tonight,’ all these songs carry a sense of direct immediacy. Pretty sing-a-longs are not saved for a payoff; they’re spread liberally and delectably through every inch of the record’s 30 minutes.
And then it passes, mostly uncontested, like a centering summer breeze. You may play back Are You Falling In Love? to make sure you didn’t miss something lurking beneath the tenderness – but it’s a fool’s errand. The straightforward, undemanding, adorable pomp of Gold-Bears remains basic in its results – built to suit any time and place, its ingredients the essences of wit, whimsy and lover’s soul. It will not encroach your list-making, but it will patiently wait for your return should you decide to take a visit to its glowing world again” (thelineofbestfit.com)

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