ALBUM REVIEW: Matthew Dear – Bunny

Ghostly International

Released: 12.10.18

While it’s not like Matthew Dear vanished following 2012’s excellent Beams, his work since – primarily under his instrumental dance moniker Audion – has been of a much lower profile. As such, Bunny arrives as a restatement of his dance pop bona fides, a re-statement of purpose that Matthew Dear is back in business.

In that sense, it’s a success: the sticky robo-glam Modafinil Blues, the Reznor-esque Can You Rush Them and the uneasily romantic Before I Go are hugely enjoyable marriages of Dear’s oddball sensibilities with major-league earworms. Too much of Bunny however feels lightweight, lacking the imagination and energy that made Black City and Beams so compelling. It’s good to have Matthew Dear back, but this baggy, watered-down album isn’t his finest.