grizzly bear - veckatimest

[Inertia: 2009]
Around here we take a lot of pleasure in writing about great music that really deserves to be heard and, alternatively, great music that you deserve to have the pleasure of hearing. Brooklyn’s Grizzly Bear have released an album with so many beautiful moments that it would be nothing short of cruel to keep it hidden away and hog it all to ourselves. ‘Veckatimest’ features detailed, complex songwriting from Daniel Rossen, who also plays guitar in the band. The various talents of the other band members, Christopher Bear (drums, vocals), Ed Droste (guitar and vocals), and Chris Taylor (bass, woodwind, electronics, vocals), come together in subtle, balanced textures that it is easy to be swept up by the loveliness of it all. To give you a few points of reference, the record makes allusions to 60s pop reminiscent of ‘Pet Sounds’ Beach Boys, the soft jazz-fused folk of Nick Drake, the soulful layered rock of Jeff Buckley and Radiohead, and the modern-pop arrangements of another of the year’s best bands, Plants and Animals, and the earlier work of Animal Collective. If that sounds promising, it’s because it actually IS. ‘Veckatimest’ is full of very pretty, sad-sounding melodies and rich vocal harmonies (“Southern Point”, “Fine For Now” and the stunning “While You Wait For the Others”), as well as some amazingly subtle dynamics within the rhythm section. Maybe one of my favourite things about this record and about this band is the vocals from Edward Droste and Daniel Rossen. Those voices! - They convey such intimacy it almost makes you blush. It makes me blush and I’ve listened to it ten times now.

Despite a couple of brief lulls, on the whole this is an album that is, in a word, beautiful.

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