For the most part, hip-hop/rap is the genre I enjoy listening most too. However, I do listen to my fair share of rock (Radiohead, St. Vincent), folk (Leonard Cohen), and indie (Arcade Fire). However, my favorite band at the moment is the one headed by Daniel Rossen, Christopher Bear, Ed Droste, and Chris Taylor, who are Grizzly Bear.
Consider their second album, the atmospheric and emotional Yellow House. Released in 2006, Yellow House touches on death and fond memories. There’s an ambiguity to it that I can’t decipher, and I don’t care enough about Ed Droste’s personal life to have a literal understanding of Grizzly Bear’s lyrics. It’s like Red in The Shawshank Redemption with The Marriage of Figaro.
“I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don’t want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I’d like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can’t be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it.”
Anyway, about Yellow House. To me, it’s the type of album I play on a Sunday afternoon, when the sun shines through the windows and onto the wood floors of my study. Since the album was actually recorded in a house, there’s a warmth that every song has that makes it feel more personal, and less about what the studios wanted the audience to hear. My favorite songs are the one-two punch of tracks four and five, “Central and Remote” and “Little Brother”.
In 2009, Grizzly Bear released Veckatimest. This was actually my first foray into the band’s music, after I had heard and fallen for the piano-heavy “Two Weeks”, still one of my all-time favorite songs (it’s the perfect introduction into Grizzly Bear). In this one, the topic up for discussion is break-ups. Sonically, Veckatimest and Yellow House only share vocals. They are two different and fantastic beasts (“All We Ask” could have easily fit in on Yellow House, though). My favorite songs on that album are “Two Weeks” and the honest “Ready, Able”.
2012 marked the release of their most critically-acclaimed effort, Shields. Shields is probably Grizzly Bear’s most cohesive album, but nearly three years later, I can’t find an overarching theme. It’s a great album too, but it feels like generic indie music (the first time I heard “Sun in Your Eyes”, I thought it was perfect for a Sundance movie). Still, like what preceded it, Shields is great. It may sound less original, but even then Grizzly Bear proves itself to be the cream of the indie rock crop.
Since Yellow House, Grizzly Bear has been averaging an album every three years, like clockwork. September 2015 will mark the three year anniversary of Shields. Ed Droste has tweeted recently that Grizzly Bear is in the studio, though. I really hope to see them near the top of my albums of 2015 list.
Wu Chainz 