Seattle band Bleachbear released their sophomore record, Cowboy Movie Star, on the 30th of July 2016

I’ve followed Bleachbear ever since I saw them at Teen Night Out at the Seattle Art Museum in 2015. From the first time I heard their surf-inspired pop rock, I was impressed. Perhaps it was their live sound, full and loud, or Tigerlily Cooley‘s pristine vocals, but something caught me about them.

Though Cowboy Movie Star embodies this feeling, it doesn’t start as immaculately as did my initial exposure to Bleachbear. The first song of this record starts on a familiar note, with the surf-rock “bum bum” sung by the other members of the band, and Cooley on lead vocals. Though a cool effect, it’s a little out of tune, and seems a tad trite. This continues through the whole song, but once you look past it the melody of the song flows very nicely.

The next song ‘Boy’ is an interesting diversion, with an almost grimy bass tone defining the rhythmic nature of the verse, and Cooley’s vocals utilizing staccato to accentuate this.

From here the album decrescendos to ‘Twenty Six’ and ‘Waltzing In The Dark’, the former being a soaring ballad that just catches the heart with its suspended-to-major vocal harmonies. The decrescendo continues from here with ‘Flash Mob’, ‘Sunken Submarine’, and ‘Somnium’, until ‘I Don’t Know’ comes around back to some upbeat surf rock.

‘Circus’ is aptly named, with a strange base chord progression, padded with an organ, providing an offbeat transition to the title track. ‘Cowboy Movie Star’ is a fun surf rock song at first, until Cooley kicks in the distortion, and growls up the vocals for a pretty rock and roll bridge, from where the song continues on its merry way and ends the album as it started, kind of lackluster.

The production on Cowboy Movie Star is pretty consistent, with a sort of room-y vibe throughout the whole record. There’s always a rhythm guitar on the left, and it’s always a lead guitar on the right, which ends up being a little strange at times that seem to call for more rhythm guitar or are lacking a lead guitar line altogether. Other than that, I don’t have much else bad to say about it. Bird Cooley’s drum sound is enormous for this sort of record and the reverb really drives this point home. During some parts Emiko Gantt’s bass was a little too pronounced for the mix but other than that her bass sounded great and worked perfectly for most of the songs.

Ultimately I left Cowboy Movie Star with not much of a taste in my mouth. It was an experience that is very in the moment. Though, the “with you” part of the first song ‘The Love Detectives’ is stuck in my head.