{"id":40303,"date":"2018-09-13T10:59:57","date_gmt":"2018-09-13T09:59:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/?p=40303"},"modified":"2018-09-13T14:58:51","modified_gmt":"2018-09-13T13:58:51","slug":"eliza-the-bear-to-release-long-awaited-second-album-group-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/2018\/09\/eliza-the-bear-to-release-long-awaited-second-album-group-therapy\/","title":{"rendered":"Eliza & The Bear To Release Long Awaited Second Album \u2018Group Therapy\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Watching Eliza & The Bear has become a regular occurrence for me from the first moment I saw them live at Barn On The Farm in 2014. Since then I\u2019ve seen them grace Scala, Islington Assembly Hall, and two more BOTF and they have never disappointed.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Performances have always been fuelled with a joy of performing that was tangible. Every gig was laced with an easy confidence and swagger that makes everyone in the audience feel like a member of a special gang. When lead singer James sings \u2018we\u2019ve got friends, we\u2019ve got family here\u2019, it seems like an anthem for the way that the entire audience is feeling at that very moment. They are a band that have played Reading and Leeds and V festivals. They have played a sold out UK arena tour with Paramore and their debut album made the top 40 in 2016. But it seems that behind the easy confidence, behind the huge festivals and the top 40 albums there were anxieties that were besetting the band. Indeed if you listen to the superb eponymous debut album carefully, and scrape away the veneer of anthemic sing a long choruses and memorable melody, there are lyrics that suggest some hidden turmoil. Maybe this was just the emotions of the band finding flight in lyrical form but definitely this was a hint of what was to come.<\/div>\n
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After the whirlwind of their first album and it\u2019s success things seemed to take a different unexpected direction. They parted company with Universal and became a four piece band. Often, when a group break through into the mainstream of public awareness, they have been singing and touring the same set of songs for years and then these songs become a debut album and for people discovering the band for the first time this is their sound and they love it. I\u2019ve lost count of the amount of times I\u2019ve seen Rag\u2019n\u2019Bone man sing \u2018Skin\u2019 over the last four years but for many this is a new song from a singer that came out of nowhere. They are not new songs, they are not new bands. They have been working their backsides off, touring, writing, pushing their music to audiences starting with single figures and working up to the huge festival crowds.<\/div>\n