The Jazz Project - My Jazz Education - Album 100: Polar Bear - "Held On The Tips Of Fingers"

        As a fan of music and as a general believer that music is the universal language of the universe, I usually dabble in the worlds of Heavy Metal and Jazz. I definitely listen to many other types of music, but these are probably the two most common genres going through my rotation. Because Metal was my first love, I feel pretty solid about where I stand with my understanding of it. Jazz, however, is another thing entirely. Sure, I can list several artists and explain their relevance. Hell, I took a History of Jazz class in college. But the general foundation has never been there. 

        To fix this, I've turned to the internet as a bastion of knowledge. After a few hours of poking, around I settled onto Jazzwise Magazine's "The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook the World" as my path up the mountain of Jazz. The plan is to listen to each album on the list and capture the experience of listening to the album. Each post will be a collection of thoughts and ideas as they stream-of-consciousness out of my head followed by my general thoughts on the album, and any relevant information I can capture about the album. I'll also be including my drink of choice while taking it all in. Thank you for joining me on my journey to [partial] Jazz enlightenment. 

Album 100

Polar Bear - Held On The Tips Of Fingers

Drinking: French Press Coffee

1. "Was Dreaming You Called, You Disappeared, I Slept": Cool intro. Warm, plodding, harmonious. Like the moment before a sunrise. Flowers are starting to bloom and the forest is waking up. Short Track. 
   
   
2. "Beartown": Sassy strut to this song. Fun! The saxophones achieve this barking tone that keeps my attention, all while the lead melody suavely slinks through over the rhythm section. Gripping harmony at 2:00 that provides a ton of attitude. This track is awesome! It bounces between cool and awkward teeter-totter. Nice tight snare sound. This keeps rising up to a head before quickly fading away. 
   
   
3. "Fluffy (I Want You)":  Opens with an energetic, frantic percussive and electronic sample intro. About 30 seconds in the saxophones grab what little space there is left to take. The interplay among the instruments and rhythm is gripping and sharp. Textured is another word I'd use. It's like if an ASMR video/track took some cocaine. I can't get enough! Perhaps it's the sound of our neurons when in the heat of desire. 
   
   
4. "To Touch The Red Bricks": Swinging, sassy, strong. This track comes right back to these attitudes. Cool cigarette smoking cats. This track has some heat to it. If the whole album is like this I don't believe it'd be possible to listen to for more than 37 minutes. Given its [the tracks] length I'm guessing it's a weird interlude to whatever story is going on. Didn't love the abrupt stop.
   
   
5. "Held On The Tips Of Fingers": The title track. This song feels woozy like you're a bit drunk... or high, and you're trying to focus. Or like trying to work while half asleep. Perhaps the character is coming down from the last song. the lead sax provides a bit of bounce to it as the rhythm keeps the listener in a fuzzy trance. Like trying to catch an idea and keep it held on the tips of your fingers. That trudging bass solo at 4:25 is tasty, groovy. 
   
   
6. "Argumentative": This pulsates between tension and humor, like the little jokes that aren't jokes when you're in a fight. The saxophones capture the feeling of a person speaking and yelling amazingly well. The rhythm does a great job keeping the air electric and full of tension. At 3:38 the tone starts shifting almost to a buddy & buddy agreement before spiraling out at the end. 
   
   
7. "Your Eyes, The Sea": Driving, the sax is catcalling. Nothing coming to me about where the setting might be. I'm too enraptured by what the crazy fast sax solo is doing. Trying to keep up takes most of my effort. It's like watching a car accident, you can't pull away. The sampling section happening about 2/3rds of the way into the track is doing a great job of keeping you from finding comfort as this track hurtles along. 
   
   
8. "The King Of Aberdeen": Somber and soft intro. A quick google search pulls up that Aberdeen is a Port City in the North East of Scotland home to the offshore petroleum industry. the music is forlorn and retrospective. Perhaps this is a memory of  times that no longer exist. Leaves me wondering who this king is. Takes me back to rainy days by the ocean growing up. 
   
   
9. "Life That Ends So Soon": Hearing vocals is so jarring from what appeared to be an instrumental album. Greta Lange has this amazing bass-y and melodramatic voice. This interplay between bittersweet recollections and happy memories is great. Music seems to end at 3:40. there also appears to be an electronic hidden track at the end. Perhaps this spacey track is a guess of the sound of the afterlife? Who knows.
   

Overall thoughts: This album is fabulous, and I will listen to it again. Possibly I'll dig into it and try to map out what story it might be telling. The whole band is so great, but the drums were especially awesome, and the use of electronics was really cool. 

Info: This album was released in 2005 on the Babel label. Polar Bear is a British Jazz Band operating since 2004. It featured Pete Wareham on tenor sax, Mark Lockheart on tenor sax, Sabastian Rochford on drums, Tom Herbt on double bass, and Leafcutter John on electronics.