‘Bean Hollow’ by Bad Tiger warps eras and pleases eardrums
The band’s second album is filled with strong tracks, from top to bottom, as each track provides a new layer to unravel.
Photo: Press
Bad Tiger start their second album with Two Legs, which made for a beautiful start. I love the way the instrumentation strolls in, and it is vocally a very pretty track. This track seems to be about loving someone’s presence, and missing someone you care about, and some lyrics that stick out are, “These days are like a dream, where the air itself is bruising me”, and “And I don’t see the answer and I miss you baby”. The backing drums add an interesting element to it all, and it all really comes together as a whole towards the end of the track.
Believer is another track with a wonderful guitar opening. The lyrics “I gave more than I was able, and now I'm gutted out” and “Wrapped around you, got so lost but didn’t mind, having found you / Made it all fine” really shine on this track, as it is another track about love, but with a distinctly different vibe than the track prior, Two Legs.
The Alley absolutely shines on this album, as the track is about the intricacies of love being “muffled and swept away”, and needing to make things work somehow, even taking note of the blind spots that love and caring for someone close to you may bring about; this is explored further in the lines “Wring the blind spot out / Wipe the blind spot down”. There’s also some absolutely gorgeous work being done with the saxophone in this track to add to this, especially as someone who used to play the saxophone myself. This is overall an incredible track and one to listen to over and over.
Golem feels like a fusion of time periods, intertwining both the modern indie sound that has become so sought after and the ‘90s indie sound, almost akin to Alanis Morissette in that regard. It’s a strong track, especially after being tasked with following The Alley.
Backfire is another addition to the list of songs on this album that come in with killer instrumentation to set up great vocals. The song feels like it’s about not wanting things to burn down romantically, whether that be through promises made or caring more about someone else that you end up forgetting to care for yourself, and the lyrics “I love you more than myself sometimes / And I’m working on not picking favourites”, and “I don’t want to burn us down in some backfire / Or take the chokehold thinking that you’re me / How could I ever leave you? / Where would I run off to?”, not only feel like they solidify this, but the idea that this person is essentially their world also feels very prevalent in that same light.
Braiding feels like another track that feels like an ode to the past era of indie rock, and is about being intertwined with someone to the point that it’s as if you are braids in a basket, and the weaving in of your past with someone (“Lost my sight for others in the shape of your skin”), with who you are alone.
The way that Rosy began felt like a mixed bag, but as the song progressed further and further, it quickly became one of the stronger tracks on this album. There’s something unexplainable about the way this track feels, and yet it may be even more enchanting as a result of that.
Same Goes is an interesting track about the idea of loving someone and losing someone being of the same thought process, and this is reinforced with, “’Cause to love you is to know myself, but same goes with losing you”.
Do It Right is another song that’s partially unexplainable regarding the emotions that stem from hearing it, but with it being another track with instrumentation that is overall strong, this entire album seems to be full of tracks like that.
The build-up for Lamb is great, and it seems to be about the parts of conflict in a romantic context that aren’t all that pretty when it comes down to it, and with lambs being normally tied to the idea of purity, it feels like there are pieces connected there. Lyrics like “So it hurt to see me bleeding? Still I kept on, each night, pleading: Put the knife down, you and me, we’ll get out of town, no one sees the forest facedown from the trees,” and “I want the peace that’s mine back. I want my peace of mind back / The love I keep choking on, I gotta swallow it down” really drive this idea home.
The ending of this album is the song Meat, the longest track on it, sitting at four minutes, and is a strong way to close out the album as a whole, as it wraps up the album wonderfully.
This is a wonderful offering of an album to listen to, as it just hits so many of the right places within music, fusing different elements together to make some special tracks on here. There’s not really anything to detract from the album as a whole, and that’s not something that can be said too often about full length albums.
Bean Hollow is out now.