Shields

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All Music Guide
After being launched into popularity by 2009's Veckatimest, Brooklyn's Grizzly Bear took some time to collect themselves, exploring side projects rather than jumping right back into the studio, with Chris Taylor exploring a more electronic sound with his solo project, CANT, while Daniel Rossen released an EP, Silent Hour/Golden Mile. Three years later, with the band refreshed and ready to go, Grizzly Bear make their return with the dreamy and psychedelic Shields, which finds the band once again leaving New York to record outside the chaos of the city. Less focused on layered vocals, the album has a more open sound than its predecessors, as exemplified by the album's first single, "Sleeping Ute," which feels like it ...
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Editorial Reviews

All Music Guide
After being launched into popularity by 2009's Veckatimest, Brooklyn's Grizzly Bear took some time to collect themselves, exploring side projects rather than jumping right back into the studio, with Chris Taylor exploring a more electronic sound with his solo project, CANT, while Daniel Rossen released an EP, Silent Hour/Golden Mile. Three years later, with the band refreshed and ready to go, Grizzly Bear make their return with the dreamy and psychedelic Shields, which finds the band once again leaving New York to record outside the chaos of the city. Less focused on layered vocals, the album has a more open sound than its predecessors, as exemplified by the album's first single, "Sleeping Ute," which feels like it has more breathing room than the more ornately orchestrated production of their previous work.
All Music Guide - Heather Phares
Grizzly Bear were gone for a few years after Veckatimest, but the amount of extracurricular projects they tackled during that time -- Chris Taylor's work with CANT, Daniel Rossen's solo EP Silent Hour/Golden Mile, and the band's reconfiguring of their own songs into the Blue Valentine soundtrack -- means they never really went away. Shields isn't exactly a dramatic return then, which is somehow fitting considering that this is some of the band's most cerebral music. There's nothing here with quite the instant appeal of "Two Weeks" or the aching vulnerability of "Foreground"; instead, most of these songs lie between those two poles. Yet Shields is full of remarkably active music, starting with "Sleeping Ute," where acoustic guitars that sound more like they're being scrubbed than strummed tumble into bubbling synths, which then give way to rhythms that conjure leaves twirling in the breeze. "Speak in Rounds" may be the most rocking song they've done yet, even if it climaxes with rustling brass and flutes instead of a shredding guitar solo. As dazzling as these flourishes can be, sometimes the complexity of Shields' arrangements threatens to overshadow the actual songs, and the most direct moments are among the album's best. "Yet Again" shows once again how good Grizzly Bear are at putting their abstract leanings into their version of a pop single: the guitars ring out with inevitability, the harmonies propel the song to new heights, and everything gets gloriously noisy before it fades away. The bouncy "A Simple Answer" and sleek "Gun-Shy" follow suit, but what makes them and the rest of Shields intriguing is the tension between the music's brash dynamics, and words and feelings that often turn inward. The band's lyrics are more cryptic and coded than ever, and the snippets that listeners get, such as "Cloistered from yourself/You never even try," from "What's Wrong," are abstractions of relationships that feel like extreme close-ups or bird's-eye views. These mysteries don't detract from the pure melodic beauty of songs like "Half-Gate," though, and the way that the album travels from its stormy beginnings to the serenity of "Sun in Your Eyes" means it can be called a song cycle without shame or snickering. While it's not as obviously big a statement as Veckatimest was, Shields is plenty ambitious in its own right, and its complexity demands and rewards patient listening.
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Product Details

  • Release Date: 9/18/2012
  • Label: Warp Records
  • UPC: 801061022921
  • Catalog Number: 10229
  • Sales rank: 10,954

Tracks

Disc 1
  1. 1 Sleeping Ute (4:36)
  2. 2 Speak in Rounds (4:24)
  3. 3 Adelma (1:02)
  4. 4 Yet Again (5:18)
  5. 5 The Hunt (3:44)
  6. 6 A Simple Answer (6:00)
  7. 7 What's Wrong? (5:44)
  8. 8 Gun-Shy (4:30)
  9. 9 Half Gate (5:29)
  10. 10 Sun In Your Eyes (7:08)
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Album Credits

Performance Credits
Grizzly Bear Primary Artist
Nat Baldwin Upright Bass
Christopher Bear Synthesizer, Percussion, Drums, Vocals, Lap Steel Guitar, Wurlitzer
Edward Droste Vocals
Daniel Rossen Synthesizer, Guitar, Piano, Cello, Vocals
Chris Taylor Synthesizer, Bass, Clarinet, Flute, Bass Clarinet, Saxophone, Vocals
Tatum Greenblatt Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Louis Shwadron French Horn
Technical Credits
Bob Ludwig Mastering
Christopher Bear drum machine
Ami Spishock Management
Grizzly Bear Composer
Daniel Rossen Horn Arrangements, String Arrangements
Chris Taylor Producer, Engineer, drum machine, Horn Arrangements, String Arrangements
Ben Tousley Art Direction
Ryan Gilligan Pro-Tools
Richard Diebenkorn Artwork
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