Bear's Den - 'Spiders'
Folk duo of Andrew Davie and Kev Jones — better known as Bear’s Den — are back. With the announcement of a fourth album, a string of shows comes a new single — Spiders.
First came the critically acclaimed Islands, featuring the Ivor Novello award nominated ‘Above the Clouds of Pompeii’. Then came the fantastic, at-times-ethereal, at-times-brutally-raw and at-times-devastating ‘driving album’, Red Earth and Pouring Rain. After, the slightly poppier So That You Can Hear Me — described by yours truly as ‘expansive, ambitious, and stunningly beautiful’ in my 2019 review — was released, followed shortly after by the long-awaited release of Fragments, a collection of classic ursine anthems set to orchestra which were recorded at a string of shows in 2018, including a show at the then newly-opened EartH in Hackney.
And now, the duo have announced the release of their fourth studio album, Blue Hours — out May 13th via Communion Records (part-owned by Kevin Jones himself) — and with it comes the addictive, electro-tinged ‘Spiders’.
‘Spiders’ is almost hypnotic. It snares you in its delicate guitar hooks before sinking its metaphorical fangs with brutally vulnerable lyrics; meanwhile, the gentle, almost ephemeral instrumental touches, taking after the litany of horns and strings in the album’s predecessors, seem at times tantalisingly close yet still, teasingly, just out of reach.
Lyrically, the song is about the fact that you can’t run away from the things that are bothering you; both in terms of ‘one more burden’ that you’re saddled with anxiety about, but also the regrets and guilt on repeat in your mind. There’s a simmering intensity to the song, a sense of restlessness as Davie seems to reticently celebrate the admission that they’re struggling. And so he should. Everyone has those moments of panic, dark doubts and despair flitting around your head — ‘Spiders’ perfectly encapsulates the bravery that reaching out can take.
According to the duo, it’s this idea which runs through much of Blue Hours.
“Blue Hours is a kind of imaginary space you get into at night, a place where you process difficult things or where you try to figure everything out”, Davie offers; “it speaks to our struggles.”
To the two, Blue Hours means a lot of things. A hotel and a hospital; a bar and a space to breathe; a dream and a nightmare. In their words, it means “an endless sea of corridors and staircases leading you to rooms that represent memories – good, bad, happy or difficult.” Somewhere to reminisce, to obsess, to tinker with and grow.
Spiders is the album’s second single, following November’s ‘All That You Are’, an oldie but a goodie: the first glimpse of ‘new’ material was instead a finally-recorded track that was the opener for the band’s sets as far back as 2012 in the Austin to Boston tour with Nathaniel Rateliff, Ben Howard and The Staves (a tour memorialised in the brilliant eponymous documentary). A track about happiness, it describes that feeling of wanting happiness for a loved one even if it’s not coming from you.
These two tracks are the first taste of what’s to come — let’s just hope we don’t have to wait until Spring for the next bite!
Words by James O’Sullivan
