THE BEARS: RISE AND SHINE (1988)
1) Aches And Pains; 2) Save
Me; 3) Robobo's Beef; 4) Not Worlds Apart; 5) Nobody's Fool; 6) Highway 2; 7)
Little Blue River; 8) Rabbit Manor; 9) Holy Mack; 10) Complicated Potatoes; 11)
You Can Buy Friends; 12) Best Laid Plans; 13) Old Fat Cadillac; 14) Girl With
Clouds.
Although this album is a little longer than the
first one, it gives the impression of being even more formulaic. No attempts at
walls of sound, no brass section anywhere, just a very basic, very tight
pop-rock sound. Two guitars, one bass, and a drumset. Of course, with Adrian
Belew constantly honing his skills as a «guitar-orchestra person», this means
that there will be numerous overdubs where his six-string will sound like a
one-string, a two-string, a no-string, or a little bird twirping away high up in
a tree, but eventually, you get used to the predictability of it, too.
The first five songs here really just go past
through me like a knife through warm butter — mood-wise, there is nothing to
tell them apart, and when all of your hooks look like they've been passed out from
the assembly line, there is no reason to call them «hooks» as such. Pleasant,
same-sounding midtempo pop with buzzing or meaouwing guitars (sometimes buzzing
and meaouwing at the same time, courtesy of Adrian's never-ending tone
variation effects) and friendly choruses. The album does not even try to begin
to steer a different course until ʽLittle Blue Riverʼ, which slows down the
tempo, adds a pinch of tender folksy harmonies, and tops it off with a psychedelic
coloring for the lead guitar part.
Further on, things become more interesting with
ʽRabbit Manorʼ, a quirky avantgarde-funk workout with a feel of
not-too-dangerous suspense and a touch of classic Belew paranoia; ʽComplicated
Potatoesʼ, with Belew (or is that Fetters?) adding some distortion to his sound;
and ʽBest Laid Plansʼ, with a mystical-hypnotic guitar line dominating the
verse (for the chorus with its questionable pun — "the best laid plans
never get laid" — they shift to the usual power-pop mood). But arguably
the best song, and the only one that made it over to Adrian's solo career (you
can find a live version on 1993's The Acoustic
Adrian Belew) is ʽOld Fat Cadillacʼ, for which he came up with a more «New
Wave»-y guitar pattern and a memorable riff.
The overall arrangement and performance of
ʽCadillacʼ does suggest that this is more of an «intimate Adrian Belew moment»
than a collective Bears tune, and this, in turn, suggests that there was a
certain reason why The Bears were put on hold after Rise And Shine, like its predecessor, failed to interest the
public: namely, because the most interesting songs on here are the ones where
«the band» is not intentionally striving to sound like «a band», but more like
«a backing band» for the chief personality. When it's de-personalized rhythm
guitar and group harmonies, they are neither the epitome of heavenly beauty nor
a wallop of unstoppable energy — but on ʽOld Fat Cadillacʼ, Belew's individual
emotionalism comes shining through.
Besides, the original novelty and excitement of
it all had worn off, and now they sound a bit too much like a relatively mindless
pop factory (good taste and all) where songs like ʽMeet Me In The Darkʼ and
ʽNone Of The Aboveʼ were honestly more fun. Style-wise, I have no problem with
the record, but it just feels too much like one of those «let us get together
and make a guitar-based pop-rock album with no purpose other than showing how
much we like guitar-based pop-rock» ventures, and we've probably all had our
fair share of these already. And what's up with that big old hinomaru on the album cover? Was that a
surreptitious attempt at sucking up to the Japanese market? Bizarre, but I'm
not even sure the album got a Japanese release in the first place (much as the
Japanese love to release and re-release everything, especially if it got bonus
tracks).
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