Band Review: Bauer

And Bauer also followed me and I followed back. That’s quite a few of these. It kind of works for me.

One reason I am reviewing Bauer now is that there is another musician trending, Baauer, who has a song that is associated with an internet meme that is all ridiculous, and I tend to look badly on it as my first hearing of it was people actually from Harlem not appreciating that the name of something that is a real part of their history has been used this way.

The point being, I don’t want people to hear of Bauer, and think “Oh stupid Harlem Shake thing.” Bauer has been pretty gracious about the whole thing, but I still want to do my part. I will start by taking you to their Tumblr:

http://bauermusic.tumblr.com/

Now this is going to be my big criticism of them. Although the navigation buttons on the side make it the best organized Tumblr I have ever seen, it is still a Tumblr, and not great for reading or navigating. It works best for showing upcoming gigs (they are based in Manchester), but you can confirm that their music is available on iTunes, Amazon, and 7Digital.

Tumblr also says that you can preview the new album on Spotify. This is true, but searching on Bauer did not work well. I had to use the album title, Sleeping Giant, and then it came up through the radio. Their Youtube channel is pretty good too, though mainly with multiple versions of the same songs:

https://www.youtube.com/user/bauerunbreakable

Because of my starting there, the songs that are most familiar to me are “Change Forever”, “Sky Turn Black”, and “Connected”. This is interesting for me because I was thinking of Bauer as mellow, but still upbeat, and then looking over an explanded playlist some of the track titles seem more discouraging.

To be fair, it’s not that these songs are super optimistc – there is standing in the rain, and stubborness, and the sky turning black – however, there is also a sense of determination. I can turn the sky black! I’m going to get myself connected! Maybe I can change your mind! So, yes, there is a definite touch of melancholy, but they’ve got some grit for the hard times too. Actually, “Shotgun” feels a lot more fun than it should be, looking at it lyrically. “Starting Again” feels very upbeat too. Maybe that’s the point. You have to start again, but you can do it and you are going to do it!

Bauer has an interesting sound, especially due to the vocals. The voice is kind of androgynous, but tonally rich, reminding me of Everything but the Girl, or Yaz, with the addition of plenty of synthesizer and an undercurrent of longing. Perhaps in keeping with this influence from the early 80’s, they have done a surprisingly touching cover of Fiction Factory’s “Feels Like Heaven”.

As interesting as the voice is, there is some really beautiful music from the instruments as well. This makes me glad that they have some well defined intros, where you can hear some of the delicacy and intricacy before the singing starts. “Don’t You Move” is an excellent example of this, with a really arresting intro, and “Nowhere to Turn” is musically beautiful throughout. There is generally a soft sound, but it takes a harder edge on “Get It Right”, and yet they consistently sound like Bauer.

This may be a shift, as there are some other albums on Spotify Radio that seem to be Bauer, but sound quite different. It could be a change in direction, which would be fine, or it could be an issue with categorization – and it would not be the first time I’ve run into that on Spotify. What I can say is that I feel completely comfortable recommending Sleeping Giant.

Edited to add: Bauer confirmed that Sleeping Giant is their first album, and that the other albums are by a Dutch band. This makes a lot more sense. I'm not recommending the Dutch band.