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urgencytobleedI miss posting here! So I'm going to start again, even if it means I'm essentially just talking to myself. (I am not fishing for comments by saying this, by the way. It's just how I was beginning to feel and part of the reason why I quit for awhile. But now I realize I just like talking about music, whether anyone else is listening or not, so it doesn't really matter.) My posts may not be as frequent or lengthy as they once were but I'm going to make an effort to keep sharing all of my latest obsessions with the world at large. That being said, let's re-start things off with a little late bandwagon-jumping.
I realize I'm about two years late in realizing it but Grizzly Bear is an amazing band. I'll admit, when I've tried to give them a chance in the past, my attempts were always a bit half-hearted because, frankly, all of the hype surrounding them around the release of Veckatimest put me off. When a band is hyped to a point that I feel like I can't escape them and it's wrong not to like them, I have a tendency not to want to listen to them at all. For awhile, this is how I felt with Grizzly Bear. But sometimes bands become so buzzworthy because they are actually really fucking good and genuinely deserve it. Unfortunately, it more often than not takes me awhile to catch on to this fact and when I finally do, I'm way behind the times. Maybe there's someone else out there who has managed to miss out on Grizzly Bear up until this point too; if so, this post is for you! You absolutely must listen to them now. For some reason, I've been operating under the assumption that their music is bland and sedate and lacking in melodies that get stuck in your head for days at a time (barring "Two Weeks," which is quite infectious but, honestly, sounds nothing like most of the rest of their stuff) but it's really anything but. Sure, there are plenty of quieter, sparser moments but they are far from boring and there are also plenty of intense, bombastic, even catchy moments to balance them out. "All We Ask," which is currently my favorite from Veckatimest, is the perfect example of this. The subdued, subtle build of the verses and Ed Droste's gorgeous, effortlessly smooth vocals contrast with the heavier chorus and Daniel Rossen's slightly rougher voice in a way that is unexpectedly pleasing to the ears. The grand finale - all four members singing together one simple line: "I can't get out of what I'm into with you" - is really just the cherry on top of a sundae that is already impossibly delicious. "While You Wait for the Others" is one of the album's most straightforward songs; it is also one of its catchiest and there is really not much to be said about it that is more convincing than just listening to it. I can't think of any sound much more glorious than that moment before the chorus where Rossen sings, "I'll ask you kindly to make your way -" and the rest of the group chimes in with their impeccable harmonies for the final word, "out." It sounds so rich and textured - and I don't think I've ever described music as having "texture" before. I've never quite understood the concept until I heard Veckatimest. Honestly, the entire album is so brilliant. It's very nearly all I've been listening to lately and if you don't have it already, get it. You will be doing yourself a massive favor.
If I had waited until now to compile my best of list for last year, Warpaint's The Fool would have most definitely been on it. But unfortunately, I did not and at the time I did compile it, I hadn't decided yet whether or not I liked the album. I can say now with much more certainty that I like it very much. In fact, I love it. Warpaint does not really make music that hits you immediately. Instead, their gauzy, swirling, expansive pop draws you slowly in, until it wraps itself around you like a blanket you're not sure you ever want to crawl out of. The soft, girlish vocals of Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman blend so well together that it is often difficult to tell the two of them apart and they float above the music in a breezy, weightless way. Even as the instrumentation reaches its most intense peaks, their voices are never overwhelmed or lost. Instead, they become almost another instrument themselves, weaving effortlessly in and out, pulling back to allow a guitar or bass melody to take center stage so that no one element of the band's sound is more or less vital than the rest. "Undertow" is one of the album's finest moments, one of the songs that seems to most successfully get across exactly what kind of music Warpaint aims to create. It is a shimmering, lightweight, utterly perfect pop song deconstructed and rearranged into something far more sprawling. Propelled by a robust guitar riff, the song expands and contracts in a refreshingly organic way; it is an epic song that manages to escape sounding like it's meant to be epic - it just is. "Composure," on the other hand, is a more immediate track. With its shout-y group vocals and driving, aggressive beat, it is almost impossible not to love upon first listen yet it is also just as inventive and experimental as the rest of The Fool, changing course and switching gears several times throughout its five-minute length. The entire album is surprising in this way. You're never quite sure where a song is going but where it ends up always seems the natural and right place for it to be.
I will post soon about some newer releases once I've decided whether to put them all in one big post or split them up, since I haven't really talked about any albums from this year yet at all.
I realize I'm about two years late in realizing it but Grizzly Bear is an amazing band. I'll admit, when I've tried to give them a chance in the past, my attempts were always a bit half-hearted because, frankly, all of the hype surrounding them around the release of Veckatimest put me off. When a band is hyped to a point that I feel like I can't escape them and it's wrong not to like them, I have a tendency not to want to listen to them at all. For awhile, this is how I felt with Grizzly Bear. But sometimes bands become so buzzworthy because they are actually really fucking good and genuinely deserve it. Unfortunately, it more often than not takes me awhile to catch on to this fact and when I finally do, I'm way behind the times. Maybe there's someone else out there who has managed to miss out on Grizzly Bear up until this point too; if so, this post is for you! You absolutely must listen to them now. For some reason, I've been operating under the assumption that their music is bland and sedate and lacking in melodies that get stuck in your head for days at a time (barring "Two Weeks," which is quite infectious but, honestly, sounds nothing like most of the rest of their stuff) but it's really anything but. Sure, there are plenty of quieter, sparser moments but they are far from boring and there are also plenty of intense, bombastic, even catchy moments to balance them out. "All We Ask," which is currently my favorite from Veckatimest, is the perfect example of this. The subdued, subtle build of the verses and Ed Droste's gorgeous, effortlessly smooth vocals contrast with the heavier chorus and Daniel Rossen's slightly rougher voice in a way that is unexpectedly pleasing to the ears. The grand finale - all four members singing together one simple line: "I can't get out of what I'm into with you" - is really just the cherry on top of a sundae that is already impossibly delicious. "While You Wait for the Others" is one of the album's most straightforward songs; it is also one of its catchiest and there is really not much to be said about it that is more convincing than just listening to it. I can't think of any sound much more glorious than that moment before the chorus where Rossen sings, "I'll ask you kindly to make your way -" and the rest of the group chimes in with their impeccable harmonies for the final word, "out." It sounds so rich and textured - and I don't think I've ever described music as having "texture" before. I've never quite understood the concept until I heard Veckatimest. Honestly, the entire album is so brilliant. It's very nearly all I've been listening to lately and if you don't have it already, get it. You will be doing yourself a massive favor.
If I had waited until now to compile my best of list for last year, Warpaint's The Fool would have most definitely been on it. But unfortunately, I did not and at the time I did compile it, I hadn't decided yet whether or not I liked the album. I can say now with much more certainty that I like it very much. In fact, I love it. Warpaint does not really make music that hits you immediately. Instead, their gauzy, swirling, expansive pop draws you slowly in, until it wraps itself around you like a blanket you're not sure you ever want to crawl out of. The soft, girlish vocals of Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman blend so well together that it is often difficult to tell the two of them apart and they float above the music in a breezy, weightless way. Even as the instrumentation reaches its most intense peaks, their voices are never overwhelmed or lost. Instead, they become almost another instrument themselves, weaving effortlessly in and out, pulling back to allow a guitar or bass melody to take center stage so that no one element of the band's sound is more or less vital than the rest. "Undertow" is one of the album's finest moments, one of the songs that seems to most successfully get across exactly what kind of music Warpaint aims to create. It is a shimmering, lightweight, utterly perfect pop song deconstructed and rearranged into something far more sprawling. Propelled by a robust guitar riff, the song expands and contracts in a refreshingly organic way; it is an epic song that manages to escape sounding like it's meant to be epic - it just is. "Composure," on the other hand, is a more immediate track. With its shout-y group vocals and driving, aggressive beat, it is almost impossible not to love upon first listen yet it is also just as inventive and experimental as the rest of The Fool, changing course and switching gears several times throughout its five-minute length. The entire album is surprising in this way. You're never quite sure where a song is going but where it ends up always seems the natural and right place for it to be.
I will post soon about some newer releases once I've decided whether to put them all in one big post or split them up, since I haven't really talked about any albums from this year yet at all.
