Shortly after arriving at Loyola in the fall of 2004, I had the opportunity to see Minus the Bear at Mermaid Lounge. Whether it was the acoustics of the venue, the music itself or the fact that I was competing for a girl’s attention that night, the music was very forgettable. Minus the Bear’s August 2005 release, “Menos el Oso,” marks a vast improvement in their writing and execution.

This Seattle band, which has always had a knack for witty and unusual song titles such as “You Kill Bugs Good, Man,” has not until now carried that wit into its musical styling. The first track of the CD, titled “The Game Needed Me,” tells you up front that this is going to be a different album. The interesting and more complex rhythms are complemented by creative and energetic vocal lines that grab your attention earlyand hold on to it for the majority of the album.

The fourth track, “The Fix,” begins with a high-pitched, syncopated line that, when combined with the drums and vocals, sounds like The Postal Service with balls. The dissonant solo adds to the confusion and the lyricist’s struggle for understanding expressed in the chorus – “So this is the difference between/living and not living.”

One standout track is “Fulfill the Dream.” This track tells the story of a chance encounter that has left the lyricist in regret of missed opportunities – “She’s not mine and she’ll never be.” This song includes one of my favorite lyrics on the album, “Me stealing glances as she stole my breath.”

There is an instrumental section near the end of the song that goes between extremes of distorted guitar and percussion to light and quick eastern sounding guitar lines that make for one of the coolest moments on the album.

The album concludes with an alt-pop ballad that expresses a perfect moment and the desire to “dog-ear” a page in your life so that you could come back and re-live it every day.

It is clear that Minus the Bear is trying to separate itself from the barrage of electric pop/rock indie bands that have been dominating the college music scene with this darker, more aggressive, and more complex release.

Alex Cooper can be reaches at [email protected].