Polar Bear Club are back with their fourth studio album, ‘Death Chorus’, and it starts with a bang. ‘Blood Balloon’ is a fantastic lead single and sums up so many of the qualities we’ve come to love from this upstate New York band. It’s anthemic yet gritty, backed up by a great guitar riff and a huge chorus led by some characteristically life affirming vocals from front-man Jimmy Stadt.
We’ve seen this so many times before from them– notably with ‘Living Saints’, ‘Killin’ it’ and ‘Another Night’ on earlier albums.
Does the rest of ‘Death Chorus’ keep up with the pace though? Well ‘So I Buy’ and ‘For Show’ pack a great one-two punch. Both are punk-rock tracks with a decent chorus and memorable vocal lines once more. We then have ‘Why Live When You Can Die’ which has more than a passing hint to Saves The Day, with a melody that could easily be mistaken for a Chris Conley track. From there the album does start to flag though – tracks such as ‘Siouxsie Jeanne’ and ‘Upstate Mosquito’ aren’t as charismatic as we’ve come to expect from Polar Bear Club ballads. In the past they’ve broken albums up with tracks such as ‘Drifting Thing’ and ‘Slow Roam’, which feel poignant and memorable and are some of the most revered moments from the band. You don’t get that feeling here and after repeated listens you’re left with a sense of still waiting for that feeling to kick back in.
‘Death Chorus’ isn’t a bad album by any means. It’s upbeat, despite several references to death, and will please the band’s loyal fanbase. The worry is that this is unlikely to draw band larger audiences and with multiple line up changes you do worry for Polar Bear Club and that’s only because the thought of one of the very best bands in punk rock today losing what they had isn’t one that deserves entertaining.
TOM BECK