To be honest, I added Bear Mountain to my Top 10 list as almost an afterthought. After my first review of my favourite albums, I had Phantogram's Three in my Top 10. After many listens to Phantogram, the album started to sour on me. Then I picked up Bear Mountain and things became clear. This is the album that Three was trying to be, but falling a bit short of the mark.
Vancouver's Bear Mountain started as a solo project in 2012, but quickly became a full band. Their debut EP, XO, was very solid, a nice mix of melodic, upbeat electro-pop. The full length album Badu continues upon the path they laid down, with a bubbly, soulful take on electro-pop. What Bear Mountain has over Phantogram (who did put out a good album) is a lack of cynicism.
XO was more on the electronic end, but Badu adds some soulful, poppy vocals to the mix, making them sound like a more electronic version of Future Islands. It's a sunny, fun and uplifting listen. This is a band to watch and they can only go up from here.
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