MP3: The Bear Quartet - I would be poor
This week's Bear Quartet post comes courtesy of Jim Kelly from Parasol, probably the most BQ-obsessed person I know (besides myself, I guess). His pick: "I would be poor". Read on:
It's a simple sentiment: "without you I'd have nothing" and one of the sweetest love songs in existence, within The Bear Quartet canon and without. And lo and behold this sweetly simple ode was penned by "the kid", keyboard player Calle Olsson. "I would be poor" (a "Gay icon" album b-side from the "Load it" EP), is a song of two stripes, split right down the middle. What starts out as a plaintive acoustic ballad backed by gently tinkling ivories (foreshadowing!), with Mattias crooning about sticks and stones and every little thing, about how treasures mean nothing without the love of your life to share it... at the midpoint Calle's piano rears up and the song becomes a sure-fire, immediately smile-inducing, rowdy ragtime shamble, with a singalong gang chorus and a keening keyboard's siren wails hanging like streamers. A paean to someone (or everyone), and ripe for your (potential) special someone's next mixtape.
The Bear Quartet - I would be poor