Opinz

Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

On Veckatimest, Grizzly Bear hone the multi-instrumental soundscapes of Yellow House into a series of far more individualized and fully-realized songs, wonderfully absorbing musical worlds (see the impossibly gleeful sunshine pop of “Two Weeks”, the acoustic grandeur of “Southern Point”, or the moody ballad “Ready, Able”) – watch out for the album’s forgettable middle stretch though, where their subtly expert songcraft wears a bit thin until they manage to pull it all back together again.

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Tags: daniel rossen, department of eagles, ed droste, grizzly bear, veckatimest

Various Artists – Dark Was the Night

An AIDs charity compilation offered by 4AD and Red Hot, Dark Was the Night gathers the most recognizable names in the world of indie music for two discs worth of new recordings, the first folk-centric and the second more electric; as one would expect the results are mixed, with some big highlights – excellent contributions from Grizzly Bear (“Deep Blue Sea”), Arcade Fire (“Lenin”), My Morning Jacket (“El Caporel”), a team up between David Byrne and Dirty Projectors (“Knotty Pine”), and one of Bon Iver’s best songs yet (“Brackett, WI”) – and some disappointments – Spoon seem to phone it in on “Well-Alright” and Sufjan Stevens’ 10-minute epic “You Are the Blood” is not nearly as impressive as it thinks it is – but who cares because it’s for a good cause so you should buy it anyway.

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Tags: aaron dessner, andrew bird, antony hegarty, arcade fire, beirut, ben gibbard, blonde redhead, bon iver, bryce dessner, cat power, compilations, conor oberst, dark was the night, dave sitek, david byrne, devastations, dirty delta blues, dirty projectors, feist, gillian welch, grizzly bear, iron & wine, jose gonzalez, kevin drew, kronos quartet, my brightest diamond, my morning jacket, riceboy sleeps, sharon jones & the dap-kings, spoon, stuart murdoch, sufjan stevens, the books, the decemberists, the national, the new pornographers, yeasayer, yo la tengo

Department of Eagles – In Ear Park

Department of Eagles – In Ear Park

October 7, 2008
4AD
Rating: 4.4 / 5

The Music Rag One Sentence Review: The new album from Department of Eagles densely layers an endless catalog of natural sounds and nostalgic lyrics into some of the most lush and beautiful sounding pop songs I’ve ever heard – In Ear Park is easily the prettiest-sounding thing you’ll listen to all year.

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Tags: daniel rossen, department of eagles, grizzly bear, in ear park