album #65

veckatimest (grizzly bear)

For the most part this is a rainy day album… there's a quiet vibe of melancholy running throughout, in the lyrics and the melodies. On the surface it's a little bit dull and meandering, but the music gets better with close listening. The music is layered beautifully, especially the raw echo of the guitar and the glowing background vocals. It reminds me almost of the Beach Boys- nice, understated melody brought to life by excellent production.

“Two Weeks” is a masterpiece- beautiful pop bounce to that one. A pattern I've experienced again and again this year, I'll hear the song that makes me want to hear the album, and still love that song but find the rest of the album a little less satisfying- though still good. “Two Weeks” does hint, however, at what the rest of it will be… underneath that bounce, there's a lowness and a sadness to the lyrics. Of course, there are other songs that are pretty strong and lovely, but nothing matches my love for the big single. “Fine For Now” takes a nice bluesy sound and sparks it with this gorgeous, clanging guitar riff- reminds me of Destroyer, the way they can take a bluesy, rambling song and take it to a higher place with one banging guitar sound. “Ready, Able” has a beauty to it that I really like a lot, it's probably my third favorite overall. “While You Wait For the Others” is an exciting, dramatic one, with these cascading background vocals I really love. “I Live With You” is not one of my favorites but I found it startling lyrically, in a pretty interesting way, and also it reminded me of Neon Bible. And the album opens and closes very well, it's very much a unified piece… entering on the exciting, dramatic surge of “Southern Point” and closing on the poignantly delicate “Foreground.”

Hm, I really didn't expect to write that much about this record, but like I said, the music really grows on close listening. Lots of beauty, lots of interesting stuff going on. For pure melodic joy, the rest of the record fades in the glow of “Two Weeks,” but as a well crafted, complete work, it's really pretty good the whole way through.