Skip to main content

Jules & the Polar Bears - Good Reason

Jules & The Polar Bears is one of those bands that you want to like, but continue to remain on the fence about even after a decade of failed listens. Recently, I've been sampling bands from the late 70s and early 80s who released fake new wave albums -- major label acts who played middle of the road rock, but disguised it in skinny ties, brightly colored sweaters and catchy, Cars-y keyboard riffs. Jules & The Polar Bears are a good example. Their first record, 1978's Got No Breeding, was compared to Dylan, The Kinks and Springsteen. Personally, I hear a quirky Jackson Browne in the songwriting. Everything sounds bearded and mid-tempo, except Jules Shear, the singer. He gives the band a distinct sound with his "singing at the top of my range" yelp. But even with Shears' interesting squelch, the songs never break out of 70s rock conformity. The guitarist's resemblance to a member of Orleans or Doobie Brothers is telling.

Enter 1979's "Fenêtîks." The first tune, "Good Reason," is a slice of power pop that foreshadows a very 80s sound. Stephen Hague's sporadic bursts of swirling synthesizer immediately give the Polar Bears an updated sound. Shear's melodic yelp is at its most catchy throughout the tune's verses and chorus. Something about the tune reminds me of the first time I heard J. Geils Band's "Freeze Frame." The bridge prompts a head scratch, but the song quickly returns to a great guitar solo that apes the vocal melody.


I'm still trying to figure out the rest of the record. None of the subsequent songs ever match the immediate hook of the lead track. They bounce back and forth between Elvis Costello angst and Jackson Brown mellowness. Maybe Jules & The Polar Bears is one of those bands that takes a long time to appreciate. Afterall, that's how they did it back in the 70s. Labels gave a band two or three tries at a hit record before letting them out to pasture... which eventually happened after The Polar Bears' third attempt, "Bad For Business." It was tossed into the vault by Columbia and finally released in '96.

It's interesting to note: Shear went on to have a spree of songwriting hits in the 80s with Cyndi Lauper's "All Through the Night" and The Bangles' "If She Knew What She Wants." Stephen Hague gained production fame with bands like New Order and The Pet Shop Boys. He even recorded demos for R.E.M. pre-Murmur.

Comments

Post a Comment

Trending Tracks

Joy Division - Ice Age

It's January 2nd. The temperature in Maine hovers between 10º and -10º F. We will be hit by a bombogenesis (weather bomb) on Thursday and Friday which will drop close to a foot of snow, followed by temperatures that could plunge 20 below. Meanwhile, the U.S. President has just responded to North Korea's most overt nuclear threat to date with a response akin to a mentally deranged joke -- the most unstatesmanlike exchange in U.S. history. Seems like the perfect moment to revisit  Joy Division's Ice Age : Ice Age was recorded in 1979, but unreleased until its appearance on the 1981 posthumous album, Still . The song is a great example of the bands early sound, driven by a frenzied post-punk beat and distorted guitars. Many listeners debate the meaning of Ice Age . Some argue that the song is a literal expression of Ian Curtis' Cold War anxiety. Others perceive it as a song about feeling disconnection (the disintegration of a relationship). It's not hard to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Love & Rockets - No New Tale To Tell

This song reminds me of rolling aimlessly around the streets of San Diego in the backseat of Mona Rupe's Honda in 1992. Mona was my girlfriend's best friend. She had a license and she had adventurous taste in music. Rides with Mona provided the scenery for her gothic rock soundtrack. Among her cassettes were Peter Murphy "Deep," The Cure "Disintegration," Nine Inch Nails "Pretty Hate Machine," and I think some Sisters of Mercy. I seem to remember that this Love and Rockets song was somewhere in the mix. Maybe we heard it on 91XFM, our local modern rock station that played the hell out of this song. It was never my favorite, but it definitely captures a space and time for me. The opening lyrics are sung by David J in that hushed, serpentine voice, over a perfectly mixed acoustic guitar. He draws you in and keeps you poised anxiously for the entrance of the drums. "You cannot go against nature Because when you do Go against nature It's ...
Post a Comment
Read more