Grizzly Bear remixes ‘Shields’

By Jake Saunder

Delicately moving yet forcefully driving, peculiar and pleasant, nevertheless concrete and completely promising, the American psychedelic rock band Grizzly Bear has reissued B-Sides into their album known as “Shields Expanded.”

Grizzly Bear, comprised of band members Ed Droste, Chris Taylor, Daniel Rossen and Christopher Bear, released their fourth full-length album, Shields in 2012. Having received much success and acclaim from their previous two albums, 2009’s “Veckatimest” and “Yellow House” in 2006, the band sought to establish a unified sound.

What began as a solo project for Droste sporadically began incorporating more members and the previous albums thusly presented themselves as scraps from one member to the next, creating many a blended song.

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The 10-track album of “Shields” opens strongly with “Sleeping Ute,” one of the remixed tracks out of eight B-Sides on disc two of “Expanded.” Rossen’s evolving signature style of guitar tapping and intricate strains, accompanied by the undertones of synthesized production asserts a reassurance that is further driven deep within the grain of the steady drum and tenor voice arrangement.

Listeners might find the following track, “Speak in Rounds,” to be inspiring and catchy. The tracks differ from one another in that the vocal lead shifts from Rossen to Droste, a continuous pattern that shadows in suit throughout the album.

The body of the album is elaborate and well formed. It possesses the strength and versatility that is “Veckatimest” as well as the ghostly ambiance that is “Yellow House” and, Grizzly Bear’s first album, “Horn of Plenty.”

Next on the album of serenity is “Gun-Shy,” a pleasingly polyphonic track of quick-paced tempo under a steady vocal arrangement. An echoing of Rossen’s voice agreeing to the overtone of Droste’s, wallowing here and there in breathable sighs.

The next track, “Listen and Wait,” enshrouds the listener in the cryptic cavorting of deep piano notes amidst Rossen’s light voice echoing. It begins building, a chaotic drum crescendo that is then hushed through Droste’s voice with the harmonic back-dropped stirring of voices from both Rossen and Taylor. The song, still reminiscent of “Yellow House,” intrinsically enraptures the drumming of the ears, and then subsides.

“Will Calls” is a further example of the success and the nostalgic and eerie mourning melodies of “Yellow House.” The voice of Droste begins calling, drawing us gently into the atmospheric appeal of calm. Soft, driving, persistent and cleverly written, the steady strangeness of the drum taps into the fledging clutches of the songbird that is the gripping chorus. It is then set off by the bewildered horn arrangement, the muffled flute accompaniment and the shuttering cymbal waves, ultimately tearing and slowly descending.

Finally, the remixed editions of the Grizzly Bear songs beckon, and they are considerable pieces. The four-minute track “Sleeping Ute” is remixed by Nicolas Jaar into a track just shy of eight minutes, which certainly deserves a listen. There is some stifling of the guitar pace, and certainly a dragging of the vocal harmony, though it places it all into a dissonant harmony that catches the sound of Grizzly Bear in decently relative spades.

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The last two tracks are also remixes, “A Simple Answer” by Liars and “Gun-Shy” by Lindstrom, though of thoroughly alternate effect than Jaar’s take and Grizzly Bear’s iconic sound. New featured tracks include: “Smothering Green,” “Taken Down” and “Everyone I Know.”

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