HIMALAYAN BEAR
Lo Lonesome Island
Aaargh! Records
· What it would sound like if Roy Rogers were Hawaiian and terribly depressed.
Himalayan bears, found in both the red and brown varieties, are an endangered member of the Ursus family found in the foothills of the Himalayas, and are thought to be the source of many Yeti sightings. What that has to do with the Himalayan Bear is hard to say, given that the latter spends more of his time strumming a ukulele than acting abominable on mountaintops.
There’s very little about Lo Lonesome Island that isn’t quirky. It’s not often, after all, that you come across an album that mixes classic country-western songwriting (think "Happy Trails") with traditional Hawaiian instrumentation. Or that features such consistently strong vocals throughout, courtesy of Bear namesake Ryan Beattie. It’s certainly rare to find an album that can consistently captivate with such minimal arrangements.
In fact, Lo Lonesome Island is the kind of album that begs for accolades, but is almost impossible to find superlatives for. It’s so sparse and so haunting that it seems like it might break if you weighed it down with praise. Maybe that’s where the name comes in – like the bears, if you try to pin it down to simple realities, you’ll miss everything that makes it interesting.
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