Minus the Bear burst onto the scene in 2001, with the release of This Is What I Know About Being Gigantic, an electrifying EP featuring seven quirkily titled songs with lyrics about beer, women and little else. Since then, the band has evolved and matured, releasing five full-length LPs across their 13-year career, along with an assortment of EPs, bonus tracks and B-sides. It is from those bonus tracks and B-sides that Lost Loves came to be, an “odds and ends” compilation containing unreleased material from the band’s past three full-length albums.
The album kicks off with “Electric Rainbow,” a track that at first doesn’t seem like much more than a generic alt-rock jam until about two thirds of the way through, when a crowded, feedback-laden bridge takes the song for a more dramatic turn.
From that point we are led into “Surf-N-Turf,” a song that was originally released as a promotional seven inch for the band’s 2012 tour. Only 300 copies were sold, and each was hand numbered and pressed on transparent red vinyl. All of which seems like overkill in retrospect, as this is one of the least memorable tracks on the album.
Lost Loves doesn’t really hit its stride until about mid-way through, when the robotic vocals and eerie bells of “Patiently Waiting” make one wonder where it might have fit into the flow of a Minus the Bear album, had the band decided to include it in one of their full lengths.
The most interesting track on the album is probably “Invented Memory.” Vocalist Jake Snider is accompanied by sputtering synths and ethereal guitar strums as he asks, “Do you remember when we were young, yesterday?”
This however, brings up an important point about the album. Minus the Bear’s lyrics on Lost Loves seem to be mainly directed to some unnamed “you,” and upon further inspection, every song on the album seems to fit this style, to the point where it feels like “you” songs are a lyrical crutch for the band.
The tracks on Lost Loves were more than likely left off of the full-lengths for a reason. Listeners can take what they like, and leave the rest for the hardcore fans and collectors.
Rating: C-
