ARTiST: Grizzly Bear
TiTLE: Veckatimest
LABEL: Warp
GENRE: Indie
TiME: 52:27 min
SiZE: 65,1 MB
BiTRATE: VBRkbps
RiP DATE: May-20-2009
RELEASE DATE: May-25-2009
WEBSiTE:
Track List:
01. Southern Point 05:03
02. Two Weeks 04:03
03. All We Ask 05:22
04. Fine For Now 05:31
05. Cheerleader 04:55
06. Dory 04:26
07. Ready, Able 04:17
08. About Face 03:22
09. Hold Still 02:25
10. While You Wait For The Others 04:30
11. I Live With You 04:58
12. Foreground 03:35
Release Notes:
It's long been somewhere city dwellers go to clear
their heads, which is presumably why the equally
feted New Yorkers Grizzly Bear recorded much of
2006's second album Yellow House there, its delicate
instrumentation and spectral harmonies captured in
the dwelling of the title, borrowed from founder
member Ed Droste's mum. Successor Veckatimest ramps
up the regional romance by being named after an
island off the coast, as well as opening with a line
both enigmatic and evocative: "Our haven on the
southern point is calling us".
So far, so pastoral. Like Fleet Foxes, whose singer
Robin Pecknold declared Veckatimest "the best record
of the Noughties", the quartet are fond of the
American outdoors, not to mention those musicians
who have added to its mythology. The twin spirits of
the Beach Boys and the Band, whose Music from Big
Pink is also named after a coloured house in the
country, roam throughout the album, partly recorded
in Cape Cod but mostly put together in the Catskill
mountains in upstate New York. Nevertheless, its
intricate folk-pop, embellished by Nico Muhly's
fantastical strings, is neither obvious nor
derivative, with doo wop and neo-classical among its
impressive jigsaw puzzle of influences. It's also
more robust than its consumptive predecessor, the
ornate detail underpinned by the twin guitars of
Droste and fellow vocalist Daniel Rossen, which chug
and flicker in the vein of a more contemporary art-
rock benchmark: Radiohead.
What began as a Droste solo project is blossoming
with Rossen's increased influence. His songs are
responsible for the dream-like nature of proceedings
while the beefier Droste-led tunes add ballast.
Veckatimest's only down side is a touch of
preciousness, a need for refinement that, unchecked,
might nudge Grizzly Bear towards the polite rather
than imaginative. It's a small quibble. For now,
this is almost perfect.
guardian.co.uk