#22 Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
One cannot play ‘Foreground’, the last song on Veckatimest, in the presence of my wife without her getting anxious. See, we had decided to play about 10 of the 12 songs as the prelude to our wedding reception and Foreground was the last song that we played before she walked down the aisle. The combination of the DJ playing the music way too loud and our venue Architechtural Artifacts, being cavernous, seemed like the perfect album to play for the typically nervous soon-to-be-husband who had somehow found a way to stay calm and I will have to give some credit to this album.
I think that we would both agree that the songs on the album are stellar, still mixing the artsy side of their previous works with more pop enthusiasm and hooks. From their early days when the band pretty much consisted of only Ed Droste, the band has matured by becoming more than just a name but an actual 4 piece that has moved away from it’s artsyness of earlier incarnations to becoming more pop oriented. There are songs like “Southern Point” and “Two Weeks” which are full of hooks and melodic with a much more produced sound than the debut album “Horn of Plenty” and their follow-up “Yellow House”. While there are plenty of highlights for these two albums, this album is a true combination of all 4 members efforts.
The fear of a band like Grizzly Bear is trying to decide what they want to be. It was Drost, that was disappointed, in fact, when the band was not nominated for a Grammy for their latest effort “Shields”. In my best Yoda impression: “Awards not make one great!”.
For me and my wife, the album will always have a special place in our hearts for that moment mentioned above, and maybe one day she will be able to listen to it without getting anxious.