Grizzly Bear

Veckatimest

(Warp)

Record Review by Kevan Peterson

Grizzly Bear’s third studio length album, Veckatimist, starts off sounding like rock with a jazz sensibility.  The band plays off each other more than with each other to interesting results.  “Southern Point,” the album's gloriously swollen opening track, phases in and out of various riffs, percussion styles and moods, creating a sweeping mini-album within the first five minutes.

Ed Droste, Grizzly Bear’s frontman and original solo member before the band expanded to a quartet, holds the puzzle pieces together with confident lyrical and vocal execution.  For all the intracies of the opening track, the following track, “Two Weeks,” opens with a simple piano melody that carries the song through a smooth and slow build up, mixing equal parts lounge with Pet Sounds-styled harmonies and a shot of modern sensibility.

Rounding out the opening track trifecta is “All We Ask,” which opens with a faint bass drum and haunting melody that sounds like it was recorded in an empty concrete room.  You can almost picture a subway train passing by, drowning out the music as if you were listening to someone serenade the public on a still night.  That’s just the beginning.  The track then eases gracefully into a more pronounced song, drifting further into the woods that Grizzly Bear inhabits.

At this point in the album Grizzly Bear has set the mood and pace and you’re more than happy to go along for the ride.  Besides, these guys' soft as fur melodies and sweet as honey lyrics makes them seem more Teddy than Grizzly.  Altough you don’t need to, you may want to drop, tuck and roll into a soft mattress, under a thick blanket where you can play dead, while their songs pelt you like little paws, looking for any signs of life.  Grizzly Bear will try and awaken you.

Veckatimest stands out from the pack of albums being released this year like a mother bear towering over her cubs.  Don’t hesitate, don’t hibernate, go out and buy this album.