I have no idea why this album is so appealing but I absolutely love it!
Chinese American Bear, for the uninitiated, are a husband and wife duo consisting of Chinese born Anne Tong and Seattle musician Bryce Barsten. They’re not an act you could pin a label on easily, and all credit to them for that.
Wah!!! begins with the alluring charm of ‘Kids Go Down‘, which, along with the recent single that closes the album, the electropop-infused ‘Take Me To Beijing‘, you could feasibly align with the kind of dream pop peddled by Beach House, although there’s more than a hint of early Saint Etienne in these recordings, which perhaps is a clue to its seductiveness.
‘Yummy Yummy Yummy‘ is, for want of a better word, essentially a ‘bubblegum’ pop song, but still with that wide-eyed enchantment that permeates the couple’s tunes throughout. It’s mad, because any song whose key refrain runs “Yummy, yummy, yummy, in my tummy, tummy” ought to make anyone who listens barf a little, yet somehow the vocal is delivered in such a way that it is oddly charming. Plus, Tong is simply as cute as a button, which makes you just want to give her a big hug.
‘Heartbreaker” is another winner, jangly sixties style guitar ushering in an irresistibly dreamy melody that is as warm as it is indecipherable, given that much of the song is delivered in Tong’s native tongue (no pun intended). That’s actually part of the appeal of Chinese American Bear though – those moments expressed in Mandarin give Wah!!! a sort of hypnotic mystique
‘Pink Strawberries‘ is an odd track, part ‘Leader Of The Pack‘, part early seventies pop, and, bizarrely, part Burt Bacharach. It’s definitely the weirdest moment here, then followed by a guitar riff that sounds vaguely like ‘The Pushbike Song‘ by The Mixtures on the almost nursery rhyme-like ‘Bear Day‘.
‘Magic Number‘ is one of my personal favourites here, Barsten taking the lead on vocal duties for a change, but it’s when they both sing together that the sparks really happen. It feels like a carefree summer’s day and, like practically everything else here, renders your feet unable to keep still. Nor any other parts of your body, for that matter.
Arguably the finest moment comes with that aforementioned curtain closer, ‘Take Me To Beijing‘, full of nostalgic yearning, which gives the record great warmth. I never saw this coming, but it’s absolutely one of my favourite albums of 2024.
