Shields
With disparate contributions from its four members, Grizzly Bear’s sound has long been multifaceted and thoughtfully layered. Repeated listening is frequently rewarded with newly discovered textures and details. “Sleeping Ute” opens *Shields*, the group’s fourth studio album, and is almost like a three-movement piece; alt-country–tinged guitar and bass introduce the song before a swirl of keyboards, buzzy guitars, and thunderous drumming transpires. A vocal and Spanish-style acoustic guitar outro make for an unresolved conclusion. *Shields*\' most straight-ahead modern rock number, “Yet Again,” is in the melodically accessible vein of “Two Weeks” from Grizzly Bear’s previous release, *Veckatimest*. A showcase for multi-instrumentalist Christopher Bear’s tuned percussion and lyrical drumming, “A Simple Answer” is bathed in emotive longing. There’s an addictive new wave pop sound to the nuanced “gun-shy,” while “Sun in Your Eyes” starts and ends as a piano ballad, transforming into a chamber rock *pièce de résistance* in between.
Shields is Grizzly Bear's most compositionally adventurous record. Though full of baroque, detail-rich production and latticework melodies, it also offers an emotionally resonant core. The album is an excavation of loneliness, melancholy, and self-reliance.
Don't call it a sequel; Grizzly Bear's follow-up to Veckatimest delivers on its own merits, although maybe not as often as you'd like it to.
These songs are labyrinths. Ethereal, harmonic, beautiful—but labyrinths nonetheless.
It’d be a tough ask for Grizzly Bear’s latest to match the meticulous, swooning highs of 2009’s Veckatimest, but it certainly has its moments. Though it lacks the initial stand-out singles of their previous record, album number four is perhaps a more consistent cursory listening experience, whilst eking out new highlights with each subsequent spin.
Like any Grizzly Bear release, Shields demands multiple listens before one is able to peel the layers back to see how good it just might be.
It was always going to be a difficult ask. Grizzly Bear’s third album, ‘Veckatimest’ stole the hearts of music lovers in an insidious, slow moving fashion.
Grizzly Bear's follow-up to Veckatimest is a grower, writes <strong>Kitty Empire</strong>
Shields plays like a calculated retreat into something altogether indistinct and inconsequential.
Grizzly Bear have spent three years digging out the emotions beneath their technical fireworks. It's time well spent, writes <strong>Alexis Petridis</strong>
A new beginning for the Brooklyn outfit on their most confident album yet. CD review by Kieron Tyler