GRIZZLY BEAR
Yellow House (reissue, 2006) WARP
Brooklyn quartet dramatically rewire folk rock
9/10
TOM SHEEHAN, PETER NOBLE/REDFERNS
By 2006’s Yellow House, Grizzly Bear had left Edward Droste’s early ambitions behind, with Christopher Bear’s instrumental skills expanding recordings for 2004’s Horn Of Plenty and a since assembled live band developing new songs. Their Beach Boys harmonies foreshadowed Fleet Foxes’, elevating “Knife”’s swells and “Little Brother”’s banjo bucolic, but their second album’s intimate, ramshackle warmth also allowed “Lullabye” to belie similar echoes of Simon & Garfunkel, its subsequent ascending melody intertwined with clanging guitars and colossal drums. Intricately arranged opener “Easier” further emphasised their reach, its ancient piano and woodwind lending it an eerily timeless quality before their rustic ways meandered towards a psych-folk heaven that’s part Americana, part Spirit Of Eden.