For a long time, the moment I heard the hearty keen of a saxophone, I’d be transported to the Fast Show’s incumbent jazz man, Louis Balfour. He of the bowl haircut and uniform catchphrase, he’d, without fail, and with cool restraint, show his appreciation for the wailing, wood (and long) winded dirge that’d have most of pining for the mewl of a thousand alley cats.But then I learned to play myself (totin’ a mean Yamaha alto) and a new, informed appreciation came with it. That in itself doesn’t make Polar Bear, or their choice of music any more accessible ”“ to many the mere muttering of “jazz” will always elicit squawking air sax performances ”“ but from the bounding, wandering positivity of ‘Happy For You’, painting a picture of wide-eyed wonders through sunny city streets, Polar Bear take full advantage of the music form’s ability to evoke.And although ‘Drunken Pharoahs’ stop start rhythm and intermittent trills might grate, it’s a track that slurs inebriation; a short show-reel of a drunk bouncing off walls and stumbling over tables and his own feet.Obviously your conventional band setups (drums, bass, guitar x2) are great and all but they’ll never be able to capture the fluidity and freedom of a man (or two) and his saxophone. Often reduced to beefing up lightweight ska/punk tracks as part of a brass ensemble, here the brassy woodwind creates a storm.‘The Love Didn’t Go Anywhere’ drops the sassy, punchy dynamic ”“ wistful, melancholic sax harmonies and fleeting percussion gorgeously slowing it to a downbeat climax ”“ while the similarly pensive ‘A New Morning Will Come’ and the later ‘Finding Our Feet’ sandwiches the rasping, Kuduro-beaten ‘Scream’ and zany, unrestrained ‘Hope Every Day is a Happy New Year’.Polar Bear work the contrasts wonderfully well; brooding with an easy, laconic swing one moment, climbing up the walls the next. Working in a genre with improvisation and emotion it’s lifeblood, ‘Peepers’ mischievous, teasing dynamic, and balance of the bold and the beautiful ensures it, and Polar Bear, walk the line in all the right ways. Nice.