Bearsuit - The Phantom Forest

Bearsuit are back with their first album in four years, proving themselves to be modern indie survivors. Having clocked up a number of entries on John Peel’s Festive Fifty charts in the early 2000s, the Norwich band gained a cult following. Despite this only being their fourth album, they’ve already got a sackful of catchy and kooky tracks to their name.

‘The Phantom Forest’ sees the band working with a revamped line up after losing two original members in 2008. For the first half of the record it does seem that along with the departed the group might have lost some of its charm. Their usual multi-instrument and sloppy pop melody sound is largely dropped in favour of a less adventurous electro-band set up. However, with track titles such as ‘Albino Tiger Rescue Squad’ and ‘Jim Henson’s Creature Workshop’ there’s enough of Bearsuit’s signature cute weirdness to keep the album entertaining.

Like 2007’s ‘Oh:io’, this record seems to have a concept that runs through. There’s something about rescuing a princess, and references to a small zoo’s worth of animals, but I’ll be damned if I can work out the full story.

When the band gets it right on tracks like ‘Jim Henson’s’ and ‘Cut Loose’ it makes you wish the whole album was full of these off the wall indie-pop gems, unfortunately not all of it lives up to the standard of their previous work. At least with their fresh line up we shouldn’t have to wait another four years for their next effort.