Ha, just bumped an old thread cos this one didn't return in search.
Yes, this seems pretty wonderful. Unusually I'd heard a lot of the tracks in advance - the four singles, plus Ed sent me a video of Losing All Sense via Facebook last week - so I knew a lot more of the album than before I got any of the others. Even so, it doesn't feel at all disjointed; it's sequenced really nicely, and, like all their records, has whatever gestalt is.
They've managed to get more direct - lyrically and perhaps musically too - from album to album, whilst still remaining dreamy and inscrutable.
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Saturday, 19 August 2017 06:52 (six years ago) link
Am I alone in somehow feeling alienated by their production? It's very clearly "good" but at the same time it's very antiseptic.
― dance cum rituals (Moka), Saturday, 19 August 2017 09:02 (six years ago) link
― yesca, Saturday, 19 August 2017 12:40 (six years ago) link
No, definitely not alone. The use of reverb and compression makes it feel very odd, distanced, and unreal, and always has. I happen to really like that, most of the time. But sometimes, if I'm not in the right mood or have a headache, it can really grate.
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Saturday, 19 August 2017 17:47 (six years ago) link
The use of reverb and compression makes it feel very odd, distanced, and unreal, and always has.
― yesca, Saturday, 19 August 2017 20:36 (six years ago) link
Well no. That would be like feeling the same about all paintings that have yellow in them.
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Saturday, 19 August 2017 21:06 (six years ago) link
Do not feel that the production is anti-septic, but it feels at the moment like there's very little to distinguish it from Shields. I definitely love the sequencing so far - the songs they had teased sit really well with the new ones.
― in twelve parts (lamonti), Monday, 21 August 2017 13:21 (six years ago) link
this is another good bear album
― akm, Monday, 21 August 2017 15:18 (six years ago) link
It's really good. Maybe less jazzy, more rocking than the last? Anyway, hits the spot.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 21 August 2017 15:20 (six years ago) link
You know, since we're talking production and/or distancing or antiseptic or whatever, I find this album (as I did the last and probably all GB) so much more sonically interesting than, say, the last couple of Radiohead album. Just so much to digest. So much so, in fact, that when the album was over my shuffle spat up "Ghosts" by Nine Inch Nails and I just assumed it was more Grizzly Bear.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 22 August 2017 00:25 (six years ago) link
a song at a time is ok but i can by no means listen to the whole album. it definitely misses air and space. i am not sure if it is only the compression but it definitely does not help. i'd file this under claustrophobic music driving me nuts after a while. btw i haven't listened to them before.
― Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Tuesday, 22 August 2017 15:19 (six years ago) link
I would say the songs are dense with information.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 22 August 2017 15:27 (six years ago) link
I feel like the reverb on this is all plate reverb or somesuch, its more murky then spacey. Good record either way.
― 29 facepalms, Tuesday, 22 August 2017 15:30 (six years ago) link
Listening to their recent Song Exploder episode alongside others gave me the impression of lots of interesting demo ideas made too busy and homogenized once they got in a nice studio.
― change display name (Jordan), Tuesday, 22 August 2017 15:40 (six years ago) link
See, maybe I need to listen again, but "homogenized" is not the the word I would use. I love the sound of Grizzly Bear records, because even if there are lots of FX and studio tricks, to me they sound like really well recorded drums and guitars played through really good amps, very natural and jazzy, not at all clean, digital and homogenized.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 22 August 2017 15:44 (six years ago) link
I guess I mean a tendency to throw too many elements into the mix, which is made possible by good engineering, but I'm just in a phase where I want to hear more spare arrangements right now. I've only heard one or two songs from the new record though.
― change display name (Jordan), Tuesday, 22 August 2017 15:52 (six years ago) link
Yeah, I get you. But given that GB is more or less a prog band, shit's going to busy.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 22 August 2017 15:58 (six years ago) link
are there any acoustic guitars on this album or any songs that are reminiscent of 'On a Neck, On a Spit'?
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 22 August 2017 16:46 (six years ago) link
On the subject of spacier/less busy arrangements, I think Will Calls (Marfa Demo) is one of their very best tracks.
― in twelve parts (lamonti), Tuesday, 22 August 2017 21:53 (six years ago) link
listened to this twice and not sure where this will take me. on the fence as they say.
― Bee OK, Saturday, 26 August 2017 02:31 (six years ago) link
the highlight song for me so far is "Aquarian."
― Bee OK, Tuesday, 29 August 2017 00:04 (six years ago) link
Ha, that's about the only one that hasn't clicked for me.
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 29 August 2017 05:12 (six years ago) link
Three Rings, Neighbours, and Losing All Sense are my favourites.
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 29 August 2017 05:13 (six years ago) link
Jeff Weiss on the new album: https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/nee7wq/grizzly-bear-is-invincible
I have bought tickets to see them in Manchester. Anyone else going?
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 29 August 2017 10:26 (six years ago) link
I'm at a strange kind of "Sounds all right, wish I hadn't bought it though" point.
― djh, Tuesday, 29 August 2017 20:20 (six years ago) link
are you saying the old stuff is better? i bought all their albums in the past but now on Spotify.
― Bee OK, Tuesday, 29 August 2017 23:44 (six years ago) link
i think this is getting better with each listen but only on listen four.
I've listened to this a lot and really, really like it. It's gone pretty much in the exact direction I wanted them to go in; a little more direct, a little more powerful, but still not obvious or predictable.
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 30 August 2017 12:51 (six years ago) link
x-posts. Definitely not saying the old stuff is better. More that I've a vague feeling that I should have just spent the money on something else/I probably didn't need any more Grizzly Bear than I have ... and I just felt a compulsion to buy a CD. (I'm open to the idea that I'll change my mind and be glad I bought it, though).
― djh, Wednesday, 30 August 2017 21:46 (six years ago) link
I've come round to this quite a bit.
― djh, Wednesday, 27 September 2017 19:15 (six years ago) link
Good!
I'm seeing them live next Friday for the first time, at the Albert Hall in Manchester. Should be wonderful.
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 28 September 2017 08:21 (six years ago) link
This has become the default weekend morning soundtrack in my house because my gf really likes it, and it's grown on me a lot. GB records take so long to reveal their hooks for me.
― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 28 September 2017 16:53 (six years ago) link
Fuck, this album.
Why does every release take so long to personally sink in? Why, with every release, do I initially think that this is the album where I'm on the verge to smugly declare "NEW JERSEY", only to subsequently grow to love almost all of the songs on it? Surely my faulty-ass ears, but still a mystery to me.
― Rod Steel (musicfanatic), Sunday, 15 October 2017 00:12 (six years ago) link
They were great live. Very powerful.
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Sunday, 15 October 2017 05:50 (six years ago) link
This is absent from a couple of the UK magazine polls - Mojo and Q - which feels a bit odd? Probably one of my two or three favourites of the year.
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 23 November 2017 07:48 (six years ago) link
I don't know, I found it tremendously disappointing, even forgettable, which is not an adjective I'd use to describe their previous records.
― pomenitul, Thursday, 23 November 2017 13:46 (six years ago) link
all is forbidden -- all is forgotten
― reggie (qualmsley), Friday, 1 December 2017 03:16 (six years ago) link
^ I would give it a few more spins, pomenitul. I felt the exact same way after two listens. Now, about eight spins later, it's in my top 20 of the year. It's definitely a grower.
― Rod Steel (musicfanatic), Sunday, 10 December 2017 01:27 (six years ago) link
And I'm not a GB fan, in general, which maybe you were. I didn't start loving their music until Shields.
― Rod Steel (musicfanatic), Sunday, 10 December 2017 01:30 (six years ago) link
I'm not a GB fan, but I at least usually know when they have a new record out. I am only just learning about this now.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Sunday, 10 December 2017 01:38 (six years ago) link
Their profile ain't what it once was, is what I'm saying.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Sunday, 10 December 2017 01:39 (six years ago) link
^yeah, that's fair. Shields was in my top ten of '12, so I'm more prone to know of a new album.
― Rod Steel (musicfanatic), Sunday, 10 December 2017 02:03 (six years ago) link
I felt like this had a big PR push (big Spotify billboards, for instance), strong critical reception, strong fan reception, well-received tour... so why is it absent from so many end-of-year polls? When The National, for instance, aren't? They feel, to me, like they're at similar points in their career in some ways. (Though The National are quite a lot bigger now, I guess.)
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 5 January 2018 10:04 (six years ago) link
i'd bet their curation of the massive day of the dead project (of which incidentally "grizzly bear"'s "terrapin station" cover is my personal favorite) + the dessners' avant-garde activities (cantaloupe records + bang on a can etc) + the lead singer's wife being an erstwhile new yorker editor = ongoing behind the scenes highbrow cred points outstripping whatever aesthetic merits of the new grizzly bear record (which i happen to prefer to the new national record)
― reggie (qualmsley), Friday, 5 January 2018 11:53 (six years ago) link
hmm I think also the National record is just more accessible, sounds warmer, simpler
― niels, Friday, 5 January 2018 12:45 (six years ago) link
At some point The National become like a huge band that gets played on pop radio next to Rihanna, right? I don't claim to understand it, but hey.
It does feel like no one cares about this GB record but it keeps getting a little better every time I hear it.
― change display name (Jordan), Friday, 5 January 2018 15:32 (six years ago) link
it's maximal in the best sense
― reggie (qualmsley), Friday, 5 January 2018 16:10 (six years ago) link
I adore both bands lately, but The National seem an easier recommendation for me to friends who've stopped paying attention to new musics.
― Rod Steel (musicfanatic), Saturday, 3 February 2018 00:39 (six years ago) link
lol, bookmarks...
― Rod Steel (musicfanatic), Saturday, 3 February 2018 00:40 (six years ago) link
Somehow completely missed this one until now. Not sure if I wasn’t aware it was even out in 2017 or I just wasn’t in a place to care about a new GB record in 2017. But it’s really good!
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Tuesday, 13 October 2020 01:55 (three years ago) link
Up there with their best, for sure
― change display name (Jordan), Tuesday, 13 October 2020 20:12 (three years ago) link
xp
Ok gonna go listen to it and stop knocking them.― the last famous person you were surprised to discover was actually (man alive), Friday, May 5, 2017 7:58 PM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink
― the last famous person you were surprised to discover was actually (man alive), Friday, May 5, 2017 7:58 PM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink
― just sayin, Tuesday, 13 October 2020 21:15 (three years ago) link
lol fuck, developing some real internet-induced dementia. I guess I didn't miss it but it also didn't really stick with me at the time
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Friday, 23 October 2020 02:10 (three years ago) link
The new Daniel Rossen record is good. It's interesting to isolate his portion of their sound, and it's maybe a little too much of "his thing", but also Christopher Bear SHOWED UP on these tracks. Some really creative & slick drum parts on this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKEEbre1-yk
― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 14 April 2022 18:24 (two years ago) link
I knew he was a great drummer and also does scoring, but damn, this band had so much talent:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvycoHMmJkk
― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 14 April 2022 18:30 (two years ago) link
might like this more than any grizzly bear album (it's between this and shields)
― ufo, Friday, 15 April 2022 11:08 (two years ago) link
It starts well but the guitar patterns get gratingly repetitive. Is this just what he does
― imago, Friday, 15 April 2022 11:42 (two years ago) link
That fingerstyle flamenco thing? I guess it's just what he does.
Wow, I didn't know Shields was anyone's favorite GB album.
― change display name (Jordan), Friday, 15 April 2022 18:11 (two years ago) link
Yeah, Yellow House still feels far greater than anything else they released
― doug watson, Friday, 15 April 2022 18:15 (two years ago) link
I'm a Veckatimest/Painted Ruins guy
― change display name (Jordan), Friday, 15 April 2022 18:21 (two years ago) link