It’s somewhat against my nature to criticize a work of art such as a musical album, a masterpiece devised from a soundless beginning to a breadth of melodic encompassment. Therefore, I was hesitant to review Grizzly Bear’s latest masterpiece, Shields (2012), as I feared our lexicon isn’t devised of the emotion needed to possibly pay it homage. The following is my attempt to describe what I think to be one of the year’s most complex, beautiful, innovative new releases. Grizzly Bear illustrates incrementally, yet again, their ability to transform distinctly, yet maintain the sound that so defines them.
As I enveloped myself in Shields, something I’ve done countless times since its release, I gazed across the yellowing landscape along the highway, returning to Wake from a weekend’s serene escape into the mountains. I was staring, however, past the blanket of clouds and the trees that would serve as the harbingers of approaching autumn. A crystallized line of sugar along a popsicle stick, dangling from a string suspended across the mouth of a glass jar, caught my attention. It was, I realized, a graphic metaphor for my listening experience with Shields.
I have spent my growing life in a full-on love affair with Radiohead, and the majestic, rich manner in which their music grasps emotion, while growing from soft notes to a powerful, evocative symphony. I see a mirroring in Shields. Every song, and thus the album itself through its succession of tracks, builds into a defined and surrounding, yet ephemeral world. Shields is a crystallizing rock candy seemingly created from thin air. It starts out with a light layer of crystallized grains, and moves to a heavy, thick, substantial and self-sufficient cluster of beautiful crystal.
Shields
is comprised of soft lullabies, such as “The Hunt” and “Sun In Your Eyes”, and upbeat, intuitive poetics such as “Gun-shy” and its single, “Sleeping Ute.” The combination of front-man Daniel Rossen’s melancholy observations with the strumming river of guitar creates a breathlessly delicate being, not merely an album.
Shields is more than worth your time, it will become your time. When you discover an album that’s practically perfect in your eyes, one that communicates with you in ways you can’t even decipher yourself, many other things in life become obsolete. I am fairly certain that this album will become, for millions, one of those albums. So get transported in to the melodic coo of Grizzly Bear.