{"id":71561,"date":"2018-10-23T14:00:48","date_gmt":"2018-10-23T13:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?p=71561"},"modified":"2018-10-21T20:19:14","modified_gmt":"2018-10-21T19:19:14","slug":"review-minus-the-bear-fair-enough-ep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-minus-the-bear-fair-enough-ep\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Minus The Bear &#8211; Fair Enough EP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-71563\" src=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/minus-the-bear-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/minus-the-bear-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/minus-the-bear-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/minus-the-bear-600x600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/minus-the-bear-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/minus-the-bear-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/minus-the-bear-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/minus-the-bear-465x465.jpg 465w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/minus-the-bear-500x500.jpg 500w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/minus-the-bear.jpg 1400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>After 18 years, the Seattle based indie rock outfit called it quits in July of this year, with &#8216;<em>Fair Enough&#8217;<\/em> being their swan song. Given that they are one of the highest selling artists on their labels Dangerbird and Suicide Squeeze respectively, a cult following in math rock\/post-rock scenes and countless worldwide tours at massive mainstream festivals, <strong>Minus The Bear<\/strong> have a lot to be proud of.<\/p>\n<p>Sadly, <em>&#8216;Fair Enough&#8217;<\/em> is arguably the weakest release of their sizeable discography. Whilst by no means terrible, it lacks the quirky time signatures, subtle instrumental complexities and hard-hitting lyrics that the band is known for.\u00a0 The opening title track thematically fittingly dwells on a breakup, as frontman Jake Snider croons: <em>&#8220;Grief is the cost of love, and I&#8217;m not rich enough.&#8221;<\/em> The offputting vocal effects and bleeding synth sounds aren&#8217;t particularly pleasant\u00a0to listen to, and leave a lot to be desired.<\/p>\n<p>Things however rapidly pick up on <em>&#8216;Viaduct&#8217;<\/em> with its groove-laden bass hook and crowd-pleasing\u00a0chorus. The satisfying guitar solo binds well into conventional rock territory, but you can&#8217;t help but feel as if anyone could have written this, and doesn&#8217;t do much to detract from its formulaic structure. Even near the end where there should be a big wall of noise building up with the satisfying riffs, it essentially just peters out with one last repetitive chorus refrain.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Minus the Bear - Fair Enough (Official Audio)\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zTJ9H29_JYY?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As Snider said in an interview with Stereogum, <em>&#8220;touring when you&#8217;re 27 compared to when you&#8217;re 42 is a whole different ball game.&#8221;<\/em> Indeed, <em>&#8216;Dinosaur&#8217;<\/em> appears to build on the idea of being jaded and waiting for the end to arrive. The noodly guitar lines here are slick and seductive, alongside a return to some of <strong>Minus The Bear<\/strong>&#8216;s more intriguing ambient textures. The ear candy crescendo\u00a0as Snider repeats the line <em>&#8220;To end us all, you wait for it, the fire above our heads&#8221;<\/em> feels like a breezy affair, you could picture him laying down in a field, watching the world collapse around him.<\/p>\n<p>If you were already a fan of <strong>Minus The Bear<\/strong> then this final EP is a short but sweet addition to their genre-spanning career, however &#8216;<em>Fair Enough&#8217;\u00a0<\/em>doesn&#8217;t\u00a0come close to the grandiose send-off\u00a0that would be expected of them.<\/p>\n<p>2.5\/5<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;<em>Fair Enough&#8217;\u00a0<\/em>by\u00a0<strong>Minus The Bear\u00a0<\/strong>is out now on <strong>Suicide Squeeze Records<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Minus The Bear<\/strong>\u00a0links: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/minusthebear\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/minusthebear\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/minusthebear.bandcamp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bandcamp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Ashwin Bhandari (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GIVEUPOX17\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@GIVEUPOX17<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Minus The Bear&#8217;s deliver a disappointing swan song on &#8216;Fair Enough&#8217;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":71563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,2269],"tags":[15315,16113,1093,2177],"class_list":["post-71561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-ep-review","tag-ashwin-bhandari","tag-fair-enough-ep","tag-minus-the-bear","tag-suicide-squeeze-records"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review: Minus The Bear - Fair Enough EP - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Minus The Bear&#039;s deliver a disappointing swan song on &#039;Fair Enough&#039;.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: Minus The Bear - Fair Enough EP - Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Minus The Bear&#039;s deliver a disappointing swan song on &#039;Fair Enough&#039;.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-minus-the-bear-fair-enough-ep\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-10-23T13:00:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/minus-the-bear.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ashwin Bhandari\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ashwin Bhandari\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Review: Minus The Bear - Fair Enough EP - Already Heard Staging","description":"Minus The Bear's deliver a disappointing swan song on 'Fair Enough'.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Review: Minus The Bear - Fair Enough EP - Already Heard Staging","og_description":"Minus The Bear's deliver a disappointing swan song on 'Fair Enough'.","og_url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-minus-the-bear-fair-enough-ep\/","og_site_name":"Already Heard Staging","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/","article_published_time":"2018-10-23T13:00:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1400,"height":1400,"url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/minus-the-bear.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ashwin Bhandari","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@alreadyhearduk","twitter_site":"@alreadyhearduk","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ashwin Bhandari","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-minus-the-bear-fair-enough-ep\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-minus-the-bear-fair-enough-ep\/"},"author":{"name":"Ashwin Bhandari","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/8ab3684d58b9f87814990e10842ffb6f"},"headline":"Review: Minus The Bear &#8211; Fair Enough EP","datePublished":"2018-10-23T13:00:48+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-minus-the-bear-fair-enough-ep\/"},"wordCount":422,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-minus-the-bear-fair-enough-ep\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/minus-the-bear.jpg","keywords":["Ashwin Bhandari","Fair Enough EP","Minus The Bear","Suicide Squeeze Records"],"articleSection":["Album Reviews","EP Reviews"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-minus-the-bear-fair-enough-ep\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-minus-the-bear-fair-enough-ep\/","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-minus-the-bear-fair-enough-ep\/","name":"Review: Minus The Bear - Fair Enough EP - Already Heard Staging","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-minus-the-bear-fair-enough-ep\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-minus-the-bear-fair-enough-ep\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/minus-the-bear.jpg","datePublished":"2018-10-23T13:00:48+00:00","description":"Minus The Bear's deliver a disappointing swan song on 'Fair Enough'.","inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-minus-the-bear-fair-enough-ep\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-minus-the-bear-fair-enough-ep\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/minus-the-bear.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/minus-the-bear.jpg","width":1400,"height":1400},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#website","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","name":"Already Heard Staging","description":"Covering the best in alternative music as best as we can","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization","name":"Already Heard","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","width":500,"height":500,"caption":"Already Heard"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/","https:\/\/x.com\/alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/alreadyheard\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/already-heard\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/AlreadyHeardMusic","https:\/\/tiktok.com\/@alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.threads.net\/@alreadyheard"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/8ab3684d58b9f87814990e10842ffb6f","name":"Ashwin Bhandari","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/754244cd4f65f3f6b3cd7afda3fe8ec93fd70255d33c4e8ce0d9047e087b030d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/754244cd4f65f3f6b3cd7afda3fe8ec93fd70255d33c4e8ce0d9047e087b030d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/754244cd4f65f3f6b3cd7afda3fe8ec93fd70255d33c4e8ce0d9047e087b030d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ashwin Bhandari"},"description":"24 year old music journo who yells on stage in Night Swimming.","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/author\/ashwin-bhandari\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71561"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71578,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71561\/revisions\/71578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}