Bleep

The second Warp full length from Grizzly Bear was a serious expansion in scope following their 2006 album Yellow House. Their first album fully written from scratch as a four piece, Veckatimest highlights the Brooklynites’ synergy to wonderful effect. It reached effortlessly into the mainstream with bright, infectious pop croons and piano block chords bursting with colour on the hit ‘Two Weeks’, while casting its indie rock mystique with rolling drums, spiralling synth details, and kaleidoscopic instrumental palettes.

Part of what makes this album so compelling is how immediately gripping it is. ‘Southern Point’ is a seafaring tidal mixture of folk strums, jazzy swishing drums, art rock sensibilities, verdant baroque textures, avant garde harmonic thrusts, and psychedelic shreds, and that's all in just the first two minutes. After pinpointing these elements, they all merge into an instrumental vortex with Daniel Rossen's powerful vocals on top. Veckatimest is further crammed with soaring string movements, guitars that tickle the pleasure centres, and idiosyncratic nods to doo-wop, Americana, and alt-rock.

Underpinning the dream-chamber-pop arrangements assisted by Nico Muhly are lyrics that paint delicate strokes across vivid local detail and pastoral lushness, as the album switches between elegant harp-like plucks and stomping, churning drums and shreds, giving further weight to the blogospheres’ shouts of best guitar record in 2009. ‘Fine For Now’ is full of magic with its lush vocal arrangements and glittering plucks, swaying and crashing with cymbals that complete the track's intricate spell. ‘Ready, Able’ is rowdy yet sophisticated, its low muted chugs meeting shimmering tones, detouring into spacey organ vibrations before Ed Droste's smooth vocals are torn apart over even slicker grooves and heavier shreds.

Veckatimest netted Grizzly Bear a swathe of accolades, and no wonder, it's a charming album that cemented the band's unique position in the rock scene.