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Grizzly Bear released Yellow House in 2006. It was a slow, steady and stunning ride, and given the album s otherworldly charm and staying power, it s hard to believe three years have gone by. That might seem like a long time. But given Grizzly Bear s hectic touring schedule, including stints with Radiohead, TV On The Radio and Feist as well as several performances during a five-night tribute to Paul Simon at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, a co-headlining show with the L.A. Philharmonic, and the release of Friend, a 10-song EP of re-recorded and re-worked songs, collaborations and covers all this seems reasonable. They ve been busy. But about a year ago, singer/songwriter Ed Droste, drummer Christopher Bear, woodwinds player/bassist Chris Taylor and singer/songwriter/guitarist Daniel Rossen who s other band, Department of Eagles, released the sublime In Ear Park last fall began passing demos around, and working together creatively in different pairs and permutations. A few months later they set off with producer/engineer Chris Taylor s mobile recording rig to begin the recording process for Veckatimest, which would unfold over the next six months in three very singular locations. And in many ways, it is the recording process that reveals this record each space catalyzing different interactions, inspirations, and ultimately, songs. In July, the band spent three weeks at the Glen Tonche house in upstate New York. Though still finding their feet, much of the album s groundwork was laid there. After breaking briefly for the Radiohead tour in August, the band convened at a house on Cape Cod, graciously provided by Droste s grandmother, where they re-addressed and solidified the compositions they d started at Glen Tonche. Lastly, Grizzly Bear came home, to a church in NYC, to fine-tune and complete the album named Veckatimest after a tiny, uninhabited island on Cape Cod that the band visited and was inspired by, particularly liking its Native American name. Artist William O'Brien created Veckatimest s colorful, hand drawn artwork a perfect compliment to the album s enigmatic title. There is an unbelievable clarity of sound and vision to Veckatimest: vocals (a duty shared by all band members) are sharper and more complex, arrangements are tighter, production is more venturous and lyrics more affecting. Having opened the creative dialogue at such an early stage, Grizzly Bear was able to realize these 12 songs together as a band, making it their most collaboratively compositional album to date. This yielded an unexpected mix of material that feels more confident, mature, focused and most of all, dynamic. From songs like 'Dory' (a gracefully psychedelic, ever-evolving work),'Ready Able' (a synth-y opus, and one of four songs that boasts string arrangements by composer Nico Muhly) and 'Foreground' (a plaintive, vocal-driven send-off, and one of two songs to feature choral arrangements also by Muhly) to more resounding pop songs like 'Two Weeks' (an other-worldly doo wop featuring backing vocals from Beach House s Victoria LeGrand) and 'While You Wait For the Others' (a triumphant and melodically cacophonous pop masterpiece), Veckatimest is an album of the highest highs and lowest lows an unbelievably diverse collection of songs that celebrates the strength of each band member, and the power of the whole. It was well worth the wait.
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Reviews:
I usually don't like slower music...
but this album just has a draw to it. The chord change transitions within the individual songs are terrific. I love that the lead vocals float above the backing vocals at times, and then just disappear into the backing vocals at others.
Standout tracks:
2 Weeks* (My personal favorite)
Cheerleader
All We Ask
Foreground
Other favorites:
Southern Point
Fine for Now
While You Wait for the Others
I realize most of the album is included in the above list but it really is a top notch album. a great album front to back.
this is a great album. the flow is wonderful. perhaps one of the best late night/gettin' ready to go to bed/mellow out records ever made. evolutionary
More and more often music is referenced by other bands- "oh, it sounds like so and so" or "so and so is the new blahblah". Grizzly Bear manages to sidestep these identifiers creating it's own music without falling into the pit of preconceived notions genres create. When I first started telling people about Grizzly Bear i'd find myself at a loss for words when asked to describe what it sounded like. Expansive, harmonic, folkish (we won't use the term "Freak Folk" here), rockish, but always elusively avoiding falling into one definitive sound, which is the strength of this album as well as the previous one. Ideally, bands will evolve and not keep putting out different versions of the same album year after year, and Veckatimest successfully takes the next step. While their first widely known album Yellow house was soaring and symphonic, Veckatimest manages to ground itself in earthier sounds. There's a richness to the layers and layers of harmony, the syncopation of the rhythms and the contrast of frontman Ed Droste's expansively melodic voice to Daniel Rossen's sharper timbre.
I admit it took several listenings to really begin to appreciate the sensitivity of the music on Veck. I was attached to the rich softness of Yellow house, the ease with which one could sink into the cradle of sound. Veckatimest is harder, a bit more masculine, but still possessing the uniqueness of their previous work. Funnily, I noticed this most when I would put my ipod on shuffle, and all of a sudden i'd find myself drawn into a song, and have to check to see who it was since I hadn't yet memorized all the songs on the album. Inevitably, it was Veckatimest.
This album is not a complete departure from their previous work, but rather a continuation, and therefore a worthwhile investment. It's rare that you find music that incorporates so many different elements into one beautiful package. Not even close to "Yellow House"
I have listened to this over and over hoping to be as captivated by even one song like I was with "Yellow House." It's just not happening. I am very disappointed in this CD, the songs are mediocre at best. If you care about sound quality, purchase the CD not the MP3s
This is a general rule when purchasing any MP3s from Amazon. Although Amazon states that "Songs are encoded at 256 kbps" [http://www.amazon.com/gp/dmusic/help/faq.html/ref=sv_dmusic_0] they actually use a variable bit rate which means sometimes it's 256 kbps, sometimes it can be, say, 195 kbps. If you care at all about audio quality, and prefer MP3s, at least purchase this from iTunes where the songs are all at a constant rate of 256 kbps. I was initially attracted to Amazon over itunes because of the lower pricing, but it appears it comes at a compromise of quality. In the case of this recording, Grizzly Bear "Veckatimest," all 12 songs are under 256 kbps and as low as 205 kbps. |
Keyword: Music,
Description: Veckatimest
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