Band : Polar Bear Club
Album title : Chasing Hamburg
Label : Bridge Nine
Distributor : Hard Life Promotion - Suburban
Release date : 22/09/2009
Release : CD

While to us, European, it might seem that PBC is releasing their albums in an incredibly fast pace…we saw their debut full-length Sometimes Things Just Disappear, issued in the States during March 2008, in our record stores only in February of this year (review by yours truly posted on 15/02/2009, and still available for your history-of-the-band lesson)…but of course that debut album was recorded soo long ago!

In the meantime PBC apparently traded their old bassist for one Eric “Goose” Henning and, when returning from their European trek with The Gaslight Anthem earlier this year, dusted off some old demoed ideas before heading into the studio with acclaimed producer Matt Bayles (whom you might know from having worked with the likes of Mastodon and Minus The Bear). Although Small Town Bike and Hot Water Music had always been influencial in the band’s music before (other cited influences including Third Eye Blind, Silent Majority, and Lifetime – check PBC’s page at Wikipedia), this time they payed homage to those bands (and The Get Up Kids) by specifically chosing the 10 songs for this album!

According to singer Jimmy Stadt, the band was more meticulous with the writing this time, doing more pre-production than ever before and working off each other to write stuff that fit the songs, in stead of writing parts to sound as cool as possible individually (as the band did prior to Chasing Hamburg). Evidently, Bayles helped ‘em along in this process, leaving the band members room to breathe, but there to lend a push in the back when needed. Drummer Emmett Menke states: “…The new songs are overall a bit shorter and more upbeat, while somehow getting a little darker. Lyrically, they’re a lot more personal than our previous efforts. We’re happy with the final product…”

So am I, my friend, so am I…and I presume so will be a lot of people who are already fans, or about to become just that! The album is a great mix of Punk, Hardcore, Emo, Indie Rock, and more, and the great thing is that none of those individual genres ever overpowers the other! Check it out at myspace.com/polarbearclub, where the band has psted 2 songs off the new album alongside the 2 off Sometimes… and the one off their EP which were already there before! Yeah, a definite improvement on what they recorded two years ago!

88/100

Tony.