Day 88: Boy & Bear - Part Time Believer

Boy & Bear is a remarkable name for a band, but I chose to listen on the basis of the band’s sound’s description. For example, VPRO’s Luisterpaal ('Listening Pole', at www.3voor12.nl) uses words as indie, pop and folky, which is a combination, maybe not too outspoken, but interesting enough for me to give it a try. Listening to their songs, Coldplay, once again, pops up in my mind. That happens more often and I believe for mainly two reasons. Firstly, because Coldplay have been influential enough to let lots of bands make sound themselves as they do. Their songs are far from copies of Coldplay’s songs, but marks of Coldplay’s first two and best albums are slightly and more or less noticeable. Secondly, these bands all shows what Coldplay could have been like, if they would not have chosen the path of constantly fabricating stadium songs. That is: too loud, too resonant and too predictable.

Amongst many, many others, Boy & Bear keep their attention to the art of playing attractive, yet subtle and intelligent pop songs. Their 2011 debut LP Moonfire offers a joyful mixture of modest songs and uptempo folk songs. One of them, Part Time Believer, stands out and for me personally, that is as a consequence of that striking verse, in which something so recognisable and pleasing is sung. Per definition, every remark to the Rolling Stones refers to the spark that occurred when my father did his part of musical education.

I remember sitting back on my balcony

I was listening to the Rolling Stones

See I was waiting for my dad to come from work

So I could show him all the chords that I learned