Veckatimest, the third album from Brooklyn-based Grizzly Bear, takes its name from a small island off the southwestern corner of Cape Cod. The multi-insrumental album evokes the calm of a such a natural landscape, refreshingly steering away from the '80s landscape that many indie bands have turned to of late."Southern Point," one of the album's longest song, is rather ambitious in scope, changing its sound dramatically from layered sounds with heavy drum work to fleeting moments of strings and relatively quiet acoustic guitar. It evokes Muse's flair for the epic and Goldfrapp's cinematic sweep. "Two Weeks," released as a single, is more conventional but no less interesting, again effectively layering many different sounds--distorted repeating piano chords, synths, bass--in a fairly upbeat package.
"All We Ask" starts as a rather lo-fi affair, the guitar sounding like it was recorded from the next room. The production clears up once the bass strings and vocals kick in. As mellow as this starts, it at times approaches the tempo of a march, with its prominent snare drum. "Fine for Now" has a nice calm to it, punctuated by moments heavy with guitar chords. "Cheerleader" is comparably simple--if you can call a song with soaring strings and choral voices simple. The melodic harmonies of the band's vocals remind me of the Beach Boys a bit too. "Dory" approaches Radiohead-like oddity, its sweetly harmonic vocals a creepy contrast to the organ chords and guitar strumming.
"Ready, Able" has a more insistent tempo, featuring that scratchy guitar effect (you know the one Destiny's Child sampled for "Bootylicious"--I know, a bad comparison, but all I can think of at the moment). Layers get added from there, and by the end of the song shimmering guitar effects compete with vocal sounds.
Some of the later tracks are simpler. "About Face" has fewer layers, but an interesting horns section. "Hold Still" is really short and slow--no drums-- mostly just guitar and vocals. Guitar playing comes into sharp focus on "While You Wait for Others," uncluttered with other sounds.
"I Live with You" is a rather rich sound, it's vocals, guitar and strings soaring with orchestral flourishes. "Foreground" puts a repeating piano melody up front.
The production contrast of having lo-fi sound recording but such rich and layered detail recalls last year's Fleet Foxes album, an album I enjoy but never bothered to review here (an oversight for sure). It's not something I'd listen to regularly, but it's interesting, and definitely good music to put you in a laid back mood. Special thanks go to Matt for recommending this to me.
Best: Two Weeks, Southern Point, Fine for Now, Cheerleader
4 comments:
Nice to see this reviewed. Glad you enjoyed it. Especially like the first 5 tracks, though the rest is very good too. Two Weeks especially is fantastic.
I liked the first half of the album better generally than the second half, but it was all good.
Yeah. I really think that they could've cut a couple tracks in the middle just to keep momentum going, but to be honest theres nothing here I would say is bad.
how dare you compare Grizzly Bear to Radiohead
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