ALBUM REVIEW: Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest

Back in 2006 the then-little-known Brooklyn-based quartet Grizzly Bear released Yellow House. A singular mix of folk, chamber music and psychedelica, it appeared on many of that year's best of lists and has subsequently grown in stature.

Veckatimest (named after an island off the coast of Cape Cod) already one of the more anticipated albums of 2009, sees Grizzly Bear at their most mature, focused and dynamic, a joy to listen to even as it explores dark, disjointed places.

This is a band at the top of their game and their confidence shows on the first track, Southern Point with a nervy, urgent, epic feel that nods to Radiohead. It's followed by stand out single, Two Weeks, a cleverly constructed song with a sunny, rhythmic bounce more catchy and immediate than anything the band has done before.

After the first two poppy tracks the album slows down, starting with the ethereal, All We Ask, a perfect union of classic soul and folk. This is followed by Fine For Now, where Rossen’s vocals are strained and hushed and Bear’s drums predatorily tick around the vocals before the vast arrangements turn into full-on rock-outs.

The gorgeous Cheerleader is an almost 5-minute track that features a guest vocalist, the Brooklyn Boys’ Choir, strings and flutes, yet still manages to sound restrained, unforced and even intimate. Dory is a gracefully psychedelic, spine-tingling ballad.

Ready, Able is another of the band’s tightly-controlled experiments in noise and song construction. Followed by a pair of very quiet, slow tracks that make room for While You Wait for the Others, a triumphant and melodically cacophonous pop masterpiece an exploration of the band’s quirky take on gut-wrenching folk.

Starting with an idyllic valley of string lines, saxophone, and clear guitar chords, I Live With You, broadens the group out into a more anarchistic noise bringing the album to its proper climax just before the quiet piano-led track, Foreground.

Veckatimest has an unbelievable clarity of sound and vision, vocals are sharper and more complex, arrangements are tighter, and production is more venturous and lyrics more affecting.

Track listing:

1. Southern Point
2. Two Weeks
3. All We Ask
4. Fine For Now
5. Cheerleader
6. Dory
7. Ready, Able
8. About Face
9. Hold Still
10. While You Wait For The Others
11. I Live With You
12. Foreground