HIMALAYAN BEAR
Hard Times
myspace.com/himalayanbear
The first riff Ryan Beattie rustles up on this seven-song collection—his third album under the name Himalayan Bear—recalls nothing so much as “Floating,” a Julee Cruise tune featured on the classic David Lynch television series Twin Peaks. It’s an apt reference, as Beattie blends his bleak alt-country with the shimmering dread of Lynch’s film soundtracks, dredging up the icky underside of the 1950s. Highlight “How Could Death Contend” even features some echoing doo-wop sax. Elsewhere Beattie sticks with stark lyrics, maudlin Morrissey-of-the-plains vocals and guitars that hang in the air like question marks. “There is a darkness that quakes in me,” he sings on “The Caballo,” relishing that secret rumble.
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