“Infinity Overhead,” the latest album from Minus the Bear, dropped Tuesday and created a mix of upbeat rock songs and softer-than-soft songs that could put you to sleep. The result is an album where half of the songs fall flat.
The album dances across genres – transcending rock, indie and soft rock alike. At times its tracks are enjoyable and original. Then suddenly your ears are blitzed with the softest of soft rock, something you might expect on the soundtrack of a soap opera, which is the album’s downfall. Luckily, only half of this album is comprised of that type of overly sentimental music. The other half is quite raw and sounds almost 8-bit – tunes you would expect Mega Man or Mario to rock out to back in their retro-Nintendo 64 days.
Two songs that highlight the extremes of this bipolar album are “Steel and Blood” and “Heaven is a Ghost Town.”
“Steel and Blood” is a hybrid of raw vocals and melodies complimented by an almost robotic sounding instrumental side. This is one of several highlights of the album. When the band sticks to this happy marriage of synthetic rock with pristine vocals by frontman Jake Snider, it works.
“Heaven is a Ghost Town” is quite the opposite and, unfortunately, the other half of the album sounds similar to this track. Most of these songs are softer than soft rock and compromise the dismal, sappy and slow side of “Infinity Overhead.” While these songs do not completely ruin the album, they never seem to find their place. Most of them would be best for lulling yourself to sleep.
Identity is the biggest problem with this album. The band seems to want to expand its audience but fails as it attempts to cover 360 degrees of rock.
Grade: C+
