A Round of Sound

As far as I’m concerned, 2006’s Yellow House was a decent album, with a few songs, most notably “Knife” and “On a Neck, on a Spit”, that blew the listener away and at least put Grizzly Bear on the map. But, for me, it was a bit overrated as the album was devoid of many memorable moments and was, well, boring. A beautiful album yes, and it was certainly evident that there was something there that hinted at Grizzly Bear’s talent and potential, but as a whole, I put the album on the back burner and never really felt a need to come back to it. Enter In Ear Park, the 2008 release from Grizzly Bear’s sister band Department of Eagles. Led by Daniel Rossen and featuring 2 other Grizzly Bear members, I surprisingly felt a much greater connection with this release and considered it one of the best albums of the year, just barely missing out on my top 10. There were elements on this release that I felt could benefit Grizzly Bear, but who knew if that would ever happen, so in essence, I became a fan of Department of Eagles more so than of Grizzly Bear.

I didn’t pay any attention to Grizzly Bear news, including their Friend EP release in 2007, but knew they had a new full-length album in the works for 2009 and was sure I would at least give it a listen. My first sense of excitement surrounding the new release was hearing “Deep Blue Sea” on the Dark Was the Night compilation (also featured on the Friend EP as a Dan Rossen home recording) and noticing hints of what I hoped Grizzly Bear could become and despite the fact that “Deep Blue Sea” would not be featured on the new album, the hype for Veckatimest continued to grow. The album leaked in early 2009 to horrible quality, but continued to generate buzz. So here we are, three years after Yellow House and with a fantastic side project release in between, Veckatimest finally has its day, and alas, the foundation laid by Yellow House has been built upon to create an epic release, easily Grizzly Bear’s masterpiece, that is sure to go down as one of the year’s best and the album that takes Grizzly Bear to a new level.

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