To quote the excellent Garth Algar, “we fear change”. In the build-up to the release of ‘Death Chorus’, Polar Bear Club have learned that first hand. It’s the band’s fourth full-length and their first for Rise Records after three successful albums under the Bridge Nine and Red Leader banners. It’s also the first to feature vocalist Jimmy Stadt’s new, clean style.
Stadt and guitarist Chris Browne are now the only surviving members of the band’s original incarnation, but it’s on Stadt’s voice that much of the pre-release talk has centred. Addressing the alterations he’s made, he described recent attempts to sing in his familiar, gruff tones as sounding like “garbage, like really urine soaked, hot, hot, hot garbage”.
The change is certainly noticeable, but absolutely not the disaster predicted in some corners. ‘Death Chorus’ has shared DNA with ‘Chasing Hamburg’, an album that previously held the title of their poppiest, and while there has been a shift away from their hardcore leanings, Polar Bear Club haven’t torn up the blueprint entirely.
‘Death Chorus’ is, on the whole, a little quicker in terms of its pacing than many of their previous efforts, coming across as something of a love-in between Hot Water Music and Saves The Day. When it works, as it does on the opening salvo of Blood Balloon, Graph Paper Glory Days and So I Buy, it’s a sprightly, effective pop-punk record.
On several occasions things get the better of them, though. The lilting Siouxsie Jean is not a good look for the band at all, while the next track, WLWYCD, finds any rough edges mercilessly sanded smooth. The intro and outro to Upstate Mosquito also suck the life from what is, at its core, a short, sharp burst of melody.
‘Death Chorus’ is a pivotal record for Polar Bear Club. Right now they aren’t quite as good a pop-punk band as they were a melodic hardcore band, but, crucially, there’s enough potential here to suggest that the next couple of years may change that diagnosis.
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