Record Label: Fat Wreck Chords
Genre: Acoustic
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I’m not very familiar with Tony Sly’s solo music and I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not too fond of acoustic music but “Sad Bear” is a decent listen.
“Sad Bear” starts off a little slow with the earlier tracks but the pace picks up with tracks like “Hey God” and “Burgie’s, Basics, and You”. There are handfuls of sounds that influence Tony Sly’s sounds; one minute I’m listening to what sounds like a song from Mike Ness’ solo albums while the next minute it sounds like a stripped down version of Flogging Molly.
Overall, I was disappointed by the overall pace of “Sad Bear”. Most of the album is composed of very slow, heartfelt odes to life lessons, loss and love. With the variety of instruments at his disposal, I expected more variety in songs later on in the album and, while there are some brief glimpses of variety throughout “Sad Bear”, it tries too hard to point out the fact that it’s “just an acoustic record”.
If you’re looking for something that most definitely stands out from the regular Fat Wreck Chords lineup, “Sad Bear” is definitely that cat. Tony Sly is an excellent songwriter and there are a few gems on the album, but the truth is that most of the songs get lost next to each other and there are really no songs that scream “must listen”.
Bottom Line: There are some decent tracks on “Sad Bear” but unfortunately they all seem like the same song.
Notable Tracks: Burgie’s, Basics, and You, Hey God, San Mateo Fogline
Overall Rating: