Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

It's always around this time of year that I start to closely look at my albums and songs for the current year and I try to place them in some kind of arbitrary ranking. And without trying to make it seem as if I only make lists for the publications I write for, I've always been a fan of lists. I feel it's a fun way to learn more about music and it's especially great to read and share lists amongst people you respect and like. Either way, in trying to get all of my favorite music of 2010 and immersing myself in it, I went back to one of top albums of 2009, Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest, to find what is it that makes an album great and very importantly, long-lasting.

The entire album has a gripping pull to it, all of the band members deliver timely and fitting touches when needed. Their ear for melody is one thing but to be able to harmonize four different voices with various moods, themes and keys is something else. I always loved how everything opened with "Southern Point," and how it was just Daniel Rossen's voice and that glorious guitar line. It sets the mood for the album's colorful sounds and it starkly marks a new sound from where they were before, 2006's haunted Yellow House. Here is a cool video for a recording they did of the song:


Seeing them up close for last year's ACL was a surreal experience. Looking back, they were one of the 'buzz' bands last year and they played a gifted set in the middle of the day, around a fierce rainstorm. Anyone who knows me closely knows that I consider this band to be one of the best. (After Radiohead made In Rainbows, they were looking for awesome bands to open for them, they chose Grizzly Bear and Liars. And before that, when I got to see Radiohead in Berkeley, they had The Black Keys and Deerhoof opening for them. I saw the latter - apparently Radiohead know their stuff.) Regardless, long before Veckatimest, they premiered "Two Weeks" and "While You Wait for the Others" on late-night talk shows, a year before the album came out. It left a strong set of great expectations and surely, they didn't disappoint. The sound that Rossen gets out of that guitar is undeniably mesmerizing, everything about it still moves me. Here is the official video for "While You Wait for the Others" - Bryan