MUSIC REVIEW: Eliza and the Bear - EP: Light It Up

Their track It Gets Cold was named Hottest Record in the World by Lowe and was even used as the soundtrack to the BBC’s Sochi Winter Olympics coverage.  

So, it’s safe to say that they’re onto something.

Quite what it is remains to be seen.

They graced The Quarry at this year’s Y Not festival, and had audiences dancing to their tunes all night — and with this new set of tracks they seem to be going from strength to strength.

The new EP showcases exactly why their legions of fans love them so much. They are known for catchy, laid back tunes: Brother’s Boat was snatched up by Bulmers cider to provide the background for their latest advert, and that is exactly the tone they have decided to go for Light It Up.

The tracks range from the melancholy to the life-affirming.

Frontman James Kellegher said Light It Up was about “making a positive change to your way of life and when times get rough, doing something about it.”

It’s a lovely sentiment, and one that really comes through in all of the songs on the EP.

A general feeling that we’ll all be all right in the end runs through the lyrics, and listening to these boys for a few minutes is a genuinely uplifting experience.

Being a relatively new band (they only started in 2011, bless ‘em) they have not quite had time to develop a style that makes them genuinely unique yet. They will no doubt find their quirkiness in time, but a strong likeness to every other light indie rock band out there at the moment could tip them into the realms of the mundane.

Nevertheless, they are very pleasant to listen to, and their songs would make the perfect soundtrack to a lazy summer’s day, lounging around in the garden (maybe with a Bulmers in hand), or alternatively are sufficiently cheery to make the sudden disappearance of the sun that little bit more bearable.

Eliza and the Bear play the Leadmill in Sheffield on October 2.