FIGHT THE BEAR – Thirty Eight Degrees
01. Bury Me
02. Let It Die
03. Fall Apart
04. It Gets Better
05. I Don‘t Belong
06. My Relief
07. Wide Open
08. We Are The Young
09. Go Tell The World
10. Puzzle Pieces
11. Run Rabbit
12. Last Of La Pintad
13. 38 Degree
Turn the key, the engine starts. The red Mustang is clean and washed with the open road waiting, right in front of you. This is the best way to describe the mental image that album’s opener Bury Me inspires. The conversation lags, you are naive – you want her on the passenger seat, but will she sit down with you in the car?
With two previous albums under their belts, FIGHT THE BEAR is not a new band. Both managed to become BBC Radio 1’s ‘Tip Of The Week’ back in 2012, and FIGHT THE BEAR have been ‘Ones to Watch’ in the UK evening paper The Express and Star. Now they are back with 38 Degrees, realized with the help of fans, whom they asked for help on the fundraising site Kickstarter. Here they managed to reach their 2,000£ goal, even surpassing it by bringing in a substantial 3278£.
Because of their fundraising, it’s certain that there will be many hopeful fans looking forward to the August 30th release of Thirty Eight Degrees. If you are into indie pop-rock, with some definite bouncy ska influences, this album will not disappoint you.
FIGHT THE BEAR take you on an emotional journey. Lyrics are available for dissection, but do not need any further analysis. Describing everyday emotions from that kind of failed relationship where all you want is to tell the girl is to Please Bury Me. Later on, the sun begins quietly to shine while your inner Mustang races down a dirty road. The girl is confused – she needs care and comfort cause “you know/ it’s no so hard/ it’s all possible,” as is gently expressed in Fall Apart. As seen by the song titles, they go from the bottom of the sad-emotion-scale of Bury Me, Let it Die and Fall Apart to the more confident and hopeful tone on tracks like It Gets Better and My Relief.
So you maintain your speed as you’re approaching the wide colourful horizon. The conversation goes on fine until it stops abruptly. Somewhere in the conversation, something wrong has been said. She may not be the gilded picture girl you first hoped she was. Maybe she met someone else, who knows? In any case “Don’t tell me it’s not your fail cause it has to be. […] Pack your pack it has to end someday.” The silence seems endless. You turn up the radio while the horizon comes closer. Over the twelfth track, Last Of La Pinta you nevertheless get the respite that allows you to pull yourself together. You look at the girl and put everything out on the table. Maybe you shouldn’t even turn the car around and go back – maybe you should just continue to somewhere out there on the horizon. Last song, the title track 38 Degrees ends with the symbolic phrase “Won’t you spend a day with me – we will be part of history,” demanding that you throw it all and forget it all. Just run away, because maybe there is a place out there where it all gets better. FIGHT THE BEAR brings an album that induced a wide range of thoughts. This brilliant album will go perfectly with some late hours, play it on those nights when thoughts sometimes go their own way.