THE BUNNY THE BEAR – Stories
Label: Victory Records
Release Date: April 16, 2013
Rating: 6.5/10
Reviewed by: Mike Hubbard
Stories, released on April 16, 2013, is the fourth full length release by Victory artist The Bunny The Bear. TBTB consists of Matthew Tabor – The Bunny (scream vocals), and Chris Hutka – The Bear (clean vocals). At least that was the line up until May 19, 2013, when the departure of Hutka was announced. Tabor subsequently posted that TBTB will go on with a new “Bear”, Joseph Garcia. I normally won’t read any other reviews for an album before I write mine. I do not want to be biased or potentially “borrow” ideas from others, whether subconscious or not. However, after listening to Stories a couple of times I still really did not know what to think of it. So I searched out other reviews to see what I could find. What I found was that I am not the only one confused by The Bunny The Bear. Or more accurately, the collective world of music reviewers is confused by them. TBTB are either musical geniuses or creators of utter garbage. There does not seem to be a middle ground. After listening to Stories multiple times, I am beginning to lean towards the musical genius end of the spectrum, but with the caveat that it is not likely to find much of an audience. Frankly, I am not sure who the target audience is. With a blend of pop, screamo, techno, hardcore, dubstep, and even a little rap-core, it has something for everyone. It also has something to turn-off everyone. Add in a country twang and TBTB would have all of the bases covered. I am not going to go into a song-by-song review of Stories; it is something that a listener has to experience themselves to determine which end of the love-hate continuum they fall in. I will say that I find “In Like Flynn”, the first single off the album, to be one of the least interesting tracks on the disc. My personal favorite song is “Another Day”, but given the diversity of the music I would expect that each listener will hear something different in each track. The Bunny The Bear has certainly blazed their own trail, and Stories is their latest path. The question remains as to who will follow.
https://www.facebook.com/thebunnythebear
Some other stuff you might dig
Category: CD Reviews