Volume please: A band like Grizzly Bear should be a well kept secret amongst close friends, whispered in your ear long after the bars have closed and forever destined to rainy day mix tapes and meager sales. I don’t know if it is a sign of the times that they are instead signed to a dance label and expected to deliver one of the most anticipated records of the year (officially christened so by being priced as a loss leader in Best Buy this week. Commence scratching your hipster head.) It all seems like an incredible amount of pressure on a group that specializes in delicate songwriting.
However, I had the same concerns (or is it sense of protectionism?) about their ability to transform the songs from “Yellow House” into a live setting. If one thing can be said about the bashful boys in Grizzly Bear it is that on stage, and certainly within the digital grooves of “Veckatimest,” they continue to over-deliver.
Ed Droste has gone to great lengths to distinguish the fact that Grizzly Bear is indeed a band, long since departing from his original one-man setup. The credits now only read: “performed by Grizzly Bear,” but the die-hard can still pick out his and Daniel Rossen’s musical tendencies. What differs now is the manner in which they compliment one another. Rossen and Chris Taylor and Christopher Bear add needed bite to Droste’s pop swells and Ed in turn is determined to make them even sweeter. The players then bring complexity to Rossen’s 70’s balladeering and force him to re-think their compositions for the better. The music is still dense and terribly dark, but the complexity has been upped to such a degree that the talents of all four members on display brings to mind a suicidal Beatles – and I mean that as a high compliment (how else do you include The Beatles in a review?)
“Southern Point” comes on with a bluesy shuffle and a slow build before Chris Taylor’s production techniques are on display with the volume surges and the astounding amount of instrumentation and vocalization going on with absolute clarity. It may not be their strongest song on the collection but it serves proper notice for the mixing of genres, yet cohesive feel that is to come. “Two Weeks” on the other hand, is an absolute masterpiece of doo wop intermingled with plaintive crooning. The in your face piano plink and jaw-dropping singing manage to impart an emotional pull that the lyrics only scrape at (taking their lead from the Yorke school of sound over directness.)
“All We Ask” draws you in with a folky beginning, before climaxing with its orchestral thump and handclapped finish. “Fine For Now” brings on a quavering vocal and ethereal pluck before it surges into CSNY style group singing and then seems to wander around before locking back into the wonderful little melody and a full strum and drum burst.
“Cheerleader” is the aural equivalent of a swoon.
“Dory” continues the vocal interplay before “Ready, Able” breaks its drone with the pump of an organ, adding a hitch in it’s step which allows Droste to sing right up against the beat (Bear’s nuanced drumming is a major star on the record that is likely to go unrecognized by many.)
“About Face” stands out for its minimal click and strum, yet it still has layer upon layer of tiny detail, ensuring that every listen rewards your ears. It’s a quality often lost in today’s loudness wars that Grizzly Bear refuse to give in to. “Hold Still” returns to their sleepy guitar-based work but has a tricky timing as an undercurrent. “While You Wait For The Others” has kicked around for awhile as Rossen’s live showcase and it is still strong here, serving as an anchor with it’s odd mix of McCartney stomp in the breaks and Beach Boys swirls hanging on Rossen’s chopped scratches at his echoey guitar and subtle singing. “I Live With You” chops up Disney swirls and “Fool On The Hill” flutes with a distorted spookiness that makes me think of what His Name Is Alive might sound like if Nilsson were a touchstone as opposed to Motown.
“Foreground” saunters in with a stilted bit of piano playing, like a drunken master ruminating over lost love far too late into the evening, and while at it’s core it could slide into a Supertramp album, it is far more about its modern elements in it’s dark production and obtuse lyrics. The closing song serves to illuminate the manner in which Grizzly Bear have formed something insanely “now” from a record collection of references that ends before they were even born. A return to a time when songwriters were experimental craftsman: A return to the future.
We all know you are in the tank for the Bears by now but what does it look like? In an odd way I am equal parts elated and disappointed with the packaging. While the group abandons the literal nature of the photographs that adorned “Yellow House,” it also fails to match their dark beauty. Naming the record after an obscure island opens up a lot of possibilities, but in the end the design has nothing to do with the title (despite the band’s stated enjoyment of the island’s Native American name.) Ben Wilkerson Tousley constructs the packaging from the drawings of William J. O’Brien primarily, with an assist from the hand-drawn typography of illustrator Amelia Bauer’s steady pen. Tousley has handled all of the Grizzly Bear materials following their growth to the full unit on Warp Records and it is important to note that he had yet to escape his teens when he took the reigns. Not exactly simmering in a design hotbed, he has done so from the comfort of Indiana University. His work has an occasional misstep but when it is on (as is often the case with Grizzly Bear) it is breathtakingly sophisticated.
Allowing the drawings to basically hold court, Tousley and Bauer add interest with their stacking type without detracting from the casual complexity in O’Brien’s work. Not as easy as it sounds. The booklet continues this trajectory and wraps in a rich color scheme to compliment the images. Mixing the hand-drawn with a condensed Trade Gothic, the layout is simple, but up to task, with the exception of some tracking issues and rough visual rags (the first tell-tale sign of Tousley’s inexperience.) There is also an awkward use of the grid in which the pages are centered in the back of the booklet – but lock to the top on the earlier spreads, while leaving additional space at the bottom. Odd. The use of a wash of mauve on the interior is disappointing knowing all the wonderful drawings on hand and I start to linger over the package wondering if it hasn’t been lost in the details.
Close inspection reveals that it is the details that are its saving grace. The continued stagger on the tracklisting delights, as does the minimal barcode (sometimes it truly is the little things.) My favorite part is actually the piece that you can’t see. Taking advantage of the fold-over mode of assembling digipaks, Tousley places one of the drawings so that it is printed on the interior of the pocket, only revealing a little on the open spine and then further as you bend (but don’t’ break) the pocket to see more detail. It is a decadent choice but adds an appropriate slice of cleverness to the proceedings. I am also reminded of the excellent choice of O’Brien’s drawings over his more messy string-based work.
As soon as I swing back into the positive, I can’t help but brush my arm against the booklet and take note of it’s glossy finish, compared to the matte of the digipak and begin to scratch my head once again. I also see that some of the text is choked out in the printing – too narrow a choice for mass-production. In the way that the music delivers in all aspects of what one could have expected, the design fails to truly hold up it’s end of the bargain. Its a tall order granted – but one that could have been achieved with the hands available. Such is often the case when trading in potential over experience. Something the band have long since surpassed.
For those keeping score at home: Music 9.0 Design 7.0
John Foster owns his very own design firm, Bad People Good Things and is the author of For Sale: Over 200 Innovative Solutions in Packaging Design (HOW), New Masters of Poster Design (Rockport), Maximum Page Design (HOW) as well as an upcoming collection of handmade graphics entitled Dirty Fingernails for Rockport and a monograph on Jeff Kleinsmith for Sub Pop Records.
Related:
completely obsessed with this record. well done, john foster.
May 28, 2009 at 12:02 pmI like the debate over this album as much as I like the music itself. Personally, I’m still on the fence. I see them live in a few weeks and I hope that’ll settle things once and for all.
May 28, 2009 at 12:50 pm…A band I’m SO not gettin’. zzzz……..
May 28, 2009 at 3:40 pmAnything for Svet!
JS/Dan – seeing them live will pull you well over the line to their side. Just an amazing act assuming it will be an adequately dark venue with a quiet crowd (even without that they still kick ass lightly.)
Jon – I know a lot of people are having trouble getting into them but I am surprised you don’t enjoy the myriad of 70s musical references it all emanates from in some way.
May 28, 2009 at 4:03 pmafter reading this, i’m going to listen to the album one more time, but only because i appreciate your music tastes so incredibly much (thanks for the veils tip, btw).
i have listened to the album in its entirety twice already in the last 2 days, and whereas there are definitely tracks that stand out as being amazing, i still walk away overall unimpressed.
i think one problem for me is that the album sounds sooooooooooo epic. epic in a bad way, which i realize doesn’t make much sense. way too rock opera for me perhaps? way-way too beach boys (who i can appreciate, but don’t enjoy listening to).
anyway, this was a great write-up nonetheless. i have the chance to see them tonight and i’m not going. i will probably regret that decision someday.
May 28, 2009 at 4:14 pmHey Carri – my pleasure. As I mentioned, I can see how people would have trouble getting into the album but I do have to recommend them as a live act for music lovers even if the record leaves you cold. It’s not kick you in the gut like TVOTR but it is a complex and riveting performance. (Maybe you can still go – haha.)
May 28, 2009 at 4:24 pmI’m still waiting for my pre-ordered LP to to actually arrive for closer inspection…. your praise of wilkerton seemed higher than the end 7.0 rating.
May 28, 2009 at 4:25 pmI agree with Dan, and having purchased the LP/CD and the singles thus far, I’ve been very impressed with the campaign. Think it really compliments the music perfectly.
May 28, 2009 at 4:41 pm7.0 is pretty high around here but there is a point to be made in that the design is burdened by being wrapped around such a stellar record. The only recent parallel of a combination of design and music would be the TV On The Radio record, which saw a 9.5 for music and Morning Breath’s nuanced design receive a 7.5. The difference being the minor details pointed out in the review. To get into the 8.0 and up range it would have to be groundbreaking (which the music is and the design – while very very good – is not.)
Through his work with Grizzly Bear and others, Tousley has certainly announced himself as a designer to watch.
May 28, 2009 at 5:13 pm“delicate songwriting“… “over-deliver”.. What are you, an idiot? Quit emanating nonsense, pal. In my mind, this so to speak ‘music’ conjures images of dirty bathtub water. It also conjures A.R. Kane and all that crap that followed. Except anything by A.R. Kane will sound like a work of genius in comparison. The convenience of whoring themselves as both mainstream and, ahem, experimental pop is another similarity. I understand about A.R. Kane. 1988 and all. But these Grizzly mothers are unacceptable, simply unacceptable. Now, what should Two Weeks remind you of? The Housemartins, that‘s what. Duh. Except these suckers couldn’t even manage to rip them off properly. The track ends up sounding more like some generic tunage from the british charts of the era. The video makes this even more obvious. The chancers did manage Madness piano riff tho. What others see in this crap is beyond my comprehension, beyond my comprehension.
I’m surprised at you, Svet.
May 29, 2009 at 10:32 amalbum of the year, design is lovely. People who don’t “get it” simply don’t “get it”…that’s fine, but to me and most people I know this is a true gem. Not saying you have to listen to it 100 times to “get it” but for me, grizzly bear was something that one day just clicked and I never looked back
May 29, 2009 at 11:30 amMy idiot status was cemented long ago but one thing has never been in question – my propensity to drop in an A.R. Kane reference whenever possible and I just don’t see any 80s references in Grizzly Bear what so ever. They have an obvious love for old radio standards like sincere 70’s songwriters and 50’s -60’s doo wop and r+b ballads. The Housemartins (on certain tracks) pay an ode to doo wop and Madness have a soul/r+b undercurrent at times but it is hardly a direct line – rather drawing from a common library.
Welcome to consider my ramblings nonsense but I think those touchstones are off-base.
May 29, 2009 at 11:43 amApparently, that Grizzly Bear has stepped on your year because obviously you’re tone deaf. Besides, you have no clue, do you?
The riff is nicked directly from Madness ditty ‘It must Be love‘. The whole fucking rhythm section , as a matter of fact. The entire instrumental arrangement, come to think of it.
This Grizzly Bear is a godawful gimmicky pretentious props-over-talent crap that should be condemned as such.
May 29, 2009 at 6:09 pmI will grant you the tone deaf – however please take care to choose your references more carefully. The songs are not even in the same chord. “It Must Be Love” is a minor chord masterpiece and is considerably more complex by virtue of it’s piano-based composition. The arrangement argument falls flat right at the opening A minor walkthrough. The plinking is a G C/G G G minor and the rest of it is draped in brill building meets r+b standard shifts with the joy being the spin of the minor chords where the soul brothers would have never dipped down.
Grizzly Bear is guitar-based songwriting with a tiny keyboard part by people not formally trained on the ivories. It is a repeating F C in essence (the guitar plays a B flat underneath) The verse drops a late A minor in quickly and that is in fact the only note shared directly in the main portions of the songs and it is fleeting at best. The song continues simply in the verse/chorus format with none of the twists and turns of the Madness extravaganza.
I also don’t hear many floor toms in any Madness songs and Chris Bear can’t stay away from them to fine effect.
Hey Ernest – I know it is not as much fun as the rest of the site (but neither is my column) so it would be great if you could comment under one name on these threads. I like what you have to offer, especially on the House of Love review, and it is confusing to the casual reader. Now go find a song based around an F C tap so I have to shut up – haha.
May 30, 2009 at 12:45 amI hate to agree with ernest – his style of argument is nearly impossible to follow, much less agree with – but GB is pretentious twaddle followed by leftovers of what I presume is the ’70s art-rock set.
First time I heard them was the Girl Talk remix of “Knife,” which to this day makes my jaw drop in awe and wonder at its beauty. I finally got the 7″ of the original track and I thought, okay, this is good, but I would never choose to listen to the original over the remix, and can definitely understand why GT thought he could do some good work turning this over-hyped minor song into something better. I prefer the remix. By a lot.
Then I got the Friend EP and immediately re-gifted it. The Atlas Sound cover was good, the rest – fan-boy only territory.
Then, I heard Ed Drostan sing “Possibly Maybe” on some Bjork tribute and liked it. A lot. I was curious again.
So, I picked up a copy of Yellow House, and listened all the way through and thought, JEEBUS, this is not for me. In fact, I deleted the mp3s and gifted it to someone I thought might like it. I never have asked, though.
I’m currently downloading the new album, backwards as it happens. “I Live with You” would make me giggle if it weren’t so completely and utterly awful. It’s like Queen’s soundtrack to Flash Gordon, done by people without senses of humor who call themselves “artistes” (no offense to any real artistes or GB themselves – I’m sure neither can really help it). Seriously, 43 seconds left in the song, and – this is a joke, right? Didn’t the producer look up from the board at the band and say, “get the FUCK out. Now.”? Then, “While You Wait…” Oh, for christ’s sake. The harmonizing with 1:10 left is like nails on a chalkboard. Fuuuuuuck. “Hold Still”? It’s like Antony and the Johnsons on 96 hours of sleep dep and a stress position.
I give up. I’m deleting the album. Grizzly Bear are not for my ears.
The Madness reference is weird. I think Madness has more wonderful art contained in that 3 minutes than the whole GB album. I can see inklings of progginess, but it’s all deliberately is undermined by the gloriously silly reggae bass line and ska horns, along with skads of romance and an English dance-hall sensibility. Romance and silliness – not adjectives I’d attach to GB.
Now, to clear my aural palette, I think I’ll listen to Sacher Musak. Ah, much better….
Note: the HNIA reference is totally unfair. If GB ever do anything as perfect as “Sitting, still looking, still staring outlooking,” or whatever that’s called, let me know. Until then…
May 30, 2009 at 2:43 amAh, great. Another critic. Windbaggery a la Alberque.
But of course Madness by no means comparable to these clowns. Comparing Madness to them is like comparing a bar of gold to a big turd. I only mentioned Madness because the Grizzlies stole their piano riff. Apparently to supply themselves with some modicum of presentability. They couldn’t have possibly played their regular shit on national tv, could they? So now the label has to sell this shit to stupid hipsters and this column, regrettably, spreading the hype. Is this still hard to follow?
Apparently, it is. Since it takes hours to come to terms with the full extent of GB crapiness, this inability to follow is not surprising. All it really takes is You Tube and approximately 3 minutes, sir.
What Foster sayin is pedantic bullshit. Of course the riff not precisely the same (copyright infringement = the end of a career, duh) but That Must be Love piano groove is simply there. Maybe it’s easier to hear if the two songs were played in the same tonality. Or maybe it’s (Housemartins-induced) vocal tracks that confuse you. Forget the fucking vocals, simply follow the accompaniment and you’ll see it eventually.
I can’t fucking believe the mothers signed to a label and went on Letterman. This is UN-FUCKING-BELIEVABLE. There’re kids with talent out there, you know, forced to rent themselves. Shame, shame, shame. GB is an earsore in its absolute worst.
May 31, 2009 at 4:46 pmHush, Ernest, hush.
June 1, 2009 at 11:05 ami didn’t take the time to the above comments, and i’m no music mastermind… but i must say although i didn’t entirely ‘get’ their music listening to it at home, they were fantastic live. you can really see/hear and appreciate the layering and harmonization when standing 3 feet from them.
all of the members contributed to the vocals, there was clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, harpsichord and all the expected as well as some electronic toys.
so maybe not something to rock out to at home but definitely a great live show.
About the review: Really good. I don’t read BYT much, usually just when a friend links something in the Facebook mini-feed, but I’m glad I caught this one. The comments about the music itself were in-depth and I enjoyed the bonus assessment of the packaging. I agree with the others who have pointed out that this commentary has been missing with the disproportionate amount of music consumed through strictly digital means. I’m not a graphic designer, nor a connoisseur of graphic design, but I definitely hearing someone else’s perspective on it.
About Grizzly Bear/Veckatimest: People seem to be annoyed that these guys are getting “big.” Why? I find the case with most bands (for all time, not just nowadays) is that one or two members are pulling the weight of a bigger group. Grizzly Bear has been drawing a fair number of Beatles comparisons primarily because they DON’T do this. You have four guys on stage who can all sing and play their instruments incredibly well (except Droste, but his voice more than makes up for the fact he doesn’t do much more than add little instrumental accents). Chris Bear’s drumming is some of the most tasteful and creative that I’ve heard in any music, let alone what I would call “pop” (albeit sort of dark/ambient/cold/whatever). Yeah, he has a penchant for the floor tom, but it sounds fucking great. Everybody except Bear is featured on vocals, as well, which just goes to show the group’s talent. Droste and Rossen are obviously the “main” vocalists, but people were screaming their faces off at 9:30 for Chris Taylor’s “lead” in Knife, which was awesome.
I don’t think Veckatimest is as good as Yellow House. I don’t know how to describe my reasoning other than that it’s “less inspired,” whatever that means. Yellow House was an incredibly original record of ambient pop. With Veckatimest they seem to be moving more towards the pop direction which is bound to do one thing: some songs will be gems, and others will be filler. Two Weeks; While You Wait For the Others; Ready, Able; Foreground; Cheerleader; and Southern Point are all spectacular. That’s about half the album, so I think they’re sporting a pretty good batting average. But on Yellow House every track was incredible, perhaps because none of them were singles quite the way Two Weeks could be.
I think some of the criticisms folks are making are pretty legitimate, but there’s definitely a lot of ridiculousness in this thread. Grizzly Bear’s not a perfect band (who is? what would that even be like?), but they’re making some incredibly original music (even if they hijack some piano riffs, who cares). Would music, as a whole, be better without a rampant exchange (read: thievery) of ideas? Should we compose in a vacuum?
Anyway, if you ask me, the best thing about Grizzly Bear is that they still sound better live than on their records. Anybody who has a good record and still sounds better live is a winner.
June 3, 2009 at 1:54 pmI saw this and thought it was a review of ONLY the artwork, which would have been awesome. That would be something I could get into (I’ve read many GB’s music reviews…I agree with that first commenter…we are losing the art of packaging in a digital age).
June 4, 2009 at 10:36 pmMy favorite thing about this artwork is the way that the stacked type kind of helps you pronounce the potentially-daunting title, by breaking it into easily-pronounceable segments. I don’t know if that was the reason for doing it, but I hope so. Gives it a purpose other than just being attractive and stylish (which it certainly is as well).
June 24, 2009 at 11:01 pm
i like that you’re also reviewing the artwork for this album. i wish more music sites did that. in the digital age, i feel like the complete package of releasing an album (the physical copy along with the artwork) has been lost.
May 28, 2009 at 11:46 am