For the three of you keeping count (one of whom is writing this), we’re at 4/5 for 2017…
[Video]
[5.00]
Joshua Minsoo Kim: Well, it’s a Grizzly Bear song. Those against will cry: meandering, hookless, pretty but empty. Those for will declare: spacious, detailed, carefully considered. The beginning immediately brought to mind Radiohead’s “Reckoner” which only reminded me that people frequently compare the Grizzlies to Talk Talk. Droste isn’t nearly as evocative as Hollis (or Yorke, for that matter) but I’ll always give him and his pals credit for doing what they can with vocals so beige.
[5]
Micha Cavaseno: It feels like an Amnesiac cast-off, dismissed for sounding like Beach Boys trying to make sense of a Einstürzende Neubauten loop. And I mean that in the best way possible. Dubby aimless drums, smooth keys that equally meander, a bunch of sound effects that probably sound great if you’re stoned or just generally drained on a weekend afternoon. They might be breathily crooning about showing you their “bad side,” but it’s fairly harmless.
[7]
Tim de Reuse: Ethereal and floaty in its implied tonalities, in its spacious arrangement, in its lyrical content, in its overall structure; in each of those facets it’s undeniably pretty but fails to arrange itself into a definite enough form to make a sonic or emotional point, like a half-cadence stretched out to five minutes.
[5]
Alfred Soto: The precision with which the rhythm section and guitar riffs syncopate is new to my ears, and at last he’s singing like he has something to say — which, as it turns out, is another end-of-the-affair lament.
[6]
Thomas Inskeep: A little baggy, a little shoegazy, a little kindler gentler Loop-ish, with some David Byrne-ian vocals. It meanders, but pleasantly. If college rock still exists, this is firmly in that pocket.
[6]
Stephen Eisermann: I’ve always been pretty good at math, so let me quantify my grade for this song as best I can: (Coldplay + U2) – (occasionally compelling lyrics) x (wall of sound) =
[1]
Alex Clifton: Grizzly Bear is one of those bands that music recommendation sites have always told me I should like based on everything else I like, but I’ve never understood why. I like my indie rock fuzzy and fast, as opposed to dreamy and reverbed to glory. The drumline here is energetic but the rest of the melodic line feels like a weird echo, and the background “mmmmmmm” vocal line drags it even further. It’s like a sad disco in a cave. Halfway through, the song finds its groove as a spacey jam session, but that section would work better as an extended outro for a live show. If this were pared down with a more concrete concept, I’d dig it, but I’m left feeling both overwhelmed and empty.
[3]
Katherine St Asaph: I have no investment in Grizzly Bear either way, which means I can sink properly context-free into this Jesca Hoop-alike grotto, with percussion thick as mosquitoes and vocals echoing off the walls.
[7]
Ian Mathers: I like Radiohead and I’ve liked the odd Grizzly Bear track, but I’m not sure I needed the latter to start sounding more like late-period the former — at least for the nicely clattery first bit, before we get to the most momentum-killing middle eight I’ve heard in months. Nothing here is actively offensive, but maybe that’s kind of the problem too.
[5]