Albums of the Decade - 25. Grizzly Bear - Shields (2012)

 25 GRIZZLY BEAR - SHIELDS (2012) 

Just found a secret xmas market in Vilnius with real fires and hot wine, and in the time of a pandemic, you feel like a rebellious C.W. a bit, but that smoky vibe was perfect to come home to a bit of revisiting last decade and popping on a bit of Grizzly Bear, who are one of the top Math indie bands of the last 20 years or so.

Quite a sooty band, quite an advancing band, quite an escalating arpeggiated band, quite worth your time of a band, quite a band of all the seasons, quite a vocal melody-oriented band, quite a band situated with not the actual animal thats a Grizzly Bear. 

This is their third (out of four) and best album so far, it builds as a progression up to the ultimate crescendo, and I look forward to these mammals building more musically and feeding me more musical milk out of their tits before they bite me up and ravage me. 

albums of 2012 - 4. Grizzly Bear - Shields

4. GRIZZLY BEAR - SHIELDS
 Album number 4 for 'the bear' and this songwriting got so refined that the richness and eloquence radiated everywhere. The sheer quality of playing here stands up to any band on the planet. At the time of writing, it's been a few months since I listened to this but closer "Sun In Your Eyes" is a perfect illustrator as to how some of the dusky parts can be manipulated later with glisten shining through.

New Yorl City has an extremely special place in my heart and bands like The National, The Strokes, TV on the Radio, Dirty Projectors and Grizzly Bear show how perhaps it has been the best city in the world for indie music over the last few years. Oh yeah, I shouldn't discount Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Man, grab this motherfucker - it's worth your time.