Shields

Grizzly Bear | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 18, 2012)
• Original Release Date: 2012
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warp Records
• ASIN: B008966SIU
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,946 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #81 in Music > Indie Music > Rock > General

Track Listings

1. Sleeping Ute

2. Speak In Rounds

3. Adelma

4. Yet Again

5. The Hunt

6. A Simple Answer

7. What's Wrong

8. gun - shy

9. Half Gate

10. Sun In Your Eyes

Editorial Reviews

2012 release, the fourth studio album from the Brooklyn-based Indie band. The band's sound has been categorized as Psychedelic Pop, Folk Rock, and Experimental, and is dominated by the use of vocal harmonies.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Excellent Album by Grizzly Bear September 18, 2012

By T. A. Daniel TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Audio CD

2009's VECKATIMEST is a fantastic album, and it ranks among one of the best albums recorded in the past ten years. Grizzly Bear's second studio album is as finely crafted and poured over as anything available on the indie-rock market. Maybe it's the album's attention to detail; maybe it's the sincerity the band expressed through the lyrics; maybe it's the melodies and soaring harmonies; whatever it is, VECKATIMEST is undoubtedly a hard album to follow up. If you haven't heard the album yet, you really owe it to yourself to stop reading now and check out this previous album. Aside from it being a completely refreshing listen, this album will inform much of the band's fourth full-length album SHIELDS.

After touring for VECKATIMEST, Grizzly Bear took a 3-year hiatus from making music together to explore their own divergent musical tastes. While SHIELDS is definitely a Grizzly Bear record, it uses a much more varied and scattered approach than the intricate VECKATIMEST. There are moments on SHIELDS that reach out into unexplored territory for the band: psychedelic rock, atmospheric minimalism, and synthesizers. If their previous album was a meticulous exercise in tightly-wound control, this album is a more instinctual and gritty affair.

The opening track, "Sleeping Ute," makes no attempt to hide the band's less-polished features. The guitar riff that carries the song is a bit jarring: using a non-standard time signature, it sounds good but feels disorienting. The same frenetic acoustics of "Southern Point" appear on SHIELDS' second track, "Speaking in Rounds...." Things take a turn for the poppier with "Yet Again," and "A Simple Answer;" the latter song begins not unlike another well-crafted pop tune, but by the 4-minute mark, the song is completely ditched for a new direction. The remaining two minutes of this song, after abandoning the pop-tune melody, the song changes considerably to a more downbeat, moody course. Between these two songs, the minimalist "The Hunt" wouldn't sound out of place on a Radiohead record (particuarly on IN RAINBOWS); it's sparse instrumentation (and inclusion of clarinet?) make this song excellent. The brief interlude "Adelma" is a subterranean and submerged atmospheric exercise - it's a completely unexpected moment on SHIELDS, and one that I wouldn't have predicted for Grizzly Bear. The same eerie minimalism is repeated in the outro of the excellent "What's Wrong." There's a groove on "gun-shy" that Grizzly Bear haven't quite experimented with yet - it's a smoky and sexy tone, and it slowly comes together to form one of the more accessible tracks on the record. The album ends with "Sun in Your Eyes," a song that isn't scared to let a few notes of silence ring out -- these moments of silence aren't annoying or jarring, they come at just the right moment, making the song a wistful, quietly beautiful piece. The ending, complete with harmonies, pounding organs, and distorted bass finds the band ripping loose for the album's finale.

Make no mistake, SHIELDS is a great record, but it doesn't have the same "mainstream appeal" that VECKATIMEST had - there's no potential crossover hits like "While You Wait for the Others" or "Two Weeks." Instead, this album is chock full of great songs that work best in the cohesion of the album's entirety. For this reason, this record might be a little less friendly to new listeners (not that that is necessarily a bad thing). I would recommend listeners who have not listened to Grizzly Bear to start with their third album before moving onto this one: VECKATIMEST is a much more accessible and immediate album than SHIELDS, thanks to the support of the aforementioned singles and less scattered direction.

What I like about all of this is that this album doesn't try to one-up the previous record. Instead, the band tried to do something a bit different - much of what made VECKATIMEST great is represented here, but there's enough changed and tinkered with that this album is hard to draw complete comparisons to. This album is a must-listen for fans of Grizzly Bear, and it's a more-than-worthy addition to a band with an extraordinary (but young) catalog. Essential tracks to sample/download: "Sleeping Ute," "A Simple Answer," and "gun-shy." Read more ›

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything I ever wanted September 18, 2012

By Hwags

Format:Audio CD

This newest entry is a definite jem in the The grizzly bear Catalog. Listening to it one gets that real sense of emotional adventure and longing that we have all come to know and love in Grizzly Bears music. From start to finish this Piece of art keeps the listener fully entertained. The Variety of sounds and textures weave in and out throughout the album, bouncing back and forth between loud cacophonous jams and minimalist breakdowns. Everything on Shields seems very formulaic and structured and this really helps the album. Many people are saying this album is the best of both worlds from their past two albums: "Yellow house" and "Veckatimest". This to a certain degree is correct however I think that Shields spends more time breaking new ground then just reproducing the past. In Many ways this is this may be the best album to come out this year and I look forward to continued listenings.

It's worth noting that with any great piece of art it takes multiple viewings to fully understand all the complexities in this album.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars a good album that I can't connect with September 18, 2012

By videogamer

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

They say that honesty is the best policy. As someone who *loved* 2009's Veckatimest and *loved* the two pre-release singles off this album, admitting that I don't love this record as much as I thought (hoped) I would is a tough pill to swallow. I've listened to this album a lot since it's leak. On the surface, there is absolutely no reason why I shouldn't absolutely love it. Sonically this is a fantastic record, flawless even. But while Veckatimest was similarly meticulously crafted, it had soul. It was an emmotional experience, one I could connect with. I'm sure a lot of listeners will feel the opposite. Maybe it's just me. Every indie fan knows those old timey Radiohead fans who insist The Bends and Ok Computer are still their best records. (they've since been topped by Kid A and In Rainbows, fyi) Maybe that's who I am in the Grizzly Bear universe, that old fan who can't let go of the old records. But what can I say; those older albums connect with me, and this new one doesn't. If you're enjoying the album, keep enjoying it; don't let other people's opinions cloud your own. This is just one opinion, from one fan to another.

7/10
Key tracks: Sleeping Ute (one of the best openers I've ever heard, in fact), Yet Again, The Hunt

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Grizzly Bear's Shields pushes their sonic territory across new borders September 18, 2012

By Brian E.

Format:Audio CD

Four albums into their career, Grizzly Bear are no longer developing into one of the best bands of our generation. They've already arrived. The Brooklyn indie folk rockers utilized eclectic instrumentation and heart touching harmonies to set forth a body of work that became the envy of many bands. But they apparently aren't content, as Shields focuses on pushing their boundaries still further.

Their sophomore release Yellow House established the band's core sound; this is where they became known for their dreamy, pastoral chamber pop. However, it was their third album, Veckatimest, that would serve as a key turning point for the band. It took their pre-existing ideas and harnessed them into a set of 12 concise and cohesive songs.

It was the type of album that allowed its songs to simmer and rise, slowly going through several progressions until it reached an apex. Once those songs reached their sweet spot they lingered there, allowing you to drink in the full splendor and majesty of their most creative moments. Veckatimest was by no means a restrained album, but if there was one weakness it was perhaps that they tended to rely on that formula a little much. Shields is even more adventurous than its predecessor by not only varying their formula, but by also pushing their songwriting and musicianship to yet another level.

The first four tracks offer about as good of an opening salvo as you're ever like to hope for. Lead single "Sleeping Ute" tries to do what "Southern Point" did on Veckatimest -- quickly blow you away with Daniel Rossen's dizzying instrumentation and mellow croon. And again they succeed without a shadow of a doubt. Rossen's lead guitar is heavily nuanced and stylized, even dipping into a little bit of heavy rock.... And there's some minor tinges of psychedelia if that isn't enough for you.

"Speak in Rounds" focuses much more on vocals while never letting up from the opening bombast of "Sleeping Ute." The instrumentation is more subdued, but the melodies make it feel organic, living, breathing, moving, and exciting. It even gets a little bit brassy near the end.

Following that is something Grizzly Bear have never done before: a hazy, fully ambient little keyboard track which briefly washes over you with minor xylophone flourishes. Their early work has sometimes floated in ambiance, but it's never been as fully realized as it is on "Adelma." It serves as a breather after that dynamic one-two opening punch.

Had enough rest? Good, because now it's time the album's second pre-release track, "Yet Again." Vocal harmonies have always been one of Grizzly Bear's cornerstones, and this track is the first great representation of that on Shields. It sees Droste getting a bit wistful and moody; he appears to not quite be content with his place in the world but is trying to come to terms with it. It's supplemented with haunting harmonies and psychedelia, and near the end we get something we don't hear much from Grizzly Bear -- propulsive drumming from Christopher Bear that helps drive Droste's message home.

From here, the band begins to relax a bit and settle into a groove. The instrumentation tends to take a backseat to allow the singers' voice to shine. The next best track is "Gun Shy" which is Shields's true showcase piece in terms of harmony and vocal arrangement. Although they've always been strong in this department, the competing interplay between Droste and Chris Taylor on the main hook is truly the stuff of legends.

Elsewhere, the eerie strings and minimalist nature of "The Hunt" sees Grizzly Bear making an effort to update their sound from the Yellow House/Horn of Plenty era. Meanwhile, "Half Gate" serves as another reminder of how powerful drumming is shifting the band's sound.

Lyrically, they have a tendency to focus on loneliness and isolation. A cursory glance through their lyric booklet might lead an inattentive reader to conclude that many of their themes are about relationships. A better way to put it is that they concern relationships, but aren't about them specifically.

Rather, they tend to focus on a particular nuance in the breakdown of relations between two people. "What's Wrong," for example, speaks of a relationship that falls apart because one person decides to sequester and close themselves off. "The Hunt," meanwhile, talks about being addicted to the feelings of trying to piece together a crumbling relationship.

Shields wraps up with Grizzly Bear's opus, "Sun in Your Eyes." It starts off sleepily before lifting you up with a big, powerful chorus that is full of brass and life. It builds up like a post rock track, slowly building to a fever pitch until it unleashes its major crescendo highlighted by powerful cymbal clashes, weighty keys, dramatic harmonies, and the impassioned voice of Daniel Rossen. "I'm never coming back," he cautions, as he fades out for the last time.

Shields is a stunning achievement that transcends the boundaries of folk or any other genre tag you care to throw out. But one caveat is that the second half of the album is certainly more subdued and takes greater effort to get into. Because of the ambition of the first four song, it feels like the rest of the album is playing catchup. It has a hard time living up to the standard established there. For this reason, Veckatimest feels a nudge more consistent than Shields, although Shields reaches greater heights. Nonetheless, Grizzly Bear is proving themselves to be much more than we ever thought they could be - and that's truly saying something. Read more ›