Shark Speed

Education (2010)

Brian Shultz

Maybe you will, but I really can't anymore. There's something about Shark Speed that sounds distinctly like themselves on this newest effort, the four-song EP Education, and no longer like Minus the Bear. So I just won't make the comparison.

Unlike the band's incredibly solid yet undoubtedly familiar full-length, last year's Sea Sick Music, those similarities are vague here at best. Granted, the description might sound dead-on to one regardless--smooth, lightly atmospheric, melodic indie pop/rock, touched up with graceful dashes of keyboard and sprightly guitars. If you dig the danceable and stress-free but still sincere delivery of acts like Pinback and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, you'll find this rightly enjoyable.

Shark Speed's most adventurous dynamisms come via "Killing Kind" and "Pretend," where vocalist/guitarist Thayne Fagg goes from cutesy shades in the latter to effortless singing that spurs with a fuzzed-out, trumpet-assisted climax. It's a breezy 15 minutes and this track caps it nicely.

Education is lively without being forceful and has quickly helped Shark Speed establish itself a more unique place. Hard not to like.

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Education EP